A new wrinkle in cyber-schooling/church schooling

[SoCalDem]

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/07/harrisburg_church_creates_uniq.html

Harrisburg church creates unique program with cyberschools

Published: Saturday, July 09, 2011, 3:50 PM
Beth Anne Heesen, The Patriot-News By Beth Anne Heesen, The Patriot-News

Barb Schmiedel was plagued by a question as her son approached ninth grade: Where will Liam go to high school?

Liam Schmiedel attends a cyberschool but will spend his school days at St. Stephen's Episcopal School enrolled in a program that provides learning assistance and enrichment and extracurricular activities.

She was happy with his school. He was, too. But, like it or not, St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Harrisburg is a K-8 program. The Paxtang resident searched for the right place like Goldilocks for the right breakfast. Public school? It would be bigger than Liam was used to. Small faith-related school? She couldn’t find one that offered the programs her son was interested in. Schmiedel liked the idea of cyberschool but has a job and didn’t want Liam stuck at home.

Schmiedel made her own porridge after finding a recipe at Quakertown Christian School: What if students enrolled in a cyberschool of their choice but spent “school” days at St. Stephen’s for tutoring and extracurricular activities? She pitched the idea to school administrators who — after learning how successful Quakertown’s program was — ran with it and founded St. Stephen’s Episcopal Community. The school doesn’t have space or finances to become a high school, but for the $5,150 tuition, Liam Schmiedel will stay there and experience something new this year with seven other high school students.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “I got a free laptop, and there’s no homework unless you get behind.”

snip

[JCMach1]

1. My daughters do K-12, which has a pretty good curriculum

especially at the HS level.

The American school options were too limited here in UAE and we were fed up with British curriculum schools.

Our experience thought is THIS WILL NOT WORK FOR ALL CHILDREN.

Just like brick and mortar schools. I know the people pushing this will be SHOCKED!

[ProdigalJunkMail]

2. there are a couple of church schools in the ATL area

whose students are enrolled in the cyber-academy but also attend the church school. seems to be working well...

sP

[MADem]

3. Every time I read something about Pennsylvania cyberschooling

I think of Rick Santorum, and how he had the stones to con the taxpayers of PA to pay for the cyberschool of his kids from his Manse in NoVA, and his "home" in PA sat completely empty--when he wasn't renting it out to make a buck. Talk about sheer BRASS!

I know it's tangential to the topic, but it's the first thing that popped into my mind.

I wonder if this type of "homeschooling" will become the new paradigm....

[SoCalDem]

6. The thing that caught my attention was that the church was

ready to "accept" the $5150 per student in exchange for a "free laptop" and would "babysit" 7 kids..

(maybe the cyber school gets the 5150?).. that's a pretty expensive "free laptop"..

It just seem to me that for a pretty long time now, we in the US have been careening from one "experiment" to another, and yet overall we are getting our kids LESS educated, teachers LESS well paid, and it just keeps costing more..

[MADem]

7. You know, I kind of zipped through that part, and my head hurt

I wasn't sure who got the money, either.

It sounds like a helluva racket if the school gets the dough as a "sitter" fee....it'll probably encourage all sorts of underachievers to set up their own "cyberschool" in their basement or family/dining room so Ma or Pa can go back to work. The kids stumble over to the neighbor's house, and spend the day in front of a computer. Hell, get ten kids around the dining room table clicking away, and you've got yourself a sweet salary!

I agree with your last sentence to the maximum extent possible. There's way too much frou-frou and "teaching to the test" and not enough actual learning going on. I find these hour-and-a-half classes that some high schools are doing absolutely absurd, too. The teachers cry that they can get more "in depth" on a topic, but most days, they teach for half the class and tell the kids to do their homework the second half (where the kids snooze or text for forty five minutes). I say teach 'em in short bursts, make them get up every hour and walk a good long way to another class, and let them do their homework at HOME or in study hall....but that's just me!

[villager]

4. good option -- plagued by the usual unremarked unrecs, I see...

n/t

[joshcryer]

5. My nephew is going to cyberschool this fall. He very bad ADD and the schools wouldn't have him.

[JCMach1]

8. As I said above... it can indeed work... however, it is not the savior

of America's education system.