Sunday, September 10, 2006

All roads lead to Rome

Names? Please help name this article....
a - Homeschoolisms End up being not as different as we all initially think.
b - All Roads Lead to Rome
c - Religious, Radical, or just problem-solving - All Homeschooling Parents share common Problems
d - HomeSchool Parents

Time4Learning has been surprised to find that its homeschoolers have widely divergent reasons for homeschooling and philosophies. Despite their obvious differences, they seem to commonly find Time4Learning an important part of their homeschool use.

I was intrigued by this and have been spending time talking to our homeschool members trying to better understand their motivations. I've come to believe that while parents start with widely divergent views, their experience working with their children generally leads many of them to the same place.

First the differences - Three Reasons that People Homeschool

Problem-Solvers - These families had their children in school with every intention of keeping them there. But, it did not work out well. This can happen for many reasons (which is not the topic of this article). But for one reason or another, the parents have found that the best solution for their children was to homeschool.

Religious Reasons. This category is parents who want to manage their children's education during their formative years.

Philosophical or Educational Innovators. This are the traditional homeschoolers, often inspired by Gatto or Holt, who rebel against the institution of todays schools.

Why Each Group Adopts Time4Learning...

stay tuned....

Florida Virtual School

Does anyone know much about the Florida Virtual School?

Here's what I know....
1. They are set up as a school district in Florida and get public moneys proportional to however many students that they sign up. It seems that the more they sign-up, the more money that they get.
2. They are incredible in terms of advertising. They are at every homeschool show and do more google Pay per click advertising than anybody. Their student acquisition cost, perhaps part of the public record, must be really high. I would guess that they spend more than a $100 per student that they sign up. It might be as high as thousand.
3. The education is free to students in florida but there is tuition for out of state. I don't know how much yet. I'd like to know.
4. The courses are OK but not great.
5. They have some licensees who put in their own teachers and offer themselves. I think Broward county is a licensee although that might be ending.
6. They started with high school, I don't know if they are doing middle school

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