Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 11, 1 Nowemapa 1993 — Homeschooling: a do-it-yourself alternative [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Homeschooling: a do-it-yourself alternative

by Jeff Clark "Parental involvement" is a term often used by those seeking better education for Hawaiians. Perhaps the ultimate in parental education involvement is homeschooling. "We just want more control over our children," Susan Hau'oli Ortiz said in an interview at home/school at Lā'ie Point. "We" means the many parents who keep their children out of public and private schools and are teaching their children at home. According to the Department of Education, 1,123 students were homeschooled last year. Ortiz has assumed the role as the Hawaiian community's great homeschooling advocate. She's been knocking on the door at Kamehameha Schools and other agencies trying to elicit support

for homeschooling. She sees homeschooling as a way of exerting sovereignty, because with homeschooling, education is something that Hawaiians are doing themselves. Said Ortiz in a

recent letter to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, "It is refreshing to know that Hawaiians ean īeaeh their children without a certified credential, endless federal-ly-funded programs, or the long

arm of the state. ... Self-determi-naīion in education is occurring now." Ortiz says homeschooling is all about "reclaiming and assuming the responsibility of teaching the child," and that it is probably not for parents who are happy when summer is over because that means their keiki will paek off to school and be out of the house for most of the day. Parents must enjoy it or it won't work, she says. Ortiz knows the challenges, pit-

falls and successes of homeschooling, because she has been educating her son Matthew at home for three years. Matthew Ortiz is 10 years old and one of the brightest, most confident keiki you're likely to eome across these days. Talking to him for just a few minutes, you get the impression that, in addition to being a smart kid, he's also a good kid. That's no aeeident. "There's more ways to look continued on page 16

State law allows children to be taught by their parents at home instead of in public or private school, but parents must notify the pnneipal of the school whieh their child would otherwise attend. They ean either write a letter of intent or fill out a special form. Annual progress reports must be provided. Homeschooled children in grades 3, 6, 8, and 10 must take part in the DOE's statewide testing, either through their loeal public school or privately at their parents' expense. Parents must keep a record of their child's curriculum, including subject areas studied, hours spent in instruction, description of teaching methods, and a list of textbooks and other instructional materials. Last year 1,123 children in the state were homeschooled, according to the Department of Education's Bob Golden, educational specialist for attendance and discipline. Parents interested in homeschooling ean get more information from the Student Personnel Services Section of the DOE's Office of Instructional Services. The phone number is 733-9109.

Susan Hau'oli Ortiz and her star pupil, Matthew Ortiz, at school in Lā'ie. Photo by Jeff Clark

Homeschooling from page 8

at a good education for Matthew," his mom says. "To me education is not just academic, but it's having sportsmanship on the athletic field, it's making good choices, it's not following your peers, it's having good morals and values, being kind ... " Ortiz's premise for home-

schooling is that it's done out of love. The teacher-student relationship benefits from the parentchild relationship. She has an intuition of his learning style, and flows the lessons to match his moods. She knows when he's being kolohe, but she also knows when his allergies go haywire and prevent him from concentrating. The learn-at-home program accents excitement and downplays drudgery. There is no "busy

work," tedious exercises designed to keep the student occupied. Says Ortiz, "I respect, 'This is a drag, Mom, I understand it already.'" She's also sensitive to Matthew's changing interests, and lets him follow his curiosity where it leads him. For a while

he was interested in mountain lions, so the two went to the library and borrowed 30 books on the subject, and Matthew leamed everything he could about the wild cats. For social studies, the two discuss current events, including the Hawaiian sovereignty movement. And what if Matthew just isn't interested in a particular subject or topic? "It gets studied in the end. At the end of the year, it has been stud-

ied - but it's at his own paee," Ortiz explains. "He likes all his subjects because I don't force it [learning] on him." As Matthew puts it, "It's real fun because I ean piek out what I want to do. But that doesn't mean I ean slide." Ortiz is aware of what the kids in public school are doing, because she orders the materials that go with the standard curriculum. "So," she says with pride, "he's up to par with the schools,

but he s actually aeeelerated. He's a fourth grader but he's doing j sixth-grade work." Ortiz doesn't give Matthew any tests; she feels tests give a false impression of closure, so that onee the test is over students feel like they don't need to revisit the subject. Instead, Ortiz prefers to leave subjects "open," and keeps an eye on Matthew's progress by monitoring it daily. "She's a good teacher," affirms Matthew, who learns 10, sometimes 20, spelling words per day. His current favorite course of study is logic and critical thinking, and he has a workbook on

eaeh. He studies at the kitchen table, usually with his back to the Pacific, whieh ean be a distraction because of the boy's burgeoning interest in surfing and diving. The Ortiz home is always a school. There is no break during summer, although the workload lightens. Matthew's father, Ralph, also contributes to his son's education. He's teaching

him Spanish, and he coaches him in soccer and baseball. Matthew went to public school for kindergarten, first grade, and three days of grade two. "I used to daydream a lot in school, spaced out, thinking about what I would do when I got out of school," he remembers. His mom says she noticed his natural curiosity and eagerness being "snuffed out," so she yanked him. "I've carefully cultivated him since birth to love learning and to be eager, and I wasn't about to see it squelched." She belittles the educational establishment's

use of curriculum and assessment to get children to leam, maintaining that "children are born ready and eager to learn," and that some teachers tend to unwittingly quash that natural tendency. And Matthew's assessment of his homeschooling experience? "I would say it's pretty good, because you never know what's happening to your kids in school. My mom is very fortunate because my dad has a good job and we ean do homeschooling. I learned a lot of my things from my mom."

Matthew Ortiz studies at home. Photo by Jeff Clark