Any of you in CT out there? There was just a new bill proposed in the general assembly that would require homeschoolers to prove that their kids are getting 900 hours of education each year, plus filing with the local school board, etc. If you want to check it out, go to www.cga.state.ct.us/default.asp and under "search" type in bill# 5535, which will give you the details.

-- Christina (introibo2000@yahoo.com), February 28, 2002

Answers

I'm not in CT, but I'd like to know if the same laws would apply to public school. Where we live, I doubt very much if the PS kids get half as much actual teaching time as the average homeschooler. In addition to all the time wasted on various frivolous activities, the kids are out of school constantly for various reasons. Often they have at least one day a week off. When I first started homeschooling years ago I thought to stay out of trouble by following the exact same schedule the PS did regarding days off. I soon found the kids' learning would severely suffer if I allowed them as much time off as the PS. My kids are adults now, but I can see the PS situation is getting much worse. They are even talking about going to a four day school week.

As usual, follow the money trail. The school districts lose money for each child that is not in their system. This sounds like more of the typical harassment meted out by the school district to homeschoolers.

Before any teachers take offense, I'm not knocking teachers. I have many friends who teach, most are just as upset with the situation as I am.

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), February 28, 2002.

Public school kids DON'T. That's why working children (actors, models, etc.) can get away with 3 hours per day (and they are probably being shortchanged as well) because they are usually privately (and intensely) tutored. Usually, homeschoolers can follow the same principle, but not always.

I agree with you on the too many days off thing. I think they should go straight through, and still have summers off, but a lot of schools are unfortunately going to year-round (which has its adherents, but I'm not one of them). Add in snow days and strike days and it really mounts up.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), February 28, 2002.

I can only speak for my situation. I homeschool and find my daughter and I can usually finish in 3 to 4 hours and about 160 to 170 school days a year. To insist everyone school a certain amount of hours is ridiculous. My daughter was in public school a total of 3 years and at least in our situation I knew there was a lot of wasted time in public school. Some of it is unavoidable with the lack of discipline in so many children today, it takes half the class time sometimes just to get control of the classroom. I believe at least the local public school count half days, test days, assembly days, and fieldtrips too. Some children also learn faster too especially when they are in one-on-situations like homeschoolers. Eve Lyn

-- Eve Lyn (evelynv@valuelinx.net), February 28, 2002.