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发表于 2005-3-10 05:23:42
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贴一篇网上找来的原文,能读英文的可以感受一下:
Homeschoolers get social as more families go non-public
By CAROLYN NORTON : The Herald-Sun
[url=mailto:cnorton@heraldsun.com">cnorton@heraldsun.com[/url]
Feb 17, 2005 : 11:06 pm ET
CHAPEL HILL -- Trash everything you think you know about homeschooling.
Forget the images of a small family sitting around a table, working out arithmetic problems. Toss out the thought of children whose only friends are their parents, brothers and sisters.
Today's homeschoolers say they are nothing like that.
The kids meet regularly with other students for classes and activities. They have extensive networks for support groups, sports and clubs.
"Most people don't home-school in a vacuum," says Julie Woessner, who has taught her two daughters from their house in Hillsborough for seven years. " eople have the notion that we're weirdos, sitting around a kitchen table. We're not."
Woessner and her husband decided to teach Mary, 15, and Grace, 12, after discovering Mary wasn't being challenged in her public school. She'd finish her work early, then sit, bored, as the other students caught up.
Then when Grace attended traditional school for kindergarten and first grade, she learned to do "just enough work to get by," Woessner said. Grace wasn't interested in challenging herself, or learning more.
Once the Woessners began learning at home, they never looked back.
"The reality is, now we just don't move on until my kids get it," Woessner said of the individualized instruction she gives her kids. "From our standpoint, if I were looking to put Grace in school, she'd be in seventh grade. But she'd be bored silly. She's just not designed to learn like that."
About 60,000 children across North Carolina are "not designed to learn like that" as members of 30,000 home-schooling families, according to 2003-04 data from the state's Division of Non-Public Education. That's up from 9,000 students just 10 years ago.
In Orange County alone, there were 263 home-schooling families last year. Durham had more than 500.
When families choose to home-school, they must register with the state and submit attendance records to the Division of Non-Public Education.
In 1984, when it was formed, the Christian Homeschool Association of Greater Durham was the only group of its kind, and had 35 families as members. Now, nearly 120 families belong.
And that means more classes, activities and opportunities for connections with other families, said Ingrid Towey, the association's chairwoman.
"Sometimes I think I need to clear my social calendar," said Towey, who lives in Durham. "There are so many people home-schooling, you could spend every day in the car going to see them."
Towey's three children, 10, 7 and 4, attend Bible study, art and history classes and sports. The kids take dance lessons and practice karate. The association itself offers monthly enrichment, a time of fellowship with activities and playtime for the students and parents.
And, no, the Toweys' decision to home-school wasn't based solely on religion.
"I just thought it was the best thing for our children, to allow them to learn at their own pace," Towey said. "It allows them to bolster their weaknesses, and run with their strengths. Yet it very much feels like God has called us to home-school. He has enabled us to home-school."
But most families do home-school for religious reasons, more flexible academics or social concerns, said Hal Young, president of North Carolinians for Home Education.
"Most families, if you talk with them, will pick one as the main reason, but admit they've considered all of the above," Young said. "My wife and I are Evangelical Christians and want that to be reflected in our children's education, but we're definitely 'all of the above' in the fuller scheme of things."
More than two-thirds of home educators are involved in a state or local organization, or both, Young said.
"Home-schooling is an individual activity, but it's not solitary," he said. "The support is key."
Grace and Mary Woessner, meanwhile, play basketball on several teams, both with other home-schoolers and traditional students. They take French, and have studied biology and drama. They're learning speech and debate from their mom, who used to work as an attorney. She teaches a class on the subject to a group of home-schoolers.
When Mary became interested in Shakespeare, she and her friends studied his plays, even having a sleepover party where they performed a show for their parents in the morning.
The desire of home-schoolers to participate in group activities came into the public eye last winter, when Chapel Hill parent Inger Evans pleaded with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board to let her home-educated son play baseball on the McDougle Middle School team.
The board not only said no, but also strengthened its policy forbidding non-students from participating in sports, clubs or other school activities.
At the time, district officials said non-students wouldn't be subject to the same rules as students, and allowing them to play could prevent enrolled students from having slots and take away from team spirit.
"Our first obligation ... is to the students who attend our school system," Superintendent Neil Pedersen said last spring.
As a general rule, school systems across the state do not allow home-schooled students to participate in school-based activities.
Because of such policies, North Carolinians for Home Education is working to develop its own leagues, said Nadine Woods, co-leader of the Chapel Hill Homeschoolers, a group of about 130 families. And families who want a special class or club they can't teach pull them together themselves, she added.
"Whenever a mom sees something she needs, she does it or finds it," said Woods, who home-schools her 17-year-old son. "There are a couple of moms who have classes organized. They have a literature class this year, and they have a speech and debate class, which is great." |
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