Action4Canada - Action4Canada Homeschool Webinar： Homeschooling Updates in Canada – May 14, 2024

00:00:00.000 Hello. Good morning and good afternoon Canadians.

00:00:07.000 Good to see you. We've got a few more coming in.

00:00:12.000 My name is Doris Livingstone.

00:00:15.000 I'm the Action for Canada Homeschool Lead.

00:00:18.000 And where I live, it's just after 10 a.m.

00:00:22.000 and we got people as far as four hours east of us.

00:00:26.000 So we just welcome all of you here.

00:00:29.000 And we're excited to have our guest here, Peter Stock from HSLDA.

00:00:34.000 He's going to be speaking shortly.

00:00:37.000 And I just wanted to let you know how to navigate our website really, really quick.

00:00:44.000 Going to take you to our main screen.

00:00:47.000 And here we are on the main screen.

00:00:51.000 And if you want to find anything homeschooling,

00:00:53.000 got a thousand questions.

00:00:57.000 You want to head up to current issues there.

00:01:00.000 And it's a good starting point.

00:01:03.000 You come down here, Homeschool Revolution.

00:01:06.000 And if you want to contact me, you'll see my email address right there.

00:01:13.000 Homeschooling at actionforcanada.ca.

00:01:16.000 If you want to go to a directory, you can click that.

00:01:20.000 And it'll go through all the provinces across Canada.

00:01:25.000 And let's say you live in Alberta.

00:01:28.000 And they are in alphabetical order.

00:01:29.000 So let's say you live in Alberta.

00:01:31.000 And you're trying to find support or information.

00:01:36.000 I always recommend you start with the associations.

00:01:41.000 Each province has an association.

00:01:44.000 They are, I would say, your first point of contact to get information.

00:01:48.000 But all those other ones you see, you can contact them, too.

00:01:51.000 And they will tell you where your support groups are for you as parents, for activity groups, for kids, laws and regulations in your province, speakers, online tools, resources.

00:02:06.000 So every province has done a phenomenal job to help you folks get started.

00:02:12.000 And then, so I'm just going to go back to the original page here and scroll down.

00:02:18.000 And you will see, this is where you can find some webinars that we've been doing over the last year and a half.

00:02:24.000 And Peter Stock was with us last year.

00:02:29.000 So you will find him.

00:02:31.000 Here it is for today.

00:02:32.000 But you go down.

00:02:34.000 And this last one I did in Raising Boys to Men.

00:02:37.000 Phenomenal.

00:02:38.000 Highly recommend you watch that.

00:02:40.000 Get her book.

00:02:41.000 Books.

00:02:42.000 They're all tremendous tools on raising boys in our generation.

00:02:47.000 And then this one was success with homeschooling.

00:02:53.000 Colleen was a consultant, a homeschool consultant out of Alberta.

00:03:02.000 Pieces of encouragement and tips on how to just do the day to day with homeschooling.

00:03:07.000 And then you can scroll down.

00:03:09.000 Here's curriculum resources.

00:03:10.000 That was another good one.

00:03:12.000 The Canadian Christian education movement, which is sweeping across not just Canada but the United States.

00:03:19.000 And activating churches to get more involved in the education of the children.

00:03:24.000 So I'm not going to go down any further.

00:03:27.000 But I just wanted you to see how to access our website there.

00:03:34.000 All right.

00:03:36.000 And with that, I'm just going to read a little bit about HSLDA, which means Homeschool Legal Defense Association.

00:03:43.000 And I'd like to point out Canada, because the United States also has one, but we've got one just for Canada.

00:03:50.000 It is Canada's largest association of homeschooling families.

00:03:54.000 It is a nonprofit organization devoted to protecting, empowering, and advancing home education in Canada.

00:04:02.000 They provide legal services and professional homeschool support to help their member families flourish.

00:04:08.000 Since 1991, they have represented homeschoolers in the courts and legislatures across Canada and worked to promote parent choice in education.

00:04:19.000 And I just want to point out, when I started homeschooling in the mid-90s, I signed up right away and was an active member all 17 years that I homeschooled my kids, K-12.

00:04:30.000 And it was just always reassuring to know that if anything had come up, they were going to be there for me.

00:04:36.000 And it was something I could do to support them in case something came up for somebody else.

00:04:41.000 So it's a team of people supporting this really, really important organization.

00:04:47.000 So with that, we've got Peter Stock here.

00:04:50.000 He's the president of HSLDA.

00:04:52.000 Welcome, Peter.

00:04:54.000 And tell us how HSLDA began.

00:04:58.000 Yeah, thank you, Doris.

00:05:00.000 It's a pleasure to join you today.

00:05:02.000 Yeah, so like you say, 33 years ago, homeschooling was in a very different place legally.

00:05:09.000 It fell into a bit of a gray area in the law in most provinces.

00:05:12.000 And as I think everybody on the call here probably knows, education is a provincial responsibility.

00:05:17.000 So every province is a bit different in terms of what the law looks like and how it's applied when it comes to education.

00:05:26.000 So, you know, in some parts of the country, families were threatened with fines for attempting to homeschool, sometimes even jail time or having their children apprehended.

00:05:36.000 So these are very, very serious consequences for exercising what I think most of us would see as a fundamental right.

00:05:45.000 And so what a number of families, just like Doris's did back in the early 90s, was band together, get their resources together and started this organization to be able to hire a lawyer to defend their rights.

00:06:01.000 And in fact, that's what happened, you know, in 10 provinces and three territories across the country now, homeschooling is completely legal.

00:06:12.000 And that's as a result of HSLDA working with the provincial organizations, Doris just mentioned, in the courts, fighting many court cases, and also in the legislature's lobbying and advocating with members of provincial parliament, MLAs, et cetera, in whatever province you're in, to get better laws on the books.

00:06:33.060 And that's how we got our start.

00:06:34.880 And, you know, the sad thing is, I'll say this, we're still in business, not because homeschooling isn't legal, because it is.

00:06:43.700 That's the good news.

00:06:45.060 The bad news is there are still a lot of government agencies, school boards, social workers, and others who don't necessarily either understand the law or respect the law.

00:06:55.620 So we're busier than we've ever been, actually, defending families across the country.

00:06:59.980 Now, you know, again, most of the time, this is not going to court for lengthy court cases.

00:07:07.480 This is simply our lawyer getting on the phone with an official who doesn't understand the law and explaining it to them, sending a letter, advocating on their behalf, and usually resolving these sorts of challenges very quickly.

00:07:20.840 But the fact is, we've developed expertise in this area, and it's a service we continue to provide.

00:07:27.020 We're getting calls every week from families across the country who face those sorts of challenges.

00:07:31.960 It doesn't mean you're doing a bad job homeschooling.

00:07:33.820 It doesn't mean the law isn't on your side.

00:07:35.700 But sometimes you need somebody to advocate for you to ensure that your rights are respected.

00:07:40.720 And that's what we do.

00:07:44.160 So I'm going to, Doris, I think move on to talking just a little bit about where homeschooling is at in Canada at the moment.

00:07:50.220 And as we said in our sort of brief agenda there, what's the status of home education currently?

00:07:57.540 Like I said, it's legal everywhere.

00:08:00.480 So, you know, how do homeschooling families feel?

00:08:05.080 How are they treated?

00:08:06.280 And, you know, again, because they're different provinces, we've got a set of laws in every province, some of which are great for homeschoolers, and some of which are a little more challenging at the moment.

00:08:16.980 So, you know, if you live in the prairie provinces in BC, home education is relatively free.

00:08:24.080 You've got perhaps a little bit of reporting to do, depending on the style of homeschooling you choose.

00:08:29.120 And you're basically free to go about your business.

00:08:33.040 That's also the case in Ontario and a couple of the maritime provinces.

00:08:37.000 But we've got other provinces where it is more of a challenge to home educate.

00:08:40.800 And Quebec is probably the most challenging or the most difficult place to home educate in the country.

00:08:45.900 Again, it's legal there.

00:08:48.440 But the government that came in in about 2018, the CAQ, may have been an improvement in many policy areas, but not in the area of education.

00:09:01.280 They very much have this monolithic, anti-diversity, you're all going to go to public school and learn what we want you to learn type of approach to education.

00:09:11.120 They're ideological.

00:09:12.140 And so what they've done in Quebec is they forced home educated students to go into the public schools and write the public school exams.

00:09:21.620 And for those of you who aren't familiar with education in Quebec, these exams are not what you'd think of in most other provinces.

00:09:29.920 These are single exams, two to three hours in length in a single subject.

00:09:34.300 So there's a series of them.

00:09:36.300 And kids write these in grade four, grade six, grade eight, grade 10, and grade 11.

00:09:42.080 So these are days worth of exams.

00:09:44.080 These are not trivial things.

00:09:46.700 And, of course, one of the exam subjects is social studies.

00:09:50.420 So if you want to pass that exam in Quebec as a home educator, you have to study the provincial curriculum.

00:09:57.500 And you can only imagine how offensive that is to many, many families in terms of its content.

00:10:03.480 So this is problematic.

00:10:05.620 So when I say home education is legal everywhere, it certainly is.

00:10:09.180 And, you know, there are many families in Quebec home educating as well, although many have chosen to leave that province over this issue.

00:10:16.200 But it is a challenge.

00:10:18.220 Newfoundland is also a challenging place to home educate.

00:10:20.500 There's an awful lot of oversight and perhaps overbearing officialdom there, looking in on the lives of families.

00:10:27.820 And depending where else you live in Canada, you may also have some challenges with official government representatives.

00:10:37.120 Where we also see trouble generally, and I kind of alluded to this before, is with the whole children's aid, social work side of things.

00:10:46.340 And, of course, the problem has almost nothing to do with home education.

00:10:51.980 People aren't complaining or calling on you because you're home educating your children generally.

00:10:58.360 It could be a whole range of issues.

00:11:00.260 And, unfortunately, these complaints can be anonymous.

00:11:02.560 So you may be doing nothing wrong at all, and you may still get a knock at the door from a social worker.

00:11:07.180 We get this regularly.

00:11:08.920 Ontario is particularly bad for it, but there isn't a province in the country where we don't get calls of this very nature on a regular basis.

00:11:16.340 So that's something that, again, as an organization, we have the professional staff to deal with.

00:11:23.500 I mentioned that we're as busy as ever.

00:11:25.500 We actually just hired another lawyer, an additional lawyer for our staff in the last six months because of this very issue.

00:11:33.080 So things are heating up in that sense.

00:11:36.060 I'm also going to mention that the other potential challenge we see down the road, and perhaps we're going to see it sooner rather than later, is there are a number of provincial elections scheduled in the next two years.

00:11:53.200 Most of the prairie provinces, BC, I guess, as well, Quebec, and one or two maritime provinces.

00:12:02.460 And, of course, they just had an election in Manitoba where the NDP was elected there.

00:12:06.540 Now, in some cases, you know, these elections may go well, and we may end up with politicians that are supportive of home education.

00:12:13.380 But our concern is that we are seeing a trend in some of the parties.

00:12:18.960 And, you know, I won't name names at this point.

00:12:22.480 We'll see what happens.

00:12:23.440 But, you know, there is a real concern that some parties are a little more hostile towards home education.

00:12:29.760 Perhaps they're more aligned with teachers unions and so on.

00:12:33.980 And, you know, one of the challenges for those involved with the teachers union is the fact that more and more people are homeschooling.

00:12:43.980 More and more families are choosing home education.

00:12:46.680 And also more families are choosing private school education as well.

00:12:51.300 So the numbers in the public system are dropping quite rapidly.

00:12:55.880 And that was accelerated by COVID in a huge way.

00:12:59.400 So I'm going to talk about that for a minute.

00:13:02.160 Come back to the teachers unions a little later.

00:13:05.320 So what did we see through COVID?

00:13:08.300 In the year prior to COVID, 2019, the 2019-2020 school year, there were approximately 100,000 students across Canada being home educated.

00:13:20.500 When I say approximately, the challenge there is we don't actually know the numbers in the biggest province of all, Ontario,

00:13:28.100 because there's actually no legal requirement to notify or register in Ontario.

00:13:33.360 So many families choose not to do so, which is their choice.

00:13:38.020 And it's a legal choice to make.

00:13:40.140 So we don't actually know the numbers in Ontario with certainty.

00:13:42.960 We have to make an estimate.

00:13:44.660 But even, and we have a number of ways to do that.

00:13:47.920 But with that in mind, we believe there are approximately 100,000 home educated students across Canada before COVID.

00:13:54.740 And then, as we get into the first full year of COVID, with all the lockdowns and mandates and masks and all the other nonsense,

00:14:02.040 we find a situation where the number of families that have chosen homeschool has doubled, literally doubled across Canada.

00:14:10.640 So twice as many homeschoolers as we saw the year before.

00:14:15.340 And we had a chance to survey a lot of these families.

00:14:17.820 So I want to tell you what they told us.

00:14:20.160 Many of them said the following.

00:14:22.640 They said, you know what, we decided, you know, we've been thinking about homeschooling.

00:14:25.980 This is a very common thing.

00:14:26.900 We've been thinking about homeschooling for a number of years.

00:14:29.940 You know, it's something that we thought had value.

00:14:32.820 But, you know, life goes on and you never really pull the trigger on some of these things.

00:14:38.180 But COVID gave so many of these families a push.

00:14:40.800 They were at home anyway.

00:14:42.340 In some cases, parents were laid off or lost jobs or whatever the case may be.

00:14:47.240 And so they had this opportunity and they said, you know what, we'll try it.

00:14:51.000 We'll try it for a few months and see how it goes.

00:14:54.400 And that's what they did.

00:14:56.120 And so what they reported back to us after a few months was, you know what, we're finding three things in particular.

00:15:02.260 They said many things, but there are three things that stood out in particular from the survey we did.

00:15:06.160 And we talked to hundreds of families.

00:15:08.240 And the first thing they said is, our kids are doing better academically.

00:15:11.940 They're thriving.

00:15:13.480 They're really making, you know, if they were behind before,

00:15:17.080 they're catching up.

00:15:18.480 We're seeing them excel academically.

00:15:21.500 The second thing that parents commented on is the fact that their kids were less anxious.

00:15:28.100 The anxiety that they had experienced in bricks and mortar school system, wherever they were,

00:15:35.200 had dissipated over that three-month period or longer.

00:15:38.540 And, you know, the social pressure that they experienced in school and perhaps as a result of social media as well,

00:15:48.100 had lessened greatly and their kids were happier.

00:15:51.040 And then the third and final thing they told us was that they were enjoying it.

00:15:54.920 They were enjoying their time together as a family.

00:15:57.880 So those are all great testimonies to what home education is all about.

00:16:02.000 Now, when I say that, of course, anybody who has a home educated knows that there's another side to it, too.

00:16:08.880 There's another side to the story, too.

00:16:10.460 And that is that home education is a lot of work.

00:16:13.040 I'm not going to stand here and say, oh, it's an easy choice to make.

00:16:16.120 It is not an easy choice to make.

00:16:18.060 It is a choice that requires a change in lifestyle and attitude and outlook,

00:16:21.900 probably financial change and a number of other changes, too.

00:16:25.180 Now, it's not all bad.

00:16:27.380 I mean, you get a more flexible schedule and there are opportunities that open up to you as a family

00:16:32.820 for things like travel and adventure that you might not have had before

00:16:36.360 and opportunities for children to really dig into their interests,

00:16:40.860 whether it's sports or music or arts or hobbies or whatever else it may be.

00:16:47.160 You know, but it is a very different lifestyle.

00:16:49.300 And so it's not as simple as changing grocery stores or ice cream flavors.

00:16:56.360 It's certainly a major life choice.

00:16:58.820 So families that have homeschooled know that.

00:17:02.520 And, of course, you know, some of the families that started down this pathway

00:17:09.020 during the beginning of COVID found, you know, yes, there was value in it,

00:17:14.360 but it wasn't for them.

00:17:15.560 So, you know, there was a drop off.

00:17:17.120 And we saw some, only a minority of families decide we're going to have our kids go back

00:17:23.500 to whatever school system they were in, public, private, et cetera.

00:17:27.660 But we've seen those numbers level off and they're starting to rise again.

00:17:31.800 So this is the interesting thing.

00:17:34.660 I'm sure you've had many talks about this on previous calls,

00:17:38.720 but, you know, we're seeing a meltdown of the public school system in particular across Canada.

00:17:43.500 It's not any one province.

00:17:44.720 It's the whole country.

00:17:46.400 And, in fact, we're in connection with educators around the world and home educators around the world.

00:17:53.760 They're seeing the same thing everywhere.

00:17:55.600 This is not just a Canadian or a North American problem.

00:17:58.380 This is across Europe.

00:17:59.600 This is Africa.

00:18:00.560 This is anywhere you go.

00:18:02.220 It's an agenda or a set of agendas that is being pushed on education systems globally.

00:18:09.240 And parents are starting to react to that.

00:18:11.940 We've seen the marches.

00:18:13.060 We've seen the change in educational choice as well.

00:18:19.300 You know, the increase in the private schools and the homeschooling.

00:18:23.220 People are voting with their feet.

00:18:24.500 Anyway, what I can say for sure is that we are seeing an uptick now, continued growth in the numbers of home-educated students.

00:18:37.400 And I don't see any sign of that letting up.

00:18:39.380 In fact, what I'd go on to say is that one of the key areas for growth, and again, I attribute this to the meltdown in the public schools, is among high school students.

00:18:50.740 You know, I will say that in the homeschooling community, it has often been the case that parents will educate through the elementary years and do so quite successfully, but then feel for a number of reasons that maybe they don't want to continue through the high school years.

00:19:09.680 Yeah, parents may not feel it's as easy to home-educate through the high school years, but there's a growing trend towards that, including, believe it or not, from people who've never homeschooled before.

00:19:19.640 They're so fed up with the education system that they are starting to home-educate their children in the high school years, and that's an exciting new trend.

00:19:30.680 Now, as I said, I think there are three things that traditionally hold parents back from considering homeschooling through the high school years.

00:19:37.740 One is they're not sure if they can teach at that level, but you know what?

00:19:40.780 There are so many great resources they can draw on to accomplish that now.

00:19:45.040 I think probably in the days that Doris was attempting this back in the 90s, there were fewer resources and maybe not as many online schools or courses, certainly not as much curriculum.

00:19:56.120 But now there are so many options that parents are finding, yeah, you know what?

00:19:59.900 Maybe I was not very good at chemistry myself in high school, but I can find the resources that can help my child to succeed in this area,

00:20:08.440 even though I may not be able to teach at all myself.

00:20:14.920 The second thing is the social side of things.

00:20:18.400 You know, our kids, they're human beings, and they want friends, and they want social activities,

00:20:23.860 and that could be sports, and, you know, mom, my friends are going to a dance at the high school, why can't I go?

00:20:29.600 So, you know, those sorts of questions.

00:20:32.380 And so the rise and increase in the number of homeschool groups across Canada is a wonderful benefit to homeschooling families.

00:20:41.940 In the early days, again, there may not have been as many homeschoolers.

00:20:44.900 If you lived outside of a city, for sure, it may have been harder to find a fellow homeschooling family or families to gather with, to do activities with.

00:20:52.520 That's changed a great deal, and it's the case that even if you live in a smaller town or even a village,

00:20:59.160 generally there are homeschooling families within a short drive of you now, almost everywhere in Canada.

00:21:04.960 It may not be the case in the far north or very remote communities,

00:21:09.340 but I think most families do have access to group activities now, which is so valuable and important.

00:21:16.780 And then the third concern that families often raise, and I'll get into talking about this just a little bit more,

00:21:26.020 is how am I going to get my kids into post-secondary institutions, you know?

00:21:31.820 And, you know, not knowing much about the system and how it works, that would be a really legitimate concern.

00:21:38.960 You know, I want my child to succeed in the world, and yeah, this homeschooling sounds great,

00:21:42.860 and yes, they'll succeed academically.

00:21:44.720 I believe everything you're telling me, but if they want to go off and be a nurse or an accountant or a lawyer or whatever,

00:21:52.300 how are they going to achieve that if they can't get into university?

00:21:55.800 Or, you know, on another level, if they want to get into the trades or community college,

00:22:01.580 how are they going to achieve that?

00:22:03.500 And in many cases across Canada, it's not the case in every province,

00:22:07.020 but in many provinces, you're not going to get an official public school high school diploma if you home educate.

00:22:15.160 Well, I've got some great news for all those families.

00:22:18.480 Not only will your child get into those post-secondary institutions of your choice,

00:22:23.660 but they will actually, at this point in our history, be given preference by educational institutions,

00:22:29.400 particularly the ones of higher learning, the universities,

00:22:33.260 because they've come to recognize the incredible value that home-educated students bring to their institutions.

00:22:39.840 So what am I talking about there?

00:22:41.740 Well, home-educated students, as I mentioned earlier, tend to be more academically advanced.

00:22:47.000 In fact, I would say that the average, you know, it's my estimation that the average home-schooled student

00:22:52.380 who's been diligent and following through on their curriculum and so on

00:22:55.840 is probably academically prepared for university-level learning at the first year

00:23:01.680 by the time they're finished grade 10.

00:23:04.900 Not grade 11 or 12, but by the time they're done grade 10,

00:23:08.280 academically, they are probably prepared well enough to succeed in the university setting.

00:23:13.200 Having said that, of course, we all need to be mindful of the fact that, you know,

00:23:17.520 once you finish grade 10, you're probably only, you know, 15 years old or something like that,

00:23:21.780 and you're not emotionally ready for independent living and thriving in the university world.

00:23:28.860 But just in terms of academics, we tend to see our kids accelerate down that pathway and do extremely well.

00:23:37.520 So if they have an extra couple years of learning on top of that,

00:23:40.240 the homeschooling in grade 11 and 12, they're going to become excellent writers,

00:23:44.100 great at math and all the other subjects that are going to be of value to them

00:23:47.120 as they progress into post-secondary learning.

00:23:50.980 So that's all good news.

00:23:52.820 Now, the second thing that I'd say about post-secondary admissions is,

00:24:00.560 and why universities are so thrilled about home-educated students is,

00:24:04.680 they do see them succeed academically,

00:24:06.760 but they also recognize one of the reasons for this is

00:24:10.380 homeschooled students have learned self-study habits.

00:24:14.500 These are things that are not taught or passed on particularly well in this bricks-and-mortar situation

00:24:20.880 where you have a teacher overseeing everything and telling them, you know,

00:24:24.120 telling students,

00:24:25.400 and in this assignment and write this test and, you know,

00:24:28.420 follow along on the chalkboard and all that.

00:24:30.920 Homeschooled students tend to be very much self-directed

00:24:33.440 by the time they get into the high school years.

00:24:35.920 And by the time they hit college-university learning time,

00:24:39.900 they are well-prepared to take on the independence academically

00:24:44.940 that's required to succeed at the university level.

00:24:48.140 So universities have come to recognize this.

00:24:49.960 In fact, Harvard,

00:24:51.260 and this is something that many people will not be aware of,

00:24:54.540 but it's documented,

00:24:56.520 Harvard was admitting in the early 90s,

00:25:01.560 a quarter of its undergraduate class was home-educated.

00:25:04.720 This is at a time when probably a tenth,

00:25:07.380 one-tenth of a percent of the population was home-educated,

00:25:11.880 but one quarter of their undergraduate class was home-educated.

00:25:16.340 So Harvard recognized this long before, you know,

00:25:19.520 all the other universities did,

00:25:21.120 but they've caught on.

00:25:21.940 And if you were to talk to university deans and presidents and professors now

00:25:25.920 and say, you know,

00:25:27.220 how do you feel about home-educated students?

00:25:28.940 They'd say, yes, we want them.

00:25:31.100 And yes, in many cases,

00:25:32.640 they will actually admit they give preference when it comes to admissions.

00:25:36.320 Now, I give an hour-long talk on this subject about,

00:25:39.800 you know, the different pathways to admissions.

00:25:42.640 I'm not going to do that today.

00:25:44.260 We can answer some of that in questions and answers if you want.

00:25:47.780 But what I will say is this,

00:25:49.320 universities in particular have long had or long offered alternate pathways to admissions.

00:25:55.980 You do not need a high school diploma to get into a university in Canada.

00:26:01.540 Universities have always taken foreign students.

00:26:04.260 So foreign students don't have, you know, 1.00

00:26:06.620 high school diplomas from a Canadian province.

00:26:08.680 So they've always had methods of determining eligibility and admissions

00:26:14.000 for those that have taken unconventional pathways in education.

00:26:18.580 And there are many of them.

00:26:20.380 It's not just one.

00:26:21.200 There are many of them.

00:26:22.380 And it could, you know, could be standardized tests.

00:26:24.500 It could be portfolios of work, entrance exams.

00:26:28.360 One that I'm particularly fond of is the advanced placement test.

00:26:34.320 We can talk more about that in the Q&A session.

00:26:37.440 And anyway, you know, the bottom line is,

00:26:40.160 instead of this being a negative, this is very much a positive.

00:26:43.880 What I'm telling you is if you care about your kid getting into university,

00:26:47.240 they've got a better chance if they've been home educated.

00:26:50.120 So that's the good news.

00:26:51.900 All right.

00:26:52.180 Let's move on a little bit and talk about the latest academic research.

00:26:57.840 So I said there was an interesting study there.

00:26:59.840 And actually, there have been a few.

00:27:02.620 So one of the things that we do as an organization,

00:27:05.520 we actually have a sister organization called

00:27:07.580 the Canadian Centre for Home Education,

00:27:09.640 which is a registered Canadian charity.

00:27:12.720 I lead that as well as HSLDA.

00:27:15.340 So we're, you know, they work in partnership.

00:27:18.160 HSLDA and CCHE work in partnership.

00:27:20.240 And CCHE is a vehicle we use to fund academic research,

00:27:24.820 among other things.

00:27:25.620 We do other things with the resources of that organization.

00:27:28.660 But one of the things we do is fund some great academic research.

00:27:32.900 And so some of the studies that have come out recently

00:27:36.860 on home education and socialization,

00:27:41.680 which is often a question people outside the homeschooling community

00:27:44.740 ask about what about socialization?

00:27:47.280 You know, your kids are at home all day.

00:27:48.860 They couldn't possibly be well socialized.

00:27:51.440 Well, what these studies show, and I'm going to explain why,

00:27:54.760 is that home-educated students are actually the best socialized citizens of all.

00:28:02.880 They far surpass their public school counterparts,

00:28:06.340 and they're on a par or slightly beyond private school kids,

00:28:10.260 depending on the private school.

00:28:12.240 And there's a good reason for this.

00:28:14.040 And, you know, those who are home-educated will know the answer, of course.

00:28:18.460 That is, you know, that our kids aren't at home all day long.

00:28:21.600 They're not isolated.

00:28:22.940 In fact, they are learning in all kinds of different situations.

00:28:26.340 And they are also learning from people of different ages and backgrounds.

00:28:30.940 They have a much more diverse education than children in a classroom

00:28:35.600 who are with peers of exactly the same age and same interests and all immature.

00:28:40.660 Sure. That's who they're being socialized by six to eight hours a day.

00:28:44.880 And that's not healthy socialization.

00:28:47.000 In fact, that's very artificial.

00:28:49.120 Proper socialization requires exposure to people of all kinds of different backgrounds,

00:28:54.300 ages, etc.

00:28:55.560 And that's what home-educated students tend to get.

00:28:59.320 So for those who aren't aware, home-educated students may spend two to three hours,

00:29:03.840 especially in their younger years, doing formal education, probably during the morning.

00:29:09.520 And then they have the rest of the day to do a number of what we might call extracurricular

00:29:15.000 or other activities.

00:29:16.500 And that could be everything from sports and music lessons

00:29:18.640 to concentrating on a hobby that they have or, you know, working on the family farm

00:29:24.920 or whatever the case may be.

00:29:26.880 They're learning, but they're doing it in a variety of settings.

00:29:31.200 They're doing it outside of that artificial setting I discussed, the bricks and mortar school.

00:29:35.200 So that's what the academic research is telling us, too.

00:29:39.680 It's not just an anecdotal observation.

00:29:41.880 It's what peer-reviewed science is telling us as well.

00:29:46.500 And so there have been a number of studies recently on this subject.

00:29:50.220 I'm going to refer you to a couple of...

00:29:52.240 And Doris, I don't know if you want to put these in the chat for people or not.

00:29:56.120 Just two websites that could be helpful to people in this regard.

00:29:59.560 One is cardis.ca.

00:30:01.600 And Cardis is a Canadian think tank.

00:30:05.340 Cardis.ca.

00:30:06.460 And if you look in their education section, you can find the research there.

00:30:12.720 The other is much more homeschool-specific.

00:30:15.540 So this is the National Home Education Research Institute, or NERI, N-H-E-R-I dot O-R-G dot org, NERI dot org.

00:30:26.660 And so this is run by Dr. Brian Ray, who is the world's foremost leading academic on home education research.

00:30:35.160 He's been doing this for 30 years and is the author of some incredible groundbreaking studies over the years.

00:30:43.380 His most recent published research on this very topic is available on the NERI website under news.

00:30:51.720 I'll mention another...

00:30:54.160 I'll mention another...

00:30:55.240 I think we've got a few minutes here.

00:30:57.600 Another research study that came out fairly recently.

00:31:00.520 And this is also on the NERI website.

00:31:03.540 This has to do...

00:31:05.360 And this sort of sounds negative, but it has to do with abuse.

00:31:09.620 Is there abuse in the homeschool setting?

00:31:11.720 And the finding of the study is no.

00:31:14.160 You know, there's no evidence for abuse in a homeschool setting compared to any other setting, which wouldn't surprise most homeschoolers.

00:31:22.180 We love our kids.

00:31:23.400 And, you know, if we didn't love them, why would we be spending all this time with them?

00:31:26.760 We do love them.

00:31:29.380 And so abuse is, you know, exactly the opposite of what home education is all about, of course.

00:31:34.400 That's kind of obvious to anybody who spends a minute thinking about it.

00:31:37.540 But it was not so obvious to a Harvard University law professor named Elizabeth Bartle, who a couple of years ago was demanding that home education be banned outright because it could be an opportunity for parents to abuse their kids. 1.00

00:31:54.600 So anyway, the research evidence is in Elizabeth Bartle, who made her statement without any evidence, is out.

00:32:05.520 And quite surprising for a law professor of all people.

00:32:09.160 You'd think you'd have some evidence before you go to the court of public opinion with such statements, but she didn't. 0.99

00:32:15.260 And so she looks rather foolish today. 0.66

00:32:18.180 Anyway, one of the reasons we do this research is so that we can go to legislatures and advocate for better laws so we can go to courts and defend families who are home educating and prove, not just anecdotally, 0.97

00:32:33.060 but with peer-reviewed academic science, scientific results that, in fact, home education is a great choice for the parents who make it.

00:32:45.020 All right, let's move on a little bit here to the subject of what's happening around the world.

00:32:54.120 So I've talked about what's happening across Canada.

00:32:56.620 Again, homeschooling is legal everywhere.

00:32:59.960 That's not the case across the rest of the world.

00:33:02.960 In fact, sadly, in a number of European countries, home education is illegal or severely restricted.

00:33:13.160 You know, those who are vaguely aware of us may know that Germany fits the bill here.

00:33:19.960 And Sweden and Norway are also extremely difficult countries to home educate in.

00:33:25.320 But we've had some bad news in the last few years.

00:33:29.000 First of all, three years ago, Hungary banned home education.

00:33:33.340 A couple of years ago, the nation of France severely restricted home education.

00:33:38.960 And just a month and a half ago, the nation of Slovenia, which is a small nation between Italy and Croatia, Austria, and so on, has also banned home education.

00:33:51.980 So I don't want to say the window is closing on home education in Europe, because, you know, there are still some countries where it is possible to home educate.

00:34:02.060 But things are growing a little more desperate.

00:34:04.340 And we're very concerned about that.

00:34:06.360 We're concerned about it for two reasons.

00:34:07.660 First of all, we care about the freedom of families to make the choice that's best for their family.

00:34:11.540 And secondly, it's a problem for us as Canadians, because governments here do look across the ocean and see what their European counterparts are doing.

00:34:23.220 And they can adopt these ideas.

00:34:25.140 They can bring them back here and say, you know what, we're going to do the same thing here.

00:34:28.140 You know, they got away with it in France.

00:34:29.940 Why can't we do that here in Quebec or here in British Columbia, wherever you happen to live?

00:34:36.720 And so some politicians with bad ideas may bring those bad ideas to your legislature.

00:34:43.200 And that's, you know, that's one of the things that we are very concerned about.

00:34:47.020 So we're involved as an organization, specifically the Canadian Centre for Home Education.

00:34:53.980 We're involved with a network of global home education leaders, leaders of national organizations in countries right around the world.

00:35:04.500 And we hold a conference every couple of years.

00:35:06.880 The next one's coming up in July, actually.

00:35:09.380 It's going to be held in Manchester in the United Kingdom, July 11th to 13th.

00:35:14.600 For those who are interested, there's a great website you can check out for more information.

00:35:19.200 And again, maybe Doris can put that in the chat as well. 0.98

00:35:22.280 It's G-H-E-X, G-H-E-X, the Global Home Education Exchange, dot world, dot world.

00:35:32.360 So, you know, I'm not expecting that people will want to spend a lot of money on a plane ticket to get to that conference.

00:35:40.140 It's expensive, of course.

00:35:41.460 But if you happen to be in England or Europe generally this summer, maybe visiting relatives or on holiday, you could consider joining us at that conference.

00:35:51.340 It's a great opportunity.

00:35:52.900 We're going to have more than 80 speakers, and they come from countries right around the world.

00:35:57.620 It's so interesting to hear, you know, what's happening in home education in countries like Kenya and Uganda, South Africa, Bolivia, Colombia, Portugal, Spain, Hungary, France.

00:36:11.400 We can go right across the world.

00:36:12.860 We've got people coming from the Philippines and from the Middle East and all over the world.

00:36:19.840 So you'll hear from those people if you're able to join us.

00:36:23.840 And for those that can't join us, the proceedings of the conference, or at least many of them, will be available by video in the months to come on that same website.

00:36:33.480 So just keep a note of that website or get in touch with us if you lose it, and we can share it with you.

00:36:40.500 So that's a great thing.

00:36:43.700 All right.

00:36:44.340 So perhaps the last thing I'll mention, and then we can get into some questions if people like, well, and I'll talk a little bit about HSLDA too, but one last point, and that has to do with conferences.

00:36:59.460 So I mentioned the global conference, but there may be a conference that's happening much closer to home for many people on this call or those who are interested in home education.

00:37:09.780 You don't have to be a homeschooler to attend a home education conference.

00:37:12.440 In fact, many people who do attend these conferences, and Doris has got the list up there, are just learning about home education and trying to make a decision about whether this is something that will work for their family.

00:37:26.160 And so conferences are a great place to get answers to your questions and learn more about what is possible and what's available.

00:37:34.040 So conferences have a couple of components generally.

00:37:36.660 One is a series of speakers who are speaking on various topics, usually everything from getting started right through to homeschooling through high school and post-secondary admissions.

00:37:47.280 So you can get the whole spectrum of topics about home education at a conference from speakers, and you can talk to those speakers in person.

00:37:57.240 You can also network with other homeschoolers, and that's a great thing as well.

00:38:01.000 The second really valuable part of a conference is what we call the vendor hall, and as you might imagine, it's when booksellers and other service providers exhibit their products.

00:38:14.640 And so it's a great opportunity, once again, to meet in one place and browse for curriculum, for books, and for ideas about activities or services that you might use in your home education journey.

00:38:29.180 So conferences are really valuable.

00:38:32.780 We encourage families who are thinking about home educating or who have perhaps never attended a conference, they are home educating, to try to get to one at some point.

00:38:43.440 Maybe it's not something you can afford to do every year, depending, but there is great value in them.

00:38:49.740 And again, we'll encourage you to look at that list.

00:38:52.960 Sadly, some of the conferences that may be in your area have happened already this year, but there are still many to come in some of the provinces.

00:39:02.180 So try to take advantage.

00:39:06.400 All right.

00:39:07.100 And then let me just sort of conclude my comments with a little bit of a discussion about HSLDA and what we offer as an organization.

00:39:15.560 So I mentioned the legal part already, probably the flip side of that coin that I didn't mention is, yes, we serve families with our lawyers, but we're also doing a lot of advocacy work behind the scenes.

00:39:29.640 So when it comes to provinces with politicians who are either hostile or helpful, one or the other, we try to engage with them and present them with the evidence, the academic research and other evidence that home education is something they should take seriously, that is valuable, they should support it, et cetera.

00:39:50.040 So we're constantly doing that kind of work as well, and it's not something we tend to advertise because that's just not the way you deal with those sorts of things.

00:40:00.140 But we are the organization that does that across Canada.

00:40:06.080 There are a number of other services we provide directly to our member families, and I'll mention some of them, not all of them, because it's quite a list, and you can get more information on our website.

00:40:15.660 Doris has provided that already. 0.94

00:40:16.880 But I'll mention just a few things that I think are particularly valuable for families.

00:40:22.800 One is we have a curriculum consultant available to our member families, so you can get a free curriculum consultation every year.

00:40:31.040 You know, this math book didn't work so well for my child this year.

00:40:34.040 I'd like to try something different, or this child has this learning style or this learning challenge even.

00:40:40.220 You know, what would you recommend?

00:40:41.740 And so we have one of the leading experts in the country on curriculum to advise our members, and so you can do that in confidence and get the materials that you need.

00:40:53.200 The second consultant I'll mention is our exceptional needs consultant.

00:40:56.420 So we have a professional who deals with learning challenges, learning disabilities, and will, again, for our member families, does a free consultation and helps direct you to resources or testing or an evaluations, whatever your child may need to succeed academically and otherwise.

00:41:20.400 And then the last thing I'll mention is our digital library.

00:41:25.180 So we're actually the only homeschool organization in the world that I'm aware of that does this so far.

00:41:31.580 We had a parent who's a member of ours come to us a number of years ago and say, you know what, the public libraries are filled with garbage, just like, unfortunately, the public schools are.

00:41:41.960 And, you know, I don't want to, I could spend some money and buy my kids books and that would be great.

00:41:48.720 But his idea was, you know, if I give you the money as an organization, could you start a digital library to buy books that could be shared with all homeschooling students?

00:41:59.780 And we said, sure, that sounds like a great idea.

00:42:01.660 So we, over the last several years, we've developed a library with multiple collections and, you know, you're able to access this as a member, obtain e-books, audio books, and there, as I say, there's a lot of different collections.

00:42:19.180 You know, all the typical literature that you would expect to find, science fiction, historical fiction, you know, poetry, plays, and, you know, light reading.

00:42:35.420 We've got books for young readers.

00:42:37.280 We've got books specifically on exceptional needs, books on home education itself and on parenting, on faith.

00:42:45.960 History is a big one.

00:42:48.060 So Canadian history and biography, it's hard to find those resources.

00:42:51.320 And so we've supplied some of those.

00:42:53.600 So it's a great supplement to a home education journey.

00:42:58.040 It doesn't replace the curriculum that you're buying, but it does supplement it.

00:43:01.900 And so if you're looking for great books, wholesome books, this is the place to do it.

00:43:07.880 Well, maybe I should kind of leave it there, Doris.

00:43:10.860 You know, I'll just mention one last thing.

00:43:12.900 And that's the fact that, you know, with the peace of mind that we give, knowing that you're legally protected in your homeschooling journey, the price is actually quite affordable.

00:43:24.020 You know, if you have to hire a lawyer to defend you in a situation, you're looking at hundreds of dollars an hour.

00:43:29.460 And we offer our membership for literally the price of a takeout cup of coffee a week.

00:43:34.560 So it's quite affordable for our families.

00:43:38.600 And, you know, I felt it was necessary long before I ever took on this job.

00:43:43.680 When we started homeschooling, I joined HSLDA right away as well.

00:43:47.640 And I've never regretted that.

00:43:49.980 So anyway, why don't we get into some questions and answers?

00:43:55.020 Thank you, Peter.

00:43:56.000 Wow, there's so much information there and so much, many great resources.

00:44:03.300 And so please, folks, go to the website, HSLDA.ca, and you will see everything that he's talked about there.

00:44:12.340 One of the things when I was looking on your website was insurance.

00:44:17.460 And I recall when I was homeschooling, and folks, just so you know, I was in a very small town of 1800, and we had about 35 kids who were homeschooled.

00:44:29.660 And we created our own co-op, and we had activities.

00:44:34.640 But it was later on that HSLDA brought the insurance package in.

00:44:38.360 And so tell us a little bit more about what that offers to homeschooling groups.

00:44:43.280 Yeah, so we have actually more than one program in that area.

00:44:48.140 The general idea is that if you're running a support group, oftentimes, you can get access to a facility of some sort.

00:44:56.580 Maybe it's a church basement type of thing.

00:44:58.440 That's fairly typical.

00:44:59.680 But the church may say to you, you know what, you need to have liability insurance.

00:45:03.860 And then when these groups go looking for it, they find, oh, this insurance company wants thousands of dollars from us.

00:45:09.680 We can't afford that.

00:45:10.520 So what we've spent a lot of time doing over the years, and we have to continue to do it because insurance companies change their policies all the time, and their rates, is find access to affordable insurance for our groups.

00:45:24.360 And so we offer that.

00:45:26.400 Now, groups that partner with us on a, shall we say, a more permanent basis actually get additional benefits.

00:45:34.060 They get free insurance.

00:45:35.200 They actually get subsidy from us to help support their group activities.

00:45:40.080 And that's something that if somebody on this call is running a group or they're involved with the group and they want to find out more, I won't take a lot of time talking about it here.

00:45:48.920 But just contact our office and we can explain what we offer.

00:45:52.800 And these are free services to groups, by the way.

00:45:54.800 We only request that at least one person in the group be a member because we want to have that one, you know, that two-way communication with somebody who's a member of ours.

00:46:04.280 But we do offer these services all free to groups.

00:46:09.340 The insurance itself may not have to pay for it.

00:46:13.020 Fair enough.

00:46:13.800 Fair enough.

00:46:14.300 Yeah.

00:46:14.460 And speaking of groups, do you offer sort of a resource to help, let's say somebody's just getting started, you're their first point of contact, how do I find my people, my groups for parents, groups for kids, activities in my region?

00:46:37.180 Like, can you point people the right way?

00:46:40.260 You sure can.

00:46:40.880 Yeah, just, again, give us a call on that and our helpful staff will guide you along that journey.

00:46:47.180 And, you know, and if you need legal advice with it too, and sometimes groups have questions like, you know, what do I do about a statement of faith or do I need to incorporate or questions like that?

00:46:56.900 You know, should we have a bank account?

00:46:59.120 These are all questions that groups that are just starting out may have and our lawyer's happy to talk to members about that.

00:47:05.240 And again, that's a free service with your membership.

00:47:08.840 So, well, folks, this is so worth getting that membership.

00:47:13.400 I highly recommend it.

00:47:15.140 And it has expanded over the years since when I was homeschooling and there's even more available to families.

00:47:22.720 Going back to post-secondary education, we talked about different ways to get in.

00:47:30.100 And, yes, it's been a fact for years now that these post-secondary schools are looking for homeschoolers.

00:47:37.080 And even some of them even designate a percentage that they want them.

00:47:42.040 You know, this is a homeschooling percent that we want these people to come in.

00:47:45.480 And I've learned over the years there's also other ways to get in.

00:47:51.100 You can go in as a mature student.

00:47:53.560 And I don't know, is that 21 when you go in as a mature student?

00:47:57.500 It would depend on the institution likely, but, yeah, it sounds about right.

00:48:01.400 Yeah, and so for those students who have gap years and who are working and trying to figure things out and they may not have a, you know, what's required.

00:48:13.400 Sometimes you can go in as a mature student.

00:48:15.900 You can sometimes start at the college level and then transfer if you need to into university.

00:48:22.340 And I noticed on your resource list, you also offer a portfolio guide, which came around in the 2000s.

00:48:32.900 Can you talk a bit about that, how it relates to getting into post-secondary?

00:48:39.120 Sure.

00:48:39.740 Okay, so there are two aspects to a portfolio.

00:48:42.040 One is that almost every province has some requirement for record keeping.

00:48:48.620 Now, you know, in BC and Alberta, it might be a little more streamlined and obvious what needs to be done or not done because you may have, you may be working with a school that's overseeing your home education.

00:49:01.120 Other provinces, and Ontario is a great example of this, where there isn't that type of oversight, it is required that home educating families keep records.

00:49:10.660 Now, that doesn't mean that you keep every page of work that your child has ever done.

00:49:15.160 You would have a garage full of boxes by the time you're finished your homeschooling journey, if that were the case.

00:49:20.900 But you do need to keep samples, you know, the best essay, the test results, you know, what did they study in this curriculum and so on.

00:49:27.500 And so there's a guide on our member site about portfolios, how to keep them.

00:49:32.680 And then, of course, a portfolio can be used primarily with the post-secondary process, but it could also be potentially used with certain job applications as well.

00:49:42.460 And again, what you're looking for there is samples of your best work.

00:49:47.560 So, you know, that grade 12 essay about Romeo and Juliet or whatever it happens to be, it's well written, you know, that might be a sample of work that you're providing to demonstrate your academic competence.

00:49:59.200 And that's what portfolios generally are about.

00:50:02.520 It's kind of a, if I could put it in these terms, it's a thick resume, you know.

00:50:08.140 So that's probably how to best describe it.

00:50:11.580 Let's just mention a couple of other admissions options, particularly for universities.

00:50:16.620 One is online university courses, which can be used as transfer credits.

00:50:21.460 So the idea of a transfer credit is if you've taken a course in one place and the university that you're hoping to attend recognizes that course as somewhat equivalent to something they offer.

00:50:36.380 So you've taken first year English at one institution, you can apply to the institution you're interested in attending and say, hey, I've taken this first year English course over here.

00:50:47.320 Will you accept that as a credit at your institution?

00:50:51.960 And they may say, well, yes, we will.

00:50:55.500 We'll give you credit for it.

00:50:56.560 Or we may not accept it as credit, but we will recognize that you have the academic ability to attend our institution.

00:51:02.760 You may still have to do that course again.

00:51:05.000 Now, traveling just a little further down the road.

00:51:08.820 Okay, so that's online schooling.

00:51:10.960 And you could do that.

00:51:12.040 There are a number of online universities in Canada and the U.S.

00:51:15.540 One of the big ones in Canada that specializes only in online learning is Athabasca University.

00:51:20.940 Most people have heard of that.

00:51:21.920 That's a private school.

00:51:22.880 So one thing I'd say is you always want to check with the institution you're interested in applying to as to, you know, what their policy on transfer credits is, what they will accept, what they won't.

00:51:34.020 You don't want to spend a year taking online courses and find the institution you want to go to as a full-time student won't accept them.

00:51:41.140 So check in advance.

00:51:42.200 But the other option, and this one is guaranteed, they will be accepted at universities and many community colleges across Canada, is what's called the Advanced Placement Test, the AP Test for short.

00:51:56.520 And this is offered right across Canada and, you know, especially in the bigger cities.

00:52:01.360 But, you know, you can find a testing location right across Canada.

00:52:07.120 And these are tests in specific subjects, again, at the university level or the first-year university level.

00:52:13.620 So AP English, AP Math, AP Canvas, et cetera.

00:52:17.520 And you write one test in a given morning or afternoon, whatever.

00:52:21.580 And that test is only offered once a year, so you have to check the schedule.

00:52:25.280 It's offered at the same time right across North America.

00:52:28.140 But the great news about the AP test is if you pass that test, and I think that's a score of about three, then the university will look at that and say, yes, you're capable of learning at, you know, that first-year level.

00:52:39.920 We can accept you.

00:52:41.080 If you score a four or a five, and by the way, five is the highest score, then we will actually give you transfer credit for that test result.

00:52:52.520 So if you write six AP tests, six different subjects, and you score four or five on those, you can actually be accepted not into first year at a university in Canada, but many universities, you can be accepted right into second year.

00:53:08.700 They will give you first-year credit for those AP test results.

00:53:12.060 So if you want a cheap and efficient way into university and save yourself, you know, a full year's tuition, room and board, and all that sort of thing, and skip first year, you can go right into second year using the AP test result route.

00:53:29.060 There's a question.

00:53:30.660 When should parents start keeping track of the children's homeschool work?

00:53:34.920 Yeah, so that's important as soon as they're of legal school age and, you know, until basically they've completed their legal school age.

00:53:46.900 Now, that's a little bit different in every province.

00:53:49.400 Usually starts at age six in most provinces and goes to either 15, 16, or 18, depending on the province.

00:53:57.080 But, yeah, you should be keeping records right the way along.

00:53:59.700 So, again, when your child's six, records are fairly simple.

00:54:05.020 You know, we're not looking for exam results at that point.

00:54:08.780 But, you know, you do want to keep a good record of what you have learned that year.

00:54:13.900 Part of the evidence that a judge would be looking for in a court, and that's sort of the ultimate test, you know, when would this ever be used?

00:54:22.920 In most cases, never, but, you know, if your homeschooling ever is challenged and we do end up in court and have to justify to a judge, yes, yes, indeed, this family has been home educating, you have to be able to demonstrate it somehow.

00:54:37.560 So the question isn't, has my child passed a certain test?

00:54:42.000 No, that's not the test.

00:54:43.540 The test is more, is my child making academic progress?

00:54:47.080 Where were they last year?

00:54:48.880 Where are they now?

00:54:50.380 You know, what have they learned over the past year?

00:54:52.000 They want to be able to show what subjects they've been studying and what progress they've made in them.

00:54:58.560 And so that might be, you know, that might be just the final test results in a math program.

00:55:05.140 It might be, as I said, a sample essay or two.

00:55:09.760 Of course, little kids don't write essays necessarily, but you get the idea.

00:55:13.540 You know, some writing samples, some drawing samples.

00:55:16.100 You know, if you do a science project, you don't want to keep the science, you know, the exploding volcano in the cupboard for the next 20 years.

00:55:23.500 That's not what you do.

00:55:24.160 But you can take a picture with your phone.

00:55:26.460 This is the science project my child produced.

00:55:28.620 So a portfolio can be quite compact, but it still needs to demonstrate, you know, that academic progress.

00:55:35.160 Yeah, no, that's so true.

00:55:38.220 And I like the idea of taking a picture.

00:55:40.120 We kept portfolios as well, only because I didn't know where they were going to be after grade 12.

00:55:45.460 And I remember those binders.

00:55:48.200 They were like this thick.

00:55:49.920 But all the really cool stuff was in there.

00:55:52.240 And my kids have saved them.

00:55:54.400 They're still fun to go back and look at them.

00:55:57.440 And you're right.

00:55:58.200 It is about how are they progressing.

00:56:00.380 And then, you know, you pick your top two best written work of the year.

00:56:04.980 You pop that in in your grade eight year or your grade nine year.

00:56:09.500 Maybe you pop in five or six essays in grade 10 year or something like that.

00:56:13.720 And so you have something to show in case anybody does look for it.

00:56:18.820 Just look in here.

00:56:20.460 Oh, there was a comment.

00:56:21.500 Thank you to you.

00:56:24.220 I also wanted to go back.

00:56:25.900 You had talked about the teachers union.

00:56:28.000 And I think we're just going to cover that real quick and then close this session today.

00:56:33.400 Unless anybody has further questions, you can pop that real quickly into the chat.

00:56:37.640 But can you just elaborate a little bit on that comment you made?

00:56:40.280 Because you were going to come back to it.

00:56:41.780 Oh, yes, that's right.

00:56:42.800 Thank you for reminding me.

00:56:44.340 Yeah.

00:56:44.660 So it's certainly the case that as the numbers have dropped in the public school system.

00:56:51.520 And by the way, in every province, this is the same school boards which hire teachers rely on per student grant funding from the Ministry of Education.

00:57:02.460 So, you know, in British Columbia, if you have, you know, the school board gets funding from the Ministry for the number of students that attend school.

00:57:13.560 And if your child is not attending school, if they are off homeschooling or they're with an independent school or whatever, the school board is not getting any money for your child.

00:57:25.120 Those are big grants.

00:57:26.360 I mean, they're $10,000, $12,000, $15,000, depending on the province.

00:57:29.680 I think it's up to over $16,000 in Ontario this year.

00:57:33.180 So it's a huge amount of money.

00:57:35.480 If one family decides to drop out and they've got three kids, you know, you could be looking at losing $40,000 for that family, which is probably, you know, a teaching assistant, if not, you know, a starting teacher salary or something, depending on the province.

00:57:52.000 And, you know, if you lose dozens or hundreds to home education, you're losing, you know, you could be losing a dozen teachers as well.

00:58:02.040 The unions recognize this and they're not happy about it, of course.

00:58:06.020 Now, it's not just us they're mad at.

00:58:07.340 They're mad at the private schools as well.

00:58:09.200 They really should be mad at themselves because the fact of the matter is people are reacting to what's happening in the public schools.

00:58:16.040 But that's another story, of course.

00:58:17.640 However, they, you know, they do target, they do attempt to target home educators.

00:58:25.920 And because they're closely tied with certain political parties, they try to encourage those political parties to take actions that will be, could be detrimental to, you know, our home education choices.

00:58:41.920 And so that's a very real concern.

00:58:44.300 And, you know, they're not beyond promoting propaganda as well.

00:58:51.180 We had a public school boards association in Alberta.

00:58:56.740 This is not a teacher's union.

00:58:57.980 This is the public schools board, but essentially the same thing in a sense, because they're the ones, again, receiving that money from the government and hiring the teachers. 0.99

00:59:06.320 They published a report saying, and I'm paraphrasing here, but basically saying, you know, if your kids are home educated, they're going to be dumb, stupid, not able to go to school, get a job, all that kind of stuff, which is complete nonsense. 0.99

00:59:19.220 But, you know, that's the kind of message that some of these organizations are tending to promote. 0.99

00:59:26.660 And it's going to get worse in the months and years to come, especially as some of these governments potentially change or, you know, in the case of BC, if it remains the same, but continues to be with the same party, we could continue to have problems.

00:59:42.240 So, yeah, the political fight is never done.

00:59:46.740 Our freedom is not something that can be taken for granted.

00:59:49.920 It's something that we have to monitor and sometimes fight for.

00:59:56.940 And I think the last few years has demonstrated that on other accounts.

01:00:00.240 No, I'm really glad we have more reason to support HSLDA, be part of that, because these guys who are working on homeschool freedom across Canada, they're working on our behalf.

01:00:15.920 They're working with our provincial leaders to protect homeschool freedom choices in each province.

01:00:21.400 So, I really encourage you all to get that membership.

01:00:25.920 You can go to HSLDA.ca to get a membership there.

01:00:30.960 And you can buy one-year, five-year family plans or something like that, right?

01:00:37.380 Well, we have monthly, annual, and you can buy a lifetime as well.

01:00:41.080 Okay.

01:00:42.120 Which is probably the best bargain, but you kind of want to know you're committed for the longer term before you invest in that.

01:00:48.720 For sure, yeah.

01:00:49.780 Yeah, just a nice comment here.

01:00:52.280 Thank you so much for all the valuable information, especially the research.

01:00:56.120 And we do thank you, Peter Stock, for spending time with us today and sharing all this great information on what HSLDA offers.

01:01:07.680 I also just wanted to mention in two weeks, May 28th, our next guest will be David Hunt from the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy.

01:01:17.720 He's going to share the latest statistics in Canada between homeschooling, private schools, and public schools, and how homeschoolers show the highest scores in socialization amongst other many categories.

01:01:32.020 So, again, socialization seems to be a question that a lot of families have.

01:01:38.360 And it's a fair question.

01:01:40.360 And we know the stats have come in over the years.

01:01:44.000 So, again, David Hunt is going to share other really awesome stats that will inspire you to keep going with homeschooling year after year.

01:01:58.400 And if you're in a place right now, your end of the year, end of the school year, you're tired, the weather's good, you don't want to do any more school, and we totally get that.

01:02:10.600 But we want to encourage you to get a good rest this summer and refocus and do come back to homeschool in the fall.

01:02:18.320 That was the way I did it every year.

01:02:20.520 I kind of reassessed.

01:02:22.120 I would go to a convention.

01:02:23.740 I went to one last week.

01:02:25.660 And I don't even have kids that I'm homeschooling.

01:02:29.360 I've got grandchildren who are starting in the fall.

01:02:32.420 And I'm going to be all in, hands-on, grandma, and wanting to support my kids.

01:02:37.240 But these conventions really recharge you as a parent.

01:02:42.040 And then you go, okay, this is why I'm doing what I'm doing.

01:02:44.680 This is why I'm going to go back in September and we're going to do this.

01:02:47.700 So, we do hope you have found a lot of encouragement here today.

01:02:53.380 And we're going to say goodbye on that note.

01:02:56.600 And come back May 28th and sign in for our next webinar.

01:03:02.600 Thank you, Peter.

01:03:03.480 And thank you, folks.

01:03:04.700 And we're going to say goodbye.

01:03:07.240 Thanks, Doris.

Action4Canada - May 21, 2024

Action4Canada Homeschool Webinar： Homeschooling Updates in Canada – May 14, 2024

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript