This post is also on Huffpo now, at this link.
The New York Times online feature “Room for Debate” recently held a discussion about homeschoolers and taxes. Should homeschoolers get tax breaks?
Two of the respondents (Rob Reich and Chester Finn Jr) said yes, but only if they take regular standardized tests.
One of the problems with comparing school and everything that unschooling encompasses is that, well, they aren’t comparable. For a lot of unschoolers, not taking tests is part of the point. The main point. Learning shouldn’t be measured by generic standards. It’s individual, it’s differently-paced, it’s organic. That can all sound a little gooey. My husband, who went to conventional school and did extremely well on every test he ever took, thinks that tests are pretty great. They are useful for evaluating progress, they force kids to learn to perform under pressure, and they teach everyone…important things. OK, I forget the rest of his argument.
As I like to remind him in my brattier moments, both he and I graduated college summa cum laude. My GPA was a little higher.* I only took one test as a homeschooler, and it was the SAT. More than that, if I had been tested, randomly, during my childhood, there’s a good chance I would have appeared hopelessly, irredeemably behind on some subjects and almost improbably ahead on others.
I don’t think it’s important that everyone perform at a certain level at any point. I feel radical saying that. Lockstep learning is only important when you’re dealing with a ton of kids, and you have to move them through a ton of material and get them out the other side without losing your job. But the idea that everyone should be on the same level is strange, taken out of the context of large conventional school classrooms. Even inside many of those classrooms, teachers are struggling to accommodate different skill sets, learning styles, and information-processing rates. It will always be a struggle, because school isn’t set up to be accommodating.
Maybe people are concerned that unschoolers will come out the other end illiterate and incompetent. Illiteracy and incompetency are real problems. But they aren’t concerns that have anything to do with unschooling. Of course, there will always be individual families who neglect and abuse their children. Families who ignore their children’s intellectual, emotional, and physical needs. But these families do not hide among the ranks of untested homeschoolers. They’re everywhere.
To imagine that the few situations of total educational failure that might result from rogue unschoolers necessitate widespread standardized testing of ALL unschoolers is as ignorant as imagining that the constant testing of children in school is preventing all of them from slipping through the cracks. It’s not. It can’t. To imagine that homeschoolers have to “earn” tax credit by proving that they are exactly in line with their schooled peers is to grossly misunderstand what it means to be unschooled.
But the tax breaks would be nice.
*To be absolutely fair, he was taking scarily hard science classes and I wasn’t.
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This is an interesting debate. I mean, okay, lets say they take the standardized tests and don’t do well? Does that mean they don’t get the tax break? Certainly large numbers of students in traditional ed don’t do well on standardized tests. On the other side of the issue though is the whole concept of standardized tests which are created to easily categorize masses, not because they are the most effective way to assess students.
What I’d recommend is what many educators and parents already know is best and it’s not standardized tests which really only assess the kids in the middle. Instead assess students with a portfolio or ePortfolio (Helen Barrett is the guru for this http://electronicportfolios.com). This would be an authentic method of assessment, would honor the values of the homeschooler, and is a fantastic way to celebrate a student’s work.
I think your suggestion is really the way to go. Seems like schools should consider moving in this direction as well, since standardized tests have proven so problematic in so many ways.
Thanks for this!
and yes, it would mean they wouldn’t get the tax break.
The whole idea of regulating homeschoolers frightens me. First of all, studies have shown just how well homeschoolers “perform” in the world. Then there’s the idea that no child performs at exactly grade level in all subjects (even those in school – as you pointed out in your blog) so how would it be determined that a particular homeschooler is not up to standards and needs to be moved to a school. What happens when a schooled child is not learning enough? Should they be required to become a homeschooler
I could go on and on, but here are a few problems that jump out at me: How do they account for various learning styles and methods? For example, I use a lot of Waldorf methods to teach. In theory, my children might be “behind” in some areas that the public schools teach in 2nd grade, but the Waldorf school saves until 3rd or 4th grade. They are also probably many, many grades “ahead” in other areas. Then, there’s the whole idea that being tested completely changes the relationship between the homeschooling parent (who trusts that their children will learn in their own time, but is now under pressure to teach the “right” things) and the child (who is now under pressure to perform for the test that might determine whether or not they can remain a homeschooler)
From a totally financial standpoint, I also wonder about who pays for this regulation and oversight of families who clearly care passionately about their children and don’t need regulation and oversight. Does the public really want to pay for the creation of offices that will oversee homeschoolers?
The tax cuts would be nice.
Here in Pennsylvania we have to take the standardized test anyway. I would love to see that requirement disappear. We haven’t crossed that bridge yet, but I know it won’t be popular in our house, as none of my boys have ever been tested before.
Another thought…
isn’t this a double standard?
It is my understanding that public schools get more money when their students do poorly on these tests, but homeschoolers would only get money if they do well? Let’s make up our minds about how this system works.
I don’t think it’s important that everyone perform at a certain level at any point.
Love it. I couldn’t agree more!!!
I have Unschooled my boys both 20, and 17 their entire lives. I know it was and is the right decision for us. I love being around them, and am not the kind of mom who expects others to do my job. I am always asked WHY do I do this. It would be so much easier to have them go away and go to school, and then you could have a life! THEY ARE MY LIFE. I signed up to be a parent, and am dedicated to doing the best as I possibly can for them. I can do other things when they are done and on their way. And if they stay close to home, wonderful!! I will be proud to be friends with them until one of us passes away. The boys are better around others than many SCHOOLED people are. They are polite, empathetic, and great listeners. I only wish I could have had such a tailored education as they have had. I would LOVE to have tax breaks, as we pay for the kids in public schools’ taxes!! More power to unschooling.
Those standardized tests are a joke and a half anyway. My siblings and I were unschoolers and we had to take them every year, but if there’s one thing they don’t measure, it’s knowledge. All they measure is how accustomed you are to the specific test taking format. Anybody whose kids have to sit through one of those BS tests most definitely deserves a tax-break!
In Georgia, the student has to be given a standardized test every three years and the results have to be kept on file by the parent. But the parent doesn’t have to show the results to anyone. That could be another option: Just test the child using one of any number of approved tests, allowing the parents to choose which test, and then have the parents retain the results. The parents would only have to prove that they had indeed tested the child at certain intervals to receive the tax credit.