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10 Reasons to Homeschool
Excerpted from the National Home Education Network's posting (55 Reasons to Homeschool)
http://www.waldsfe.org/Humor/55reasons.htm

1. …Allow children time to learn subjects not usually taught in their school.

2. …Allow children to have time for more in-depth study than what is allowed in school.

3. …Allow children to learn at their own pace, not too slow or too fast. (You don;t have to be concerned about teaching to the average)

4. …Allow children to work at a level that is appropriate to their own developmental stage. Skills and concepts can be introduced at the right time for that child.

5. …Not have to deal with bullying or racially motivated incidents that can hinder the learning process.
(-this is one of the top reasons why many blacks have pulled their kids out of school. I personally know kids who have begged their parents to homeschool them because of bullying. Many of these kids want to stand up for themselves, but they are in schools that have zero tolerance for violence policies. They are in schools where SELF-DEFENSE is frowned upon!) Others are tired of fighting the racial prejudices and inequities. We all know racism is a problem our kids will have to deal with sooner or later, but we have to ask ourselves at what point do we continue to allow this to interfere with getting the critical skills they need RIGHT NOW!

6. …Encourage concentration and focus - which are discouraged in crowded classrooms with too many distractions.

(One of my closest friends took her child out of a school that was one of the "top" academic schools in our communities after her husband visited the school. After sitting in his child's classes for a day he realized how much she WASN'T learning.)

7. …Spend a lot of time out-of-doors. This is healthier than spending most weekdays indoors in a crowded, and often overheated, classroom. (The average person, not to mention child, only spends 30 minutes or less outdoors everyday. WAY less then children of a generation ago. Homeschool kids spend 3 times or more than that outdoors. On warm sunny days, many parents hold class outdoors.)

8. …Time is available for more nonacademic pursuits such as art or music. This leads to a richer, happier life. (Music and fine arts are part of the academic curriculum, not side events.)

9. …College Prep-Children will not feel like passive recipients of subject matter selected by their teachers. They will learn to design their own education and take responsibility for it. (Isn’t this what college students are expected to do.)

10. …Learning can be more efficient since methods can be used that suit a child's particular learning style. (This is one of the best parts. You can tailor each subject to all your kids individual learning styles.)

I realize this is not an option for many households, but it's something to consider. Don;t think because you are a single parent you cannot homeschool. There are single parents who can and do teach their own children. Those who can afford it may hire tutors, those who cannot will often have a grandparent keep kids during the day and they home educate them in the evening. Let's face it, many of you are already spending up to four hours a night helping kids with homework! In that same time frame you could be teaching them, with grandparents taking them to art and music classes during the day. If they are older they could also take courses through online charter schools. (Be advised, many do not consider this true homeschooling since depending on where you live you will still be bound by state mandates.) But it is an option for those who are afraid to tackle it on their own.

If you are considering homeschooling there are a lot of resources. Do a web search of local groups to see if there are any groups in your area. Get to know people who are already doing it. Email friends and family to see if they know any homeschool families you can connect with to get more information.

It was scary at first, but we have never looked back. Yes, it is a financial struggle for most families, but I have not met one family yet who has regretted their decision to homeschool.

SPEAKING two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.

This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.

They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles. READ MORE

Employment among Hispanics and Asians in the U.S. has climbed back to levels seen prior to the last recession, while hiring of whites and blacks has lagged behind, a study found.

The number of Hispanic workers reached 20.7 million in the last three months of 2011, up from 19.9 million in the final quarter of 2007 when the economic slump began, according to a report by the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center, a non- partisan research group. Employment among Asians climbed by about 263,000 during the period, while it was 4.9 million lower for whites and 763,000 for blacks.

While all categories have shown gains since the recovery began in 2009, the speed of the improvement has tracked the rate of growth in each group’s working-age population, leaving the share of those employed little changed. The economic rebound has also been less kind to women than men, even as the opposite was the case during the contraction, the report showed.

“Two years after the U.S. labor market hit bottom, the economic recovery has yielded slow but steady gains in employment for all groups of workers,” according to the paper, written by Rakesh Kochhar, the group’s associate director of research. “The gains, however, have varied across demographic groups.”

Using the employment rate, or the share of the working-age population with the job, as a gauge, reveals a different story. The rate for Hispanics and blacks was at least 5 percentage points lower at the end of 2011 than when the recession began. The deficit was about 4 percentage points for whites and Asians. READ MORE

Although affordability and funding is often prescribed as key to getting Latinos through college, a panel of Latino students said Friday there's another challenge — and it's cultural.

Promoting the idea that higher education is worth the investment means changing the mentality in their homes and neighborhoods, they said.

“Traditional Hispanic culture still dictates that you stay at home until you get married or get a job,” Mitzi Torres, a senior at Burbank High School, told the audience at a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute conference at the Museo Alameda.

“Your family wants to protect you, but they have to accept (that) you have a dream and may have to leave, not just home, but the city for a better future,” she said. READ MORE

Lance Winslow in preparation for a book he is writing stated that the number one reasons for Home Schooling was violence in schools. He stated this fact in an ezine article on http://ezinearticles.com/?Violence-in-Schools;-Number-One-Reason-for-Home-Schooling&id=457852

I'm not sure where he got his facts, so I can't vouch for the validity of this claim, however I do know at least two families in my own circle who pulled their kids out for this very reason. Parents vehemently complained to the school and to the district to no avail. Even after one child was physically threatened with harm before his peers, the school did nothing to punish the child for the ongoing threats and abuse levied at the other. Finally in frustration these parents pulled their child out of school. Sadly, in one of the very same districts, a teen committed suicide just a month later. Reason-the teen had been repeatedly and systematically bullied for years.

Now this same district is trying to push for ANti-bullying laws, when if they had just done their job in the first place their would have been no need to try to use this "advocacy" as a backdoor means to clean up their mess.

Other parents have pulled their children out simply so they won't be exposed to the viloence and threats of gang initiation. While others have complained of "grooming." Grooming is when a person of either the same gender, or even opposite gender, uses various methods to get kids involved in behaviors they normally would not participate in. These "groomers" are usually seniors or recent graduates who hang out at the school and target shy, weak, or otherwise lonely and needy kids. They feign friendship and concern, often showering them with gifts and attention. The kids is exposed and often becomes their next victim. If the kid rejects the attention, they may be stalked, harrassed, or intimidated.

This is bullying to the 9th power! If it works the groomer has a lover, sexual partner, drug partner, or partner in crime.

These are the kinds of things many kids are exposed to today in schools.

Now to be fair, there are many good schools out there, and not all kids are exposed to this sort of thing; so it would be wrong for me to put all schools in this box. Most schools do their best to keep kids safe and out of harms way. Most schools have strict policies against this sort of thing and they enforce them. But if you find out that your child is facing one of the above named potentially dangerous and harmful situations, and no one is listening to you-no one is helping you; THEN I IMPLORE YOU-please consider removing your child from the school and either homeschooling, or having them placed in another school.

Parents today have so many more options than they had in the past, so please do not feel like your only option is to leave your child vulnerable in a failing system.*

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PLEASE NOTE: THE OPINIONS OF THIS BLOGGER ARE NOT INTENED TO REPLACE COMPETENT ADVICE FROM A PHYSICIAN, THERAPIST, OR COUNSELOR. NOR IS IT INTENEDED TO REPLACE LEAGAL ADVICE FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT, SOCIAL WORKERS, OR ATTORNEYS. IF YOUR CHILD IS IN ONE OF THE ABOVE NAMED, POTENTIALLY HARMFUL SITUATIONS, PLEASE SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP.
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Lena Arnold is an award winning author and publisher of several books, including “In the Absence of My Father,” “Strong Black Coffee: Poetry and Prose to Enlighten, Encourage, and Entertain Americans of African Descent,” “For This Child We Prayed: Living with the Secret Shame of Infertility;,” dealing with black Christian infertility, and “For This Dream I Prayed: Companion Journal.” She is currently collaborating on a children’s book entitled “Jackie’s’ Way” dealing with childhood anger with nationally renown artist Michael Fields. Lena was endorsed by the late CBS News Correspondent Ed Bradley for “…being a thoughtful writer who goes beyond…”

The National Association of Hispanic Nurses launched a Mentorship Academy in July 2011 to maintain a formal peer-driven process to help advance Hispanic nurses' educations and careers.

The academy pairs novice nurses with experienced mentors, said Vivian Torres-Suarez, RN, BSN, MBA, director and founder of the Mentorship Academy. "They work together for a year on goals and objectives set by the novice and on achieving tasks related to advancing their career and/or their education," she said.

Torres-Suarez said the Institute of Medicine's report, "The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health," and findings from the 2008 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses by the Health Resources and Services Administration were motivators in creating the academy and added her participation in the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellowship program made the academy possible.

"The NSSRN states that Hispanics comprise 15.4% of our society while Hispanic nurses represent only 3.6% of the 3 million nurses in the United States, remaining underrepresented in the RN population compared to their profile in the general population," she said. "In addition, Hispanic nurses along with Asian nurses are more likely to have pursued a bachelor's degree for initial RN education but less likely to have pursued graduate degrees than were white, non-Hispanic RNs. Not only are more Hispanic nurses needed, but more Hispanic nurses are needed in education and administration, as well." READ MORE

Young Latinos—ages 14 to 34—are eager for bilingual, bicultural content, says a new study co-sponsored by Tr3s: MTV, Música y Más—a bilingual, bicultural channel.

The Máximo report, conducted by Latino media and marketing firms Motivo Insights, LLC and the New Generation Latino Consortium (NGLC), focused on U.S.-born Latinos and those who had been in the U.S. for at least 15 years. Like most consumers, it found, these “New Generation Latinos” want to see content in which “they are the star”—i.e., to have their lives and interests represented.

But they’re not so concerned about the language of this content. The study also found that these consumers are language-omnivorous: 50 percent said they sought out more bilingual/bicultural programming, and over 30 percent said they looked for 'mainstream' English-only content.

This, the marketers wrote, was in contrast to older Latinos, higher percentages of whom tend to prefer Spanish-language content.

Some other insights:

• Respondents felt they were better equipped to deal with the recession compared to Caucasians. The report says this is “mostly due to culturally based realities that give NGLs a slightly different perspective on finances.”

"Latinos for generations have been having to make dollars stretch," explains Gonzalo Perez, Principal and Founder of Motivo Insights. "And they have a history of not being too proud to take a job—or two or three jobs—to keep the family going."

• Seven out of 10 “think that seeing an English language commercial on Spanish language TV is a good thing.” (Translation: Bring on the advertising money, honey!)

• Peer-to-peer recommendations are important to this group. In fact, the study says, these young Latinos “are more likely to forward opinions and info about a brand compared to their Caucasian counterparts.” (translation: Bring on the social media advertising money!) READ MORE