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What is the ‘right’ path to learning?

by Stephanie Graham

Kentucky parents who are considering home schooling their children should know that state law favors their cause.

Parents must simply advise the local school board that they will be home schooling their children. And even this requirement is not to ask permission, but rather to let the board know that these students are not truant. Boards do not approve curriculum or teaching methods.

Also, parents must consistently evaluate their children’s progress, ensure that core subjects are taught and keep attendance records to indicate that students meet state requirements for being “in school” for a certain number of hours. The Kentucky Department of Education has established procedures for determining if a student is actually “in school.”

Since Kentucky has no standardized testing or review of home-schoolers’ progress, critics who don’t understand home schooling express concerns about the state not knowing if home-schooled children are getting an adequate education.

This appears to be a logical concern. Who is making sure these children know the “right” things? How do they perform compared to other children? What kind of jobs will they be able to get if they don’t have the same educational experience?

Home-schooling students have answered many of these questions through their performance. They exhibit solid results in the workforce and are sought after by many universities. Their achievements indicate what can happen when parents, not the state, are responsible for their children’s education.

The state does have a legitimate interest in developing an educated workforce. But that concern does not supersede the rights of parents to determine how their children learn.

While there are basic subjects that must be mastered to achieve academic and employment success, what is learned in school is an infinitesimally small amount of the sum of human knowledge, history and literature.

Parents, not governments, should help children determine the “right” things for them to learn.

– Florence resident Stephanie Graham, a home-schooling parent, wrote this article.

Sources:

“Kentucky Home School Requirements & Information,” Kentucky Department of Education.

“Academic Statistics on Homeschooling” by J. Michael Smith and Michael P. Farris, Home School Legal Defense Association, Oct. 22, 2004.

“Home Schoolers in Ivy League Universities,” Home School Legal Defense Association, May 3, 2000.

Kentucky Alliance For School Choice

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