14 November 2008
Ypsilanti, Michigan
Dear President-Elect Obama,
Congratulations on your heart-warming, history-making victory on November 4! Along with the majority of our fellow-citizens, your election has brought new hope to our family for our country's future.
I am heartened to hear that you have made the education of America's children one of your highest priorities; I understand that the greatest gains are to be made within the public school systems. I heartily support your agenda and am happy to see our tax dollars used for the genuine benefit of the children within the public school systems.
My concern is this: I have not seen any policy statement anywhere about the your view of homeschooling, and its future as a viable alternative for those families whose children cannot or will not fit within the public education system.
It requires no special inquiry to observe that no system of mass education can be expected to meet the needs of every student in the nation. Atypical children, whether they learn more slowly, more quickly, or just differently than the majority, wind up on the periphery of a system that, by its very nature, cannot be made broad enough to cope with their needs without also jeopardizing the overall quality of education for the majority.
Homeschooling parents, in increasing numbers, are choosing to step up and fill the atypical educational needs of their children at home, rather than impose a further burden on an already challenged system. Your own biography notes the enormous debt you owe to your mother for her 4am homeschooling sessions. Homeschooled children enjoy that extraordinary teacher/student ratio all day every day, and several national studies have shown that they benefit from that advantage.
Our great nation was built on the principle of individual freedom, and as a people we have fought, from the very first, to maintain the independence of our citizens from government interference. The education of our children is primarily the responsibility of their parents and families and secondarily the responsibility of our expert consultants within the various school systems, public, private, and parochial. It makes a great deal of sense to increase funding for the public system and set realistic achievement standards for public education institutions to increase our nation's competitive edge. It makes equal sense to allow those of us who choose to educate our children ourselves, to do so unimpeded.
If we couple the higher public education achievement objectives of your administration with the already high achievement levels of home educators, together we can twice strengthen the most important asset this nation has: its children, and therefore its future.
Please allow home educators to continue the work we have started, a work that meets our shared objectives for a better educated, freer, America
Best regards,
Misti Anslin Delaney Smith and Rodney B. Smith
Parent Educators
Misti Anslin Delaney Smith and Rodney B. Smith
Parent Educators
P.S. Our 5 year-old son, Jack, who followed both your primary and presidential campaigns with fervent interest was sadly disappointed when he did not get to meet you a the polling booth on election day!!
P.P.S. Kim has posted her letter about homeschooling to the Obama Administration over at Relaxed Homeskool, so you might want to head over and see what she has to say.
Trev woke up that morning "Is it time for the election?" "When are we going to The Election?" and was expecting to meet him, too.
ReplyDeleteTrev is crazy about him. (I think even moreso than Eric and I, as we are just a wee bit cynical.)
That's funny and sweet, Stephanie. I suspect that children all over the country felt that way.
ReplyDeleteAt her after school program, the kids had been having their own election and learning about it. I asked Joanne, when I picked her up who she had voted for, fully expecting to hear an echo of her parents. ...
ReplyDeleteShe said "John McCain." I 9slightly shocked) asked "Why?"
Her response?
"Because his name starts with a 'J' like mine."
I laughed out loud!
Similarly, the local radio announcer, with similar views to mine, asked his 6-yo grandaughter the same question, with the same, startling, response.
(This happened twice, about 1-hr apart, on the radio talk show)
The first time she said "Because he worked so hard." The second time she said "Because he is old. Older people know more."
He also, was floored.
Kids! You never know what to expect!
Edith
Kids have their own reasons, eh, Edith. But, you know, if you're going to be a one-issue voter, an initial makes as much sense as anything! (And the radio announcer's six-year-old had some seriously good reasoning going on, I must say!)
ReplyDelete