College, Smollege....... Get a Real Life!

So, I have been perusing home school sites and forums. It is my usual to vacillate between looking for ideas and going it alone. I am independent, probably to a fault. But I also realize that I shouldn't re-invent the wheel. I go looking for ideas and then feel like I am stealing if I didn't come up up with it on my own! DUH!

So, I read a lot. I have noticed that many of us have a measuring device to claim success in our choice to educate at home, college. "Johnny is wanted by two colleges." "Sue went to Harvard!" "What do I have to do to get the twins into college?"

I think that this stinks! Too harsh? Maybe, but did we choose a different path for our prodigy just to measure them by the mainstream? That is what this amounts to, going back to what we rejected to begin with.

Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.- Oscar Wilde

I am a college graduate. After high school I went to work but soon discovered that my managers were, shall we say , less than intelligent. The thing that got them their position, in my 18 year old mind, was that college diploma. If they could get one anyone could! So,I went.

Thousands of dollars later my first job was at minimum wage, so was the second and the third! They got me!! I eventually got positions that paid more but that wonderful diploma did only one thing, it got me looked at a little more. My raises were based on time on the job and my ability. My ability was not developed in college but in all my life experiences. College did teach me one thing, there is ALWAYS more to learn! And college is a business.

Some colleges are for-profit run by companies (as opposed to non-profit,state colleges).This list is NOT an Ad but a list so one might realize which are for -profit colleges!

• American InterContinental University


• Art Institute of Atlanta


• Art Institute of Pittsburgh


• Capella University


• DeVry University


• Heald College


• Kaplan University


• Miami International University of Art & Design


• Pittsburgh Technical Institute


• Post University


• Strayer University


• University of Phoenix

These have been under scrutiny for unethical practices, high interest loans and pushing students into signing and more. Read it here

The non-profits , for most of us still have to be paid for with loans. An instrument that will follow the student for years after. And to top it off there is still no guarantee of a high pay job or a job at all!.

I think that as home educators we, of all people, should see the alternative avenues to college that are available instead of college. John Holt said....

"I have come to believe that a person's schooling is as much a part of his private business as his politics or religion, and that no one should be required to answer questions about it. May I say instead that most of what I know I did not learn in school, and indeed was not even 'taught.'"

Why then, do we think that this would be good for our explorers of the world? I think a backpack and a ticket to Europe or South America would prove more advantageous. Why did we choose the road not taken only to get back out on the main thoroughfare?

“Action is with the scholar subordinate, but it is essential. Without it, he is not yet man. Without it, thought can never ripen into truth. Whilst the world hangs before the eye as a cloud of beauty, we cannot even see its beauty. Inaction is cowardice, but there can be no scholar without the heroic mind. The preamble of thought, the transition through which it passes from the unconscious to the conscious, is action. Only so much do I know, as I have lived. Instantly we know whose words are loaded with life, and whose not.” - Emerson

Like I said, I am independent. College can be a great place to learn and expose yourself to things. But it should not be looked upon by the home school community as a measurement of success or intelligence or parental diligence.  Our efforts stand out regardless .

So, I say to all of us that may be sweating the "college thing" on the forums or other venues...

"LET IT GO!"

Keep your records (some have to) but let the children explore and don't weigh them down with the race for college. It just feels right.

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,


And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Terror in Arizona: Just another 'isolated incident'? Funny how that list keeps mounting | Crooks and Liars

Terror in Arizona: Just another 'isolated incident'? Funny how that list keeps mounting | Crooks and Liars.

-- July 2008: A gunman named Jim David Adkisson, agitated at how "liberals" are "destroying America," walks into a Unitarian Church and opens fire, killing two churchgoers and wounding four others.

-- October 2008: Two neo-Nazis are arrested in Tennessee in a plot to murder dozens of African-Americans, culminating in the assassination of President Obama.

-- December 2008: A pair of "Patriot" movement radicals -- the father-son team of Bruce and Joshua Turnidge, who wanted "to attack the political infrastructure" -- threaten a bank in Woodburn, Oregon, with a bomb in the hopes of extorting money that would end their financial difficulties, for which they blamed the government. Instead, the bomb goes off and kills two police officers. The men eventually are convicted and sentenced to death for the crime.

-- December 2008: In Belfast, Maine, police discover the makings of a nuclear "dirty bomb" in the basement of a white supremacist shot dead by his wife. The man, who was independently wealthy, reportedly was agitated about the election of President Obama and was crafting a plan to set off the bomb.

-- January 2009: A white supremacist named Keith Luke embarks on a killing rampage in Brockton, Mass., raping and wounding a black woman and killing her sister, then killing a homeless man before being captured by police as he is en route to a Jewish community center.

-- February 2009: A Marine named Kody Brittingham is arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate President Obama. Brittingham also collected white-supremacist material.

-- April 2009: A white supremacist named Richard Poplawski opens fire on three Pittsburgh police officers who come to his house on a domestic-violence call and kills all three, because he believed President Obama intended to take away the guns of white citizens like himself. Poplawski is currently awaiting trial.

-- April 2009: Another gunman in Okaloosa County, Florida, similarly fearful of Obama's purported gun-grabbing plans, kills two deputies when they come to arrest him in a domestic-violence matter, then is killed himself in a shootout with police.

-- May 2009: A "sovereign citizen" named Scott Roeder walks into a church in Wichita, Kansas, and assassinates abortion provider Dr. George Tiller.

-- June 2009: A Holocaust denier and right-wing tax protester named James Von Brunn opens fire at the Holocaust Museum, killing a security guard.

-- February 2010: An angry tax protester named Joseph Ray Stack flies an airplane into the building housing IRS offices in Austin, Texas. (Media are reluctant to label this one "domestic terrorism" too.)

-- March 2010: Seven militiamen from the Hutaree Militia in Michigan and Ohio are arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate local police officers with the intent of sparking a new civil war.

-- March 2010: An anti-government extremist named John Patrick Bedell walks into the Pentagon and opens fire, wounding two officers before he is himself shot dead.

-- May 2010: A "sovereign citizen" from Georgia is arrested in Tennessee and charged with plotting the violent takeover of a local county courthouse.

-- May 2010: A still-unidentified white man walks into a Jacksonville, Fla., mosque and sets it afire, simultaneously setting off a pipe bomb.

-- May 2010: Two "sovereign citizens" named Jerry and Joe Kane gun down two police officers who pull them over for a traffic violation, and then wound two more officers in a shootout in which both of them are eventually killed.

-- July 2010: An agitated right-winger and convict named Byron Williams loads up on weapons and drives to the Bay Area intent on attacking the offices of the Tides Foundation and the ACLU, but is intercepted by state patrolmen and engages them in a shootout and armed standoff in which two officers and Williams are wounded.

 

Responsibility and a Home School Forum

As a home educator it is nice to participate, be it electronically, with others who do the same.  We share educational resources. Free things found in our travels and tips on all kinds of topics from the family dog to the mother-in law that thinks home school is crazy.  It can keep you from feeling alone and can broaden your educational resources. A great idea. The one I belonged to was the PEAK Network . It was an inclusive group, no faith-based or schooling style affiliation.

The topics were generally light even when controversy was in the air. Not quite a forum as a bulletin board. Not many opinions were ever expressed. This may be what some like but to exchange ideas some opinions must be expressed. I don't have to agree and I can remain civil .  It was to be a place where we shared the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful.

The other day a member began a thread on DHS . First an inquiry then her story. A nightmare was unfolding before our eyes. I suggested she might be more comfortable in Private Messaging and expressed my concern and offered any help I could give. In the span of about three days, almost 100 views of this thread only had eighteen replies. I offered links to lawyers and other sites that fight CPS/DHS .  Me and a few others told heer about the history of the agency's lies and deceit. Then the thread was LOCKED. The  founder of the network expressed that this conversation was BEYOND the forum and should be dealt with by lawyers.

I was amazed! Here was someone asking for a sympathetic ear, help,or an outlet. The forum turned away. DHS/CPS  actions toward home schoolers nationwide are well-known.  The Home School Defense League is always defending cases from this agency. I wrote to Lioness, her user name, and told her I disagreed with the action. Then I started a new thread and stated my disagreement. This  was  deleted within minutes.

Now, I understand forum rules but while this is not a nice topic it is a reality in home schooling. It is not political because there is no side or lobbying effort. It just was not comfortable . The PEACE of  our little world was shaken with the reality of what CAN and DOES happen. My first attempt at rebuttal deleted I set about another. This time I sent personal messages to those on-line at the time. Again ,the admins cut off my privileges and in short order I could not read or post.

Well,  when do we stand up for our right of free speech? The little fight is as important as the big. We must use our rights in every aspect of life. Our responsibilities to our fellow humans are never diminished because of the space we are in at any given moment. The following is my rebuttal to the removal of the initial thread( the name of the founder was added after my first attempt was deleted);

By the removal of the DHS thread posted under 'Chat', Natalie, our Peak founder, has become complicit with DHS and those who wish to isolate and persecute homeschoolers.

This is not a personal issue....this is a national issue. So much so, that the Home School Defense League provides a training manual for members on dealing with DHS threats.

It is well known within homeschooling communities that DHS is used often to isolate homeschoolers from their communities under the pretext of vague accusations.

This was a plea from a fellow homeschooler. It is our responsibility to help those in need, to speak out against ugly truths, and share beauty.

The Peak founder failed us all with this gross injustice, and further discredited herself by removing all threads that chastised her for this act. It is no longer a forum but her ivory tower blog, where nothing is wrong.

Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group. The text of the quotation is usually presented roughly as follows:

They came first for the Communists,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me

and by that time no one was left to speak up.

I AM SPEAKING UP!!! Join my eviction from Peak, and speak up also.

Peace
"To accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate with that system; thereby the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor. Noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. The oppressed must never allow the conscience of the oppressor to slumber..." - M L K Jr

I will take the words of Martin Luther King and Pastor Niemoller to heart. What will you do?

As I have said before our children are kept close to us from the start. It has been at times difficult in the face of  "the norm".  And  family relations are not always a part of the team. The socialization question or issue is the most frequently used. The human is not social in only a school/ institutional setting. We are not meant to be surrounded by only our age group. This notion is insane. In normal everyday life, we are in contact with all age groups. The peer group need not be age oriented only. We ,as adults , recognize that our peer group is not always  our age group. So why impose this on children. 

Socialization happens. In some cases it may need to be "taught" but if one is interactive with society on any level it will happen.