LETTERS

LETTERS
April 2004

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WHAT SELF-IMPOSED EXILE?

I have some comments about the article "What Strings?" in your February issue. The article poses the question, "is the charter school an answer to home schoolers' isolation?" I am a mother of five children, ages 21 to 4, and I have been home schooling for 17 years. It is true that home schooling a large family is a great challenge. It is equally true that some mothers find the job overwhelming.

I would voice a word of caution to anyone who thinks that joining a charter school is a complete "fix" to their problems. In the first place the charter school featured in your article is not a day school which provides classroom instruction in all subjects. It offers a correspondence course in religion using materials from the Sisters of the Society of Pius X and some primary classes in language arts and math. Further, the parent is required to spend one day per week volunteering at the school, which negates any time saved by taking this one class offered by the school. This school does offer parents $1,250 per year, $750 of which can be spent on private tutoring, music instruction, or other approved courses from outside the school. The remaining $500 must be spent on textbooks, provided they do not have religious content. This money is disbursed in two installments, one in February, six months after you have begun school, and the second in June, when school is over; so you are basically being reimbursed after the fact.

This reimbursement is the one area where charter schools offer some real help to the home schooling mom who is overwhelmed. I know a mom who uses a charter school for just this reason, and it does enable her to give her child music lessons and private instruction. This help, however, comes with a price. The paperwork required by charter schools is usually much more involved than with ISPs (Independent Study Programs) or an individual home school which files an annual affidavit. Mrs. Crotty's school, featured in the article, requires monthly work samples in language arts, math, science and social studies. Students must also meet with the school's teacher a minimum of once a week. This is a very time-consuming aspect of belonging to a charter school and a great increase in mom's stress level. Most home school moms consider the paperwork the bane of their existence. Still, some families may find that the benefits are worth the extra work.

Regarding home schoolers' "self-imposed exile" -- I do not know what the writer is speaking of. My children play sports, take karate, attend home school support field trips, park days, first Friday masses, followed by a fun or educational activity, youth groups, Boy Scouts, etc. They have friends in the neighborhood, in their home school group and extracurricular activities. They are outgoing and active. If our family has a problem, it is in finding good Catholic friends for our children anywhere outside our home school group. While the traditional school setting can provide a larger number of children for social needs, it is no guarantee that a child will have friends that share their values, or even have friends at all. I know families whose children go to various public, charter, and parochial schools. Some of the children make friends, and some do not. Again, a school does not change the fact that some children are shy, more intellectually developed, or less so than their peers. It does not guarantee that the child will do well socially. At any rate, since the Mrs. Crotty's school has a preponderance of Mormon students, it would not be able to meet our children's needs for Catholic socialization.

With regard to the comment that home schoolers tend to be paranoid and distrustful of the government; it seems to me, in a world where the state department of education, until just recently, stated that home schooling was illegal, and those who file private school affidavits have routinely been sent harassing letters, that a certain degree of paranoia and distrust is not irrational, but only mildly observant. Finally, bringing up the sad and tragic story of the mentally ill Andrea Yates as something that the average home schooler even needs to think about, is inflammatory and insulting. Mrs. Yates had a diagnosed mental disorder for which she was receiving treatment. She was under a psychiatrist's care. She had either her husband or mother-in-law with her at all times, except for the one-hour period on the day that she killed her precious children. This is as tragic as it is unusual. If you see this situation as a reflection of the home school community, then the traditional school community, where a much more statistically significant amount of violence occurs, must also be factored in. My own sister works at a charter school in Arizona where a father killed his wife and two children just three months ago. The school did not cause it, contribute to it, nor could they have stopped it.

May I suggest to Mrs. Crotty that if she would like to attract more home schoolers, she should realistically present the genuine help she has to offer rather than irritate the community she seeks to attract with inflammatory remarks. There is no easy solution to the difficulty many home schooling moms face, including her school. The fact is that no matter where your children get their education, the task of overseeing it is daunting. I would encourage families to form local support groups and come together to help meet each other's needs.

We should be working together not tearing one another down.

Cheryl Amalu
received via e-mail

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