On California and homeschooling

My take on the whole California Homeschooling mess.

I didn’t realize it was such a little known fact, but homeschooling has ALWAYS been illegal in California. That’s right folks, if you homeschool your children in the golden state you are in fact breaking the law. Mostly. Kind of.

Unless you invoked the loophole.

Let me explain. In one of my favorite books “Cryptonomicon” , a bunch of geeks have to go out and defend their favorite server farm (don’t ask) from the evil head of the FBI (still, don’t ask). In order to do this they used a loophole in California law. Like most states California says that if you want to carry a concealed weapon, a handgun, you have to have a license, even if it’s only partially, temporarily concealed, such as sitting on the seat of your car and you sweater lands on it. But it is perfectly legal to carry openly. So the geeks brought shotguns and hunting rifles instead.

They invoked the loophole.

It is illegal in California to teach your children at home without a teaching credential. It is legal to teach at a private school without a teaching credential. However, it is ridiculously easy to set up a private school in California. So you set your home up as a private school and hire yourself as a teacher. Technically you’re not homeschooling. And technically you’re legal because you’re not concealing the gun.

Make sense? Good.

The problem comes about when you call attention to yourself. No one is going to care if you’re walking from the car to the range/gunsmith/friend’s house. And no one is going to care if you’re raising healthy, well cared for/well educated children. However, they are going to notice if you’re standing in the street, waving that rifle at people. And they are going to notice if your children are battered, hungry, not healthy, being molested, and can’t read or add or subtract.

If you call attention to yourself, they will push you out of the loophole. If enough people call attention to themselves, they will close the loophole.

I have noticed that a lot of the Fundamentalist/Dominionist/Patriarchal types are calling attention to themselves.

They beat their kids (and yes, I believe most forms of spanking are beating. So does a majority of the state. You have to deal with this opinion, you live with us. This goes triple if you use plumbing line.)

They don’t feed their kids and have substandard housing. (For every quiverful family with 6…8…10..12 kids who is doing well there are at least 4 who are living below the poverty line or who have no parenting skills or who are too overwhelmed to keep up the house.)

They don’t get medical care for their children. (I give you Candy as an example, who let her baby’s 104 deg fever work itself out and treated her elder son’s conjunctivitis by wiping his eyes with fermented mushroom and bacteria juice.)

They teach their children nothing about sex, and they teach them never to stand up to an older male. (If you can’t see how that would lead to victimization, then you have not been paying attention.)

Their children don’t learn. Even if their children do learn to read and write and spell and basic math, sorry, that’s not enough. The state has a right to expect its citizens to be trained well enough to function, to drive and vote and get a job and understand a doctor’s orders. That means science folks, not just Genesis. It means real US history, starting with St. Augustine being the oldest city in the United States NOT Jamestown. It means you can’t stop educating girls at 13 because they “are just going to be mothers, anything more is a waste of time and resources”.

It’s a loophole, people. If you’re going to invoke it, don’t call attention to yourself, do the right thing by your kids.

And as a final note, for those of you who say “it is my Constitutional, God-given right to homeschool”, I give you

The Constitution of the United States of America

And

The Christian Bible

Show me where either says anything about homeschooling.

In which we have cozy tea

Yes, it's a tea cozy fit for a hobbit. I do like the way it came out.

Cleaning things up around here

It's a little less irritating, putting an opening picture in each post, then having that odd right angle bend. You just have to use a large enough one, or so I'm finding.

What is it about this that annoys me so?

Is it the way these women, who look to be maybe 25-35, meaning settling into their careers, taking responsibility for raising families, or both, look to be about 12, the way they are sitting on the floor in goofy t-shirt, their hair in pigtails or bobby pins?

Is it that made up word, "papercrafting", which is trying oh-so-hard to give some kind of legitimacy to playing with markers and stickers and glue?

Is it that this new "craft tradition" (from the inside of the flyer) consists of taking pre-coordinated stickers and putting them on pre-coordinated papers, sticking a picture in the middle, maybe writing a sentence or two about it, and then saying you have created art?

Is it that society has over the past 20-40 years taken every true skill and art unique to women, knitting, sewing, cooking, and so on, and degraded them to the point where they are considered a waste of time, not worthy of the modern, liberated woman? Then when women expressed their longing for a creative outlet, they were given kindergarten craft time?

Is it that back in the horrifying olden days playing music, sketching, painting with watercolors, lace knitting, fine embroidery, cooking both plain and fancy, sewing elaborate dresses ENTIRELY BY HAND, keeping a garden, making soap and candles, preserving food as well as running a small business (yes, those farms were small businesses too, just like they would be today) knowing animal husbandry,bookkeeping, and raising AND homeschooling 2-10 children was considered AVERAGE for a woman? While today we're impressed with stickers on construction paper?

Or is it that women are resurrecting those old crafts, women bloggers and artists and authors are promoting the hell out of them, and women owned businesses are making a small fortune selling both the tools and results of them, while the major chains are devoting more and more floor space to toys for the complacent children the expect women to be?

Kee-riste, I hate being belittled.

/rant

(And before anyone points out that women work today, I used to work too. I spent 8 years teaching, 6 hours a day actually with students, 30 minutes to an hour a day prepping or repairing things, and 2 hours minimum goofing off, simply because I had to be there to collect a check. In addition to 2 hours of commute time a day. Yes, I did resent the waste of my time and energy with those 4 hours a day. When I was a bookkeeper before I was teaching, it was closer to 6 hours a day. And all I did when I was working was teach, or crunch numbers. If you work, ask yourself honestly, how much time a day do you really *need* to do your job? How many skills do you really use? Think about it.)

She did it.

Pointing to Kate. She inspired me to geek.

Smiting myself with a time management book

I would love, really and truly love, to have a set schedule. I would. You know, get up, have a shower, breakfast, workout, start the laundry, all in a neat and tidy order, all by XXX o'clock a/pm. I'd love that.

It's just not going to happen.

Here's my average day. It goes one of two ways...

Version 1

• Out of bed sometime between 11 am and 3 pm.
• Meditate for however long it takes my brain to start functioning
• Start the coffee
• Boot the laptop and say hello to whoever I need to say hello to today
• Drink coffee and knit

Anywhere from 1 to 4 hours after I wake up the hubbo wakes up as well. At that point

• Have breakfast
• Get back on the computer/out of the way until the hubbo goes to work
• Grab a quick shower, if I'm going to
• Start the laundry
• Alternate doing chores with fooling around on the computer until people go to bed.
• Knit and listen to my podcast collection/read for a while until the hubbo gets home
• Go to bed 17-20 hours after I got up.

Version 2:

• Out of bed sometime between 11 am and 3 pm.
• Meditate for however long it takes my brain to start functioning
• Start the coffee
• Boot the laptop and say hello to whoever I need to say hello to today
• Drink coffee and knit

Anywhere from 1 to 4 hours after I wake up the hubbo wakes up as well. At that point

• Have breakfast
• Grab a quick shower, if I'm going to
• Start the laundry
• Alternate watching movies/Stargate with fooling around on the computer until people go to bed.
• Somewhere in there break for supper
• Go to bed 17-20 hours after I got up.

And here is my ideal day, really

• Out of bed sometime between 11 am and 3 pm.
• Meditate for however long it takes my brain to start functioning
• Start the coffee
• Boot the laptop and say hello to whoever I need to say hello to today
• Have breakfast
• Grab a quick shower, if I'm going to
• Start the laundry
• Drink coffee and knit until it's time to go somewhere/the hubbo goes to work/it's time to meet someone on line
• Alternate watching movies/Stargate/doing chores with fooling around on the computer until people go to bed.
• Somewhere in there break for supper
• Knit and listen to podcasts/read for a while
• Go to bed 17-20 hours after I got up.

I see the problem, it's a painfully obvious problem. But 3 days out of the week breakfast is the only meal the hubbo and I have together and I am not going to give it up. Maybe 4 days. Or two days. And sometimes I don't know until a few hours before.

And I already know I don't sleep well without the hubbo, and his schedule is *very* random as to when he gets to sleep. So while I may never have things done by XXX a/pm, it would be nice to say "have them done XXX hours after I get up". So be able to say.

• Get up = hour 0
• Hour 1 = Start the coffee, boot the laptop
• Hour 2 = Have breakfast
• Hour 3 = Workout
• Hour 3.30 = Have a shower
• Hour 4 = Get dressed and start the laundry

And so on right down the line.

*sigh*

Well, now that I have the problem defined, how to find an answer.

I really try not to do memes

But everyone I know has hit this one...

1. Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie. Or from your own memory.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions.
5. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
6. Those who guess correctly have to do the Meme next! (This you don't have to do if you don't want to).

------

1) Speaker 1: It could be worse.
[creature growls]
Speaker 2: It's worse.

2) We’re gonna need a bigger boat.

3) There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. It would be a pity to damage yours.

4) Amazing how you can do without the essentials of life, so long as you have the luxuries.

5) But the worst mistake you made...empty gun rack.

6) Personally, I'd give us one chance in three. More tea anyone?

7) By the way... you have to *ask* for absolution to be forgiven... asshole.

8) He still digs humanity, but it bothers Him to see the shit that gets carried out in His name - wars, bigotry, televangelism.

9) I'm never gonna get paid.

10) It's coffee time! Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee! Cappuccino, java, YES!

11) Now I want yous all to cheer like Protestants!

12) Everybody in this family needs to just calm down and eat some fruit or something.

13) Do you not know that in the service one must always choose the lesser of two weevils?

14) Dude, you have a bazooka. Stop thinking Prague Police and start thinking Playstation. Blow shit up!

15) Laugh it up, fuzzball.

Still trying to absorb

This.

http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/02/i-think-therefore-i-am-part-three.html

And the idea that discrimination leads to bad health due to stress levels. Especially this sentence...

Children living in the most socially disadvantaged settings (poor, minority, low-education and without parents) have four times the risks of poor health, regardless of health insurance and access to healthcare. One study of Canadian children, ages 6 to 10, found that those from low socioeconomic families had significantly higher stress cortisol levels than same-age children from high socioeconomic families.

High cortisol levels. As in Cushing's syndrome, or Pseudo-Cushing's syndrome. She's arguing, I believe, that obesity in and of itself doesn't lead to health issues, it's the increased stress due to discrimination based on obesity.

Or on being Jack's red-headed stepchild, the supposed lesbian, who's not really a woman under those clothes. And so on, and on. After all the lies he told about me to isolate me, is it any wonder I was discriminated against, on top of being discriminated for being fat and living in California. Up to and including crappy health care that let to my back problems now.

I still need to get my back fixed, but now that I'm in a better place, and head space, well the possibilities could be endless.

I want to learn

The joy of being a housewife is that at least until the kids come around, your time is really your own.

The problem is figuring out what you want to do with it.

I've been thinking over the idea of making a "life list", and ongoing list of things I'd like to do before I die. So far I have...

Knit myself real, honest to god socks, in a week or less. Be that kind of good.
Knit myself a sweater. Actually finish a project that big. Twice, so I know it wasn't a fluke.
Knit a bridal lace shawl. One of these will do nicely.
Learn to speak another language, not Spanish and not Italian. French? Arabic? Portuguese?
Learn to play piano.
Learn to cook really good Chinese food.
See the Alhambra
Drive through New England, and see Williamsburg and Boston.
Tour England.
Visit Tel Aviv, just to see what it's really like.
Ride a motorcycle.

I have no doubt more will be added.

At the moment I'm looking at this list, and looking at my current yarn bill. Lace scarf pattern, $6.00 (Start small),...needles for two-at-a-time sock pattern and sock yarn, $9.78....yarn for a sweater vest, enough for a whole project at once (still starting small), $32.23...kit for a travel sewing kit, $14.90

Being convinced your dreams, even if they aren't big ones, deserve the investment...yea, priceless. You knew that was coming.

Just to make it quite clear

Everyone involved with the role play thing I posted about down there had been quite wonderful about it all. We're all trying to be helpful and accommodating, and trying to make it work so everyone has fun. I'm not knocking the sweetheart's player, or the one who is with him, or his administrative assistant there (she knows who she it)they've put a lot of effort into it all and I am very grateful.

But this is my blog, and I will share my opinion.

And in my opinion it's like trying to plan a vacation among friends when someone's two year old twins are having a tantrum in the middle of the room. You're trying to figure out how to have fun, hell even the planning is supposed to be fun, you've got the munchies and the bottle of wine and the maps and guide books, but these two year old twins are whining and screaming and carrying on and on and on...and eventually Mom and Dad have to take the two year old twins home and put thm to bed, thereby giving them *exactly* the attention they want. Which is the right thing, maybe, I suppose, but it does leave the childless couple, the husband and I, rather stuck. Our party this evening has been ruined, and since the two year old twins tends to start screaming every time their parents take their attention away, even to talk on the phone, it makes planning the vacation darn near impossible. And yes, at this point it looks like the twins will be coming along on the vacation with us.

At which point the husband looked at me and said the equivalent of "I know they're your friends, I like their company too, but you know they won't get a babysitter, and do you really want to put up with that? No hard feelings to them, they have to do what they think is right, but why don't we just go on this vacation just the two of us instead."

Now, I'm sitting here trying to keep everyone involved and not make hard feelings, and trying to only say nice things about the children and suggesting that maybe we can work this out over e-mail, or the phone, or later when the twins go to bed, or something, anything just so we can all go on this vacation together and perhaps relax and have fun. And over and over I'm hearing how we all have to accomodate the girls because after all they are children and they really are wonderful to be around...when they are behaving themselves, and how they deserve to be included as much as anyone. So really, we must include the children and not talk harshly to them, and not expect them to behave and they must in no way suffer the consequences of their actions because, after all, they are children.

Yes, when my husband said that it was a huge weight lifting off my shoulders. You mean we can go enjoy ourselves, as adults, without the children? Have conversations and listen to good music and drink a bottle of wine and just relax? Oh heaven....

So yes, no offense to the parents in this simile here. I love you guys, I love your company, I am eternally grateful for all the effort you put into trying to make this vacation work, you're always more than welcome to join us, but your kids are driving me nuts and I need a break.