Education Experience Not Important in Chi-Town!
Daley Does It AGAIN!
Ron Huberman, New Superintendent
Chicago Public Schools
Well, Mayor Daley did it! He picked Ron Huberman, his former Chief of Staff and Head of the Chicago Transit Authority since 2007, as the new Superintendent of Chicago’s Public Schools. And already, the war of words has started!
As I mentioned in my post on Monday, like his predecessor (more…)
Muslim Homeschooling Quandary
Muslim Homestudy student studies the Koran
Yesterday I posted about the furor over homeschooling currently taking place in California. You may remember that the California courts, at the urging of the California Teacher’s Association (CTA), ruled that a parent must have a teaching credential in order to homeschool.
The homeschooling parents who were initially interviewed were Christian conservatives who took their children out of public school after the passage of SB-777, a law which forbids any discrimination against gays and the gay lifestyle. But the New York Times released a story about another group that homeschools in large measure across the entire United States – Muslims.
In the article, Many Muslims Turn to Homeschooling, several reasons are listed, but they basically boil down to similar concerns that Christian conservative parents have.
“Across the United States, Muslims who find that a public school education clashes with their religious or cultural traditions have turned to home schooling. That choice is intended partly as a way to build a solid Muslim identity away from the prejudices that their children, boys and girls alike, can face in schoolyards. But in some cases. . . the intent is also to isolate their adolescent and teenage daughters from the corrupting influences that they see in much of American life.”
Many young Muslim girls attend public school until they reach the age of puberty and are homeschooled from that point. The article quotes a Muslim mother as saying,
“I don’t want the behavior,” said Aya Ismael, a Muslim mother home-schooling four children near San Jose. “Little girls are walking around dressing like hoochies, cursing and swearing and showing disrespect toward their elders. In Islam we believe in respect and dignity and honor.”
Some Muslim parents take their children out of public school after they become dissatisfied with the learning standards.
“Fawzia Mai Tung. . . , a Chinese Muslim immigrant who home-schools three daughters in Phoenix. . . spent many sleepless nights worried that her children would not excel on standardized tests, until she discovered how low the scores at the local schools were. Her oldest son, also home-schooled, is now applying to medical school.”
And finally, many Muslim parents do not believe that their culture or standards will be honored in the public school system. Whether it is a child taking abuse for different clothing, or diets, or whatever, Muslim families want their children to retain their Muslim heritage and NOT become Americanized. This is possibly related to the fact that once their schooling is complete, many Muslim girls will be married to someone pre-selected by their families.
So we know that Christian conservatives are unhappy with the standards being taught in California public schools and many Muslim families are unhappy with the standards being taught nationwide. Unless things change drastically in our society and our schools, many more families will choose the homeschooling option whenever possible – No matter what California courts say.
Brennan
To Homeschool or NOT!
‘The Reading Lesson’ by Ekvall Knut
Many families in California are waiting to see what the final decision will be about the guidelines for legal homeschooling in the state of California. The results could eventually very well affect homeschooling across the entire United States.
What began as a child welfare issue evolved into a hotly-contested argument over who is qualified to homeschool their child in California and who is not. With the teaching unions, especially the powerful California Teachers’ Association, violently opposed to the homeschooling concept, the courts decided that ONLY a parent with a teaching credential is qualified to homeschool. This effectively eliminates the majority of homeschoolers in the state of California. The decision has been met with great opposition and, in fact, Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger has said he will fight it.
Having the governor fighting the stricter regulations on homeschooling is ironic, as it was the passage of SB 777, “outlawing terms perceived as negative to ‘gays’”, which Gov. Swatzenegger signed into law earlier last year, that precipitated so many parents removing their children from public schools and deciding to homeschool instead.
As I stated in my post of Oct. 12, 2007, entitled “‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ Banned from California Schools”,
“Governor Arnold Swartzenegger has signed a law banning anything in schools that can be perceived as negative to ‘Gays’. Under the new law, ‘Mom’, ‘Dad’, ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ are not allowed.
“Boys and girls will now use the same bathrooms and locker rooms if they choose. The news report, (originally) published in WorldNetDaily, makes it clear that NO laws banning anything perceived as negative to ‘Conservative and Traditional values’ is in effect.”
Immediately after SB777 was signed into law, many Christian Conservatives made the decision to remove their children from public schools, as a way to avoid the policies they felt were in violation of their personal beliefs and standards. Several Christian parents have been interviewed as saying that they will be forced to move from California, and seek employment elsewhere, in order to keep their children out of California public schools.
This could be a landmark decision.
Brennan
