The Buie Knife

The Challenges of Home-Schooling A 12-Year-Old While Living in Turkey

 

(Photo: Alex on an eight-mile hike through the moonscapes of Goreme, Cappadocia, Turkey. Story and slideshow about this extraordinary area and our hike here.)

We've had mixed results homeschooling Alex in the three weeks we've been in Turkey. Read about it. Your suggestions?

Resources for Homeschooling?

Looks like I'm going to be at least partially homeschooling our 12-year-old son while we're in Turkey for the next school year. This summer, I'm reviewing "What Your (First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth) Grader Needs to Know" by E.D. Hirsch and the Core Knowledge Foundation, quizzing Alex on some of it, to see where he stands and what he still needs to know. Then we'll tackle middle school curriculum.

So-called Fiscal Conservatives Often AREN'T

Here's another example where so-called fiscal conservatives are actually profligate. Obama wants to replace subsidized student loan from private banks with direct loans from the government, saving taxpayers $94 billion over 10 years, the New York Times reports. Representative Howard P. McKeon of California, the senior Republican on the education committee, opposes the plan to eliminate profit-seeking private lenders, even though they've had to be be bailed out by the government.

Related:

• So-Called Fiscal Conservatives Want Billions for Unnecessary Defense Spending

Obama Already Impacting Black-White Achievement Gap?

Barack Obama may already be influencing the self-esteem, self-confidence, persistence, and test-taking results of young black students, according to this study. It would be amazing if this study is replicated broadly, and reflects more than a transitory trend. Worth watching.

Pick of Palin Highlights Republican Opposition to Teen Pregnancy Prevention

I like to listen to people I know who I deem "swing voters." My octogenarian mother-in-law is not a fan of Obama, but McCain's selection of Sarah Palin for vice president has put my mo-in-law firmly in Obama's camp. McCain's choice of Palin, she said, was "terrible." She thinks a woman with fIve children, one of them Down Syndrome, and with an expectant teenage daughter, ought not to be gallivanting all over the country running for vice president and preaching "family values" to others.

Older voters like my mother-in-law, who've expressed concern about Obama's lack of experience, are not reassured by the choice of Alaska Governor Palin, who just 19 months ago was the mayor of a town of 7,000 people.

It is, of course, Palin's choice to run, and if she were a man, she probably would not be judged harshly for her choice to put a career opportunity before her family if she were a man. And who's to judge whether she or her husband Todd are there for their children? Men can certainly be primary caregivers.

About one-third of girls in the United States get pregnant before age 20, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Here in North Carolina, about 60 percent of high school teens engage in premarital sex. Legislators are debating the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of abstinence-only sex education. One study by Rebecca Bach of Duke University indicates that "counties in which Abstinence-plus programs are used have experienced a greater decline [in teen pregnancy rates] than counties utilizing the Abstinence-only curriculum." 

In the Senate, John McCain opposed teen pregnancy prevention funding, according to the Associated Press, and Gov. Palin cut funding for teen moms. The Republican Party platform states that the "solution" to this epidemic is simply for all teens to abstain from sex. Teens should not be given access to birth control, and abortion should be outlawed. But a prime example of the failure of this public policy position is the family of the vice presidential nominee. One can only conclude that the practical impact of the Republican Party position is to INCREASE the number of children born to teenagers. I do not see this as good for families or good for society. Do you?

Drill Deeper:

• Pro-life and Pro-Choice Advocates Should Seek Common Ground
• Neither Scare Tactics Nor Denial Are Solution to High Teen Pregnancy Rates in U.S.
• Life Begins At Conception, a 'Culture of Life' Must Be Promoted, But the Death Penalty is a Good Idea
• Basic Incompetence from McCain (Andrew Sullivan)
• Obama's Experience Includes Beating the Clintons, by David Frum

Fewer Going to College As Costs Rise Rapidly

Important facts about access to higher education. Click.

Startling Statistics, Startling Contrasts in the Two North Carolinas. A National Problem

Even more now than when I was growing up, I notice that there are "two North Carolinas" -- the well-off, well-educated, business owners or professionals, and the struggling middle class and poor, less educated, who are either making no progress economically or losing ground, and losing what assets they've tried to build up. The rural areas have lost much of their commerce related to agriculture, manufacturing, textiles, and small retail. And now we're learning that suburban poverty is going up dramatically because of losses in manufacturing and textiles.

Nationally, 60% of high school graduates go on to attend college, while in North Carolina, just 40% of high school graduates go on to attend some college. And because rural areas have lost their economic power, they've lost political power, becoming dumping grounds.

In North Carolina as a whole, the number of people receiving food stamps has increased 30 percent since 2002. Some 43% percent of renters do not earn enough salary to afford a two-bedroom apartment without endangering their ability to pay basic bills (source). Too many people are struggling desperately to hold on to their rental units or homes. Home foreclosures have TRIPLED in eight years. As an example, In my native Scotland County, NC, home foreclosures have leaped from 62 in 1998 to 188 in 1996. One of the chief new industries is now a big PRISON near my hometown of Wagram, employing more than 400 people and housing 1,000 inmates. It in effect is replacing the Stevens' textile plant, which is closing, and 800 jobs are being lost. There is also talk of making Scotland County the site of a NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP. This must be fought. The county has a lot of strengths, that must be built on to attract new businesses, new people and to create a revitalized local economy.

Meanwhile, in the state's Triad region, suburban poverty has hit new highs, according to the Greensboro News-Record. A new report ranks Guilford, Rockingham and Randolph counties, but not including Greensboro --  among the top 10 regions in the nation with the most suburban poverty. due to textile and manufacturing layoffs. Rockingham County alone has lost more than 4,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000, the GNR reported. 

There's a good discussion of this issue on the blog of GNR editor John Robinson.

This is a national problem that the mainstream media hasn't adequately reported. Columbia Journalism Review Daily documents how the national media mostly ignored a major report from the Brookings Institution that more Americans now live in poverty in suburbs than in cities. It's about the rise in the formerly middle class sinking into poverty, and "signals the latest stage in the long-run decentralization of people and jobs in the United States." Brookings' report found that while the number of urban and suburban poor in the nation's 100 largest metro areas was about even in 1999, by 2005 the suburbs, with 12.2 million residents, contained about 1.2 million more people in poverty than central cities did. More.

21st Century Schools: Smaller, More Personalized Education

It's good to see my alma mater, Scotland High School in Laurinburg, NC, triumphing: Last summer, Newsweek highlighted the school for its innovative "21st century education system" -- academies, or small, specialized schools of no more than 400 students within the larger campus that houses 1,800 students, to stem drop-out rates, especially among ninth graders. Governor Mike Easley has also spotlighted the school. Scotland High is converted to six smaller, focused high schools such as the "School for Health Sciences" and "School for Engineering and Skilled Trades," by the 2007-08 school year. Listen to a WUNC public radio report about Scotland High School's innovative approach. Recently, Scotland County School Superintendent Shirley Prince was named Superintendent of the Year.

Giving Thanks for...Good Teachers, Especially in the District of Columbia

Colbert King: "If people were paid by their importance, teachers would be millionaires. Despite the steady drumbeat of bad stories, District teachers are performing work of exceptional value given what they are asked to do. We expect them to work in a system where the majority of students live in poverty -- with all that entails -- and to teach in dilapidated buildings with haphazard educational resources, and still turn out a world-class system. I've seen them go at it, against all odds. Thank goodness for them."

Devastating Job Losses in Scotland County

Addendum to my earlier piece about how rural North Carolina, particularly Scotland County where I grew up, is poorer today than it was three decades ago because they've not only lost family farms, they've lost manufacturing jobs, they've lost Mom and Pop shops to Walmart, and they've lost textile jobs. The latest reinforcement for this theory: textile manufacturer Westpoint Stevens just announced that it is closing the Bob Stevens Fabrication Plant in Wagram, which makes towels. Some 800 jobs will be lost. My heart goes out to those lovely people. "Naturally, the unemployment rate will go up, and it's devastating when you lose a manufacturer that's been here for 40-plus years," Jim Frank Henderson, president of the Laurinburg/Scotland County Area Chamber of Commerce, told the Associated Press.

Neighboring Robeson County is ranked by the U.S. Census as the third poorest county IN THE NATION, having lost 9,000 jobs between 1998 and 2006. With news of more layoffs, I'm afraid Scotland County isn't doing much better.

Scotland County is part of the 8th Congressional District, which has lost 10,000 textile jobs in the last six years alone, The Charlotte Observer reports, in endorsing Larry Kissell for Congress.

Related:

• Robeson County NC Looks For Ways Out of Poverty (NC Justice Center)