Homeschoolers are making government school kids look so dumb that officials have surreptitiously changed the rules so homeschoolers won’t be eligible to compete:
Matt Savage, a homeschooled seventh-grader from Francestown, had already won a school-level Bee at Great Brook School in Antrim. But after his win, officials with the Bee called and told parents Larry and Diane Savage that he couldn’t go on to the state contest because of rules governing how homeschoolers can enter the event.“We want to follow the rules, but it would have been appropriate to advertise the rules,” Mrs. Savage said, adding that a well-publicized notice of the change on the Bee’s Web site would have helped. “The fact it wasn’t (well-advertised) meant Matt, and I’m sure other children as well, were disqualified.” (Source)
“Officials” claim the rule change was clear. Let’s suppose it was. Why was the rule changed at all? “Officials” say:
[T]he rule was changed so that homeschoolers could only compete through contests which home-school associations had set up.Elden said rules for the Bee were frequently changed between years, and this particular change simply clarified the rules governing entry requirements. Both sides agreed that those administering the local event didn’t pick up on the rule.
“We’re trying to reach out to all different groups to make sure the kids can take part,” Elden said.
What does “reaching out to all different groups” smell like to you? What could be more inclusive than allowing the homeschooled to compete?
Poor kid. On the other hand, he’s richer in knowledge than any government school kid. Part of the reason he’s homeschooled in the first place is to be untainted by only-skin-deep diversity that’s rampant wherever government pokes its nose. Competency and excellence take a backseat to skin hue.
Do you think I’m reading way too much into this? If so, I’ll bet you work for the government.
Related post: American Homeschoolers Beat Oxford Brits
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The public school system already knows that home-schooled and private-schooled kids are way ahead of the curve.
As home schooling is becoming more popular, i’d expect to see more decisions and PR by public school supporters to try to hide the fact.
Typical
All my kids homeschool, and I think this is just a weak way to try to hide the general failure of the public schools in aggressively educating our youth up to their potential. We now in the schools train for mediocrity, when even the “honors” classes are not very difficult.
It is to bad the school system won’t really critique itself and see where the failings are and fix it…
This was in our paper yesterday:
Top Colorado speller emerges from duel
Words buzzed back and forth before new bee champ crowned
By Ann Carnahan, Rocky Mountain News
March 21, 2005
The 12-year-old home-schooled boy who won Saturday’s state spelling bee entered the contest on impulse just a few weeks ago.
Josiah Hamill, of Franktown, began studying in early February, although many contestants prepare for months or even years. He nailed stupefacient, meaning “bringing about a stupor,” to win the 65th annual competition, sponsored by the Rocky Mountain News.
*****
I’m a public school teacher. I am the only staff member that is pro-homeschooling. In fact, when I praise it, I am met with looks of shock and disbelief. How this is possible from other teachers locked into the system we are in, is beyond me.
Sadly, we have received kids into our school who have been “homeschooled”, but who were never actually taught anything. When done well, it can be incredible; when done poorly, it makes the entire system look bad.
Ironic, isn’t it, that the few poorly homeschooled students make other teachers think homeschooling doesn’t work, but the number of kids who have always been in public school who are failing, never seems to make the teachers reflect on the schools in a negative way. Just a thought.
Um … either you can spell a word correctly, or you can’t. And you’re either a certifiable student or not (as home-schoolers are). This math is easy enough even for me
)
our children are schooled at home…and are unable to spel very wel….I’m at a los to figure out why.
La Shawn, I do work for the government. And no, you’re not reading too much into this. None of my kids will ever go to public school. I decided that years ago, when I was wasting my time in public school. Godcidentally*, my wife decided the same thing for the same reason long before we met.
Oh, and Dave- touche.
*-something my old chaplain used to say. I don’t believe in coincidence, but I do believe in design.
The rationale, presumably, is that kids in the public schools have to attend regular classes 8 hours a day whereas, theoretically, home schooled kids could do nothing but cram for the spelling bee.
It’s similar to the rules in some (many? all?) states that keep private schools out of sports competitions. The grounds there is that public schools have to draw from students living in a specified geographic area whereas privates could recruit athletes from anywhere.
Homeschooled kids will be the coming generation’s leaders. I learned the depth of my knowledge at my mother’s knee. The public schooling was mostly just a framework, though I did have SOME good teachers.
“Godcidentally*”
I like that! NCO
BTW my father retired from the USASF a Sergeant Major, he homeschooled me a bit before he passed on!
Its time to eliminate the dept of education and do away with the NEA, my guess that the rotten public schools dont want one of those home schooled kids being able to spell words the dumb idiots in the public schools put out
I don’t really have a problem with public school for the… er… “masses”. I don’t see much of a way to get around it, America’s just too huge of a country. What I do have a problem with is the extremely low level of excellence that is accepted in schools today, and the fact that the government makes it harder than necessary for parents to either homeschool their kids or send them to private schools. My parents sent me to a Christian school for most of my elementary school days, but it got to the point where they just couldn’t afford it. My oldest (just turned three) will be starting preschool soon, in a school my church just started last year. I’ll find a way to keep all my kids in that school, to make sure they’re educated properly. But I really don’t think it’s fair that I’ll be paying taxes as if my kids were going to public school, and then having to pay for their real education over and above that.
Two things after reading the source.
This is a Geography Bee not a Spelling Bee.
They didn’t cheat this kid after-the-fact. They changed the rules way before this, but did it for this new year (which is why nobody knew about it). Basically there were kids that couldn’t compete in other schools sponsored bees because their own school doesn’t sponsor their own bee (I think this is to pressure more schools to run their own darn bee). Thus they excluded solo entrants… and worked to shore up the rules to exclued solo home schooled entrants.
In sum, this is fair… but it still sucks for the kid.
You’re kidding? I misread the article that badly? It’s a Geographic Bee, not a Spelling Bee. Embarrassed…
Yeah, I was so peeved about being misled by your analysis that I had to come back and give you a virtual spanking.
***Spank***
The type of BEE was the minor infraction. The worse one was your analysis. The rules weren’t changed after the fact.. which your summary stressed was the case.
I’m peeved because I railed on my co-worker, who is a liberal, but not a lesbian (joke on Kerry), about this and if he knew that my story was this flawed it would reinforce his position that all my sources are biased.
You’re still kidding! Why are you relying on me? I was giving my opinion. That’s why I link to sources, which you are free to examine. Good grief. This day is not going well for me. But I still say that’s way they suddenly implemented the new rules. That’s my OPINION, by the way. – Admin
I’m lazy and rely on blog authors to ’sift and winnow’ the source information so I don’t have to read the entire thing, just the good & accurate parts.
This cuts my blog surfing by hours OR lets me read more blogs instead of just a few.
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