Sunday, June 14, 2015

Re: [IAC#RG] Need help securing the rights of homeschoolers

With due respect, R. Dua, it is as easy for me to say homeschooling has no parallel at any level or grade. Neither claim makes sense without providing the reasoning behind it. You might as well say people were high sounding empty vessels before the industrial revolution resulted in schools to free parents to work in factories. This effectively insults the foundation of a lot of knowledge we still use today.

Here is some information:

You may find the section on performance interesting. https://nheri.org/ResearchFacts.pdf

A three way study - school, structured homeschooling and unstructured homeschooling (unschooling) http://www.parentingscience.com/homeschooling-outcomes.html

Here is an overall bibliography of research, if you are interested in evaluating rather than beginning with an assumption that what you don't know about is inferior. http://www.nheri.org/research/bibliography-references-studies-international.html

I would urge people to keep in mind that a choice made to go so drastically against the grain with stakes as high as the lives of own children is never made lightly. Parents are convinced that they are offering their children a superior opportunity. Any dismissals ought to at least give some serious effort toward evaluation rather than assuming that schooling system is the only possible method of preparing children for life.

Regardless of your opinion or mine, the issue is not one of what is better - I merely put this information up because it is important to address prejudice. The issue is one of choice and freedom as citizens.

The largest, most exploited, abused, completely unrepresented and devoid of political power minority anywhere in the world is children.

People who put their children through 10 years of school won't see a film without knowing whether it is worth watching or a trailer or something. And that is just 2-3 hours. Yet no one asks a school whether taking up 10 years of a child's life is required for what they will be imparting to the children. It may be fine for your children, but I'd rather go to jail than send my child to one.

I request the group to consider children as real people instead of objects to put through a machine to get a desired shape. More importantly, to recognize that what is a satisfactory compromise to you cannot be imposed on everyone.

Vidyut



Vidyut

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On Sun, Jun 14, 2015 at 3:24 PM, R. Dua <r.dua1234@gmail.com> wrote:

One appreciates the social workers good intention.
But as we are seeing Delhi's ex law minister..wats his name, jitender tomar of aap, trying his best to build an a escape route thru various univ's in n out widout any success.
A regular education has no parallel at any level or grade.
Else we will be having high sounding empty vessels all over the place.
We are thankful to authorities for bringing this forward.
Regards to all.

On 8 Jun 2015 07:55, "Sarbajit Roy" <sroy.mb@gmail.com> wrote:
PIL as proposed will not fly

A legal solution to your problem is to take the religious route for MINORITIES .
Art 30(1) and obtain a certificate saying you are an Esperanto speaker / Anusthanic Brahmo Samajists etc. enabling you to run your own school

BTW: It seems the RTE Act acknowledges homeschooling


On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 12:12 AM, Vidyut <wide.aware@gmail.com> wrote:
The RTE does not allow homeschooling. The education system we have is frankly pathetic and does little to nothing to provide a useful foundation for life. We are still into memorizing and testing recall in an age of pen drives. Spending hours calculating square roots when every mobile has a calculator and we have more mobiles than toilets. On the other hand, things we'd imagine are life essentials - how is your electricity bill calculated and how to pay it or even what your rights are as a child and what can you do if your rights are violated is something you never learn in school.

TEN years of basic education does not make students competent for basic jobs and they must cater to the education inflation craze to be able to make a living. Ten years is a lot of time. We don't see a two hour film without checking reviews to see if it is worth it, yet think nothing of occupying ten of the most eventful years of a child's life with school.

What is it that the schooling system teaches and that we need in life that takes ten years to learn? 

Alternative schools and homeschooling parents attempt to make education more relevant and useful to children. Study after study has shown homeschooling in particular in far more favorable light than schooling systems.

India has a small but growing community of homeschoolers who are constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop as the noose tightens around their necks.

Most of us are determined that we'd rather face jail ourselves than send our beloved children into one. Yet we are left with little choice than to keep our heads down and continue our "illegal" activity (recently removing a child from school was also termed 'criminal'!) and hope that we never end up facing the law over it.

It also hinders the children's rights in many ways. Many events or competitions accept student entries through their schools and homeschoolers not having a school name to put in the form can become ineligible to participate. Scholarships that could dramatically enhance a child's scope (homeschooling isn't cheap) cannot be applied for without the name of the school where the child is learning.

Worse, there are places where officials from the education system keep visiting families to insist that the children be sent to school. Alarming reports of government notices to parents not sending children to school.

Would it be possible to file a PIL stating that while the RTE is an excellent MINIMUM to offer children, it is hardly the ideal education a child can receive and parents or organizations attempting to raise the bar should not be prevented and forced to accept the mediocre?

Advice would be much useful, as we are a small and scattered community with little experience with rights struggles and we have vulnerable children we want to do right to. So there is some fear of being in the government/judiciary's notice with our child's name on record as violating the RTE.

Vidyut

Vidyut

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