Spanish Constitutional Court says "No."

Home schooling is not legal, rules Constitutional Court

The ruling states that "the right of parents to choose for their children an education outside the compulsory education system for reasons of pedagogy does not fall within any recognized constitutional freedoms."

I think there will be another gavel coming.

The article reports that the children in question "spoke five languages, knew music and were taught math, science and language, and ethics education."

Part of the ruling: "The court added that the exclusion from the formal system can generate in minors "serious problems in their future development" both in academia (in reference to the difficulties of access to university) and in the social and integration with other children their age."

That was a tactical error on the court's part, to clarify. Their "clarification" can be refuted pretty easily, with statistics from other countries, if they'll accept any outside information.

No doubt this will be overturned before long, but for now Laura Mascaró, the author of Educatíon y libertad (lower right on this page) wrote "I'm thinking of moving to another country or something..."

Laura's article on this ruling is here, in Spanish: El TC contra la libertad educatvia

Links from Laura's notes:

La verdad siempre vencerá, por Julian Assange en La Jornada

Controlar a los controladores, por Francisco Capella en Expansión

Pero qué malo es Google, por Antonio José Chinchetru en Libertad Digital

Beneficios de educar en casa (XXIII edición del carnaval de blogs de homeschooling), por Ketty Sánchez en Mariposas Multicolores

The most dangerous place in the world, por Priscilla Hill en Preserving the torch

Update on Christer, en Friends of Domenic Johansson

A homeschooler's commentary on six weeks in high school

One of the unschooling moms on facebook posted this introductory note:

Here's a video by one of the unschooled boys in our homeschool group. He talks about his six weeks of high school and explains why he stopped going. It's definitely worth watching!

A little story with big meaning

Hazel Mae Donovan wrote on facebook:

On our first midterm, there were only 4 As in our class of about 40 people. 3 of the 4 As belonged to homeschoolers (myself included). Surprising? I think not.

These stories are heard quite often. I have a son taking his first college classes. English 101 (which he tested into without preparation, after unschooling) isn't going as well as the math, but he's like his dad, who also had some English 101 problems, after 13 years of public school.

Study finds no advantage to early reading

Unschoolers (and others) have known for decades that late reading has no effect on learning, nor does it show when they're older, but now those who prefer statistical analysis to anecdotal evidence can share this as needed:

http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/research-finds-no-advantage-learning-read-age-five/5/33888

"At the end of the study, the data was analysed using Hierarchical Linear Modelling, which is commonly used in longitudinal studies, and a particularly robust way to analyse data, and estimated the point at which the early starters and later starters of learning to read met - and it came up with 10.89 years - between 10 and 11 years of age," he says.

"It was very exciting and unexpected - one of those science moments. The results concurred with the results of the other two studies and there were no differences in the abilities of the early and later readers by 11."

Unfortunate title, but decent article

'Unschooling' Lets Children Dictate Their Learning


'Unschooling' Lets Children Dictate Their Learning
CBS4 Miami Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:53 PM PDT
Who needs textbooks and lesson plans? Some parents say children should decide what they learn, not teachers. That's the basis of a controversial educational philosophy known as "unschooling", a movement that's gaining traction across the country.

Changing Paradigms

Wonderful animated illustrations to Sir Ken Robinson's talk:

"Creating your own curriculum"

Creating your own curriculum, article by Kelly Loeper, Queen's University The Journal, September 21, 2010.

Unschooling, self-teaching or life learning—an educational philosophy where children don’t attend school but “learn through life”—is growing in popularity as an alternative to traditional blackboards and books

(The link was going around facebook, from Wendy Priesnitz, and I snagged it. —Sandra)