[Teacher Mom]

I wrote in the other post that virtual school is NOT home schooling. It is public schooling at home. It's like the public school giving your child all their work to be done as homework.

I guess what I am trying to say is that when you start saying that virtual school is home school, people get really confused. That IS the goal of the NEA. Then as more and more people sign up for a virtual school, accepting the requests to report in to the public school, to be governed by the district/state/federal government, pretty soon the freedom to be able to chose to home educate your child as you see fit will be less and less. If our society begins to believe that public school at home is home schooling we will be in trouble.

Trying to give an example. When people I know are taking classes for college at home on their computer, they never say they are home schooling. They say they are taking college courses- at home. Virtual Schools are taking public school classes- at home. They have different laws to follow than those who chose to home educate their children. No matter what kind of home schooler you are, be it, school at home, relaxed, unschooler, ecclectic...you are still a home schooler. You do not have to follow the same laws that those who do public school at home.

Again, I am coming from the point of trying to preserve the freedom to be able to chose to home educate your child as YOU see fit. When the public schools introduced this and called it homeschooling, they knew exactly what they were doing. It does not fall under the same guidelines that home schooling families follow. They never liked families choosing home schooling back in the 70's and 80's and many, many families stood up for the rights we have today.

I guess I just wish that people would say that they are doing public school at home. It's not just a game of semantics. It is important to keep them separate to maintain the freedoms that home schooling families enjoy.