Home school students participate in 4-H program

Samantha Van Dyke and Aubrey Mechura help out with the kittens at a local animal shelter. They were part of a home school/4-H group. -Staff photo by Taylor

September 20, 2001 -- According to the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI), a nonprofitresearch and educational organization founded by Dr. Brian Ray, their mission is to produce high-quality research on home education, to serve as a clearinghouse of research for home educators, researchers, policy makers and the media and to educate the public concerning findings of their research.

While home schooling is not a new idea, it has made a big come back in recent years. Literature presented on the NHERI Web site states there were between 1,300,000 to 1,700,000 students being home schooled in 2000.

Much of the general public and most of the academic world have doubted the validity of home schooling, although many of those students score as well or better than those in conventional school when taking standardized tests such as the ACT or SAT, according the NHERI.

Many of the objections stem from questions pertaining to a lack of socialization, academic achievement and success as adults to the demographic traits of home schooled families, they said.

"Sometimes, there's a negative stereotype about what the home schooled kids are doing, because they are not the norm.Because everyone pays school taxes, the majority go to public school, but they're (home schoolers) really an asset that might be underestimated," said Cody Dennison, Fayette County Extension Agent for 4-H and Youth Development.

This fall, Dennison has started working with a group of home schoolers for the first time.The Christian Home School Coop has about 30 students from grade school to seniors, according to Lisa Branecky of Flatonia, a parent and home schooler teacher involved in the newly formed group. Branecky had taught in public schools for 15 years, and said most of the mothers involved in this group are college educated.

"We are stressing academic excellence.We offer classes in Spanish, English, art, geography, Texas History, math, swimming, CPR, life guarding and cake decorating," said Branecky.

One of the ways of providing socialization skills is being addressed by Dennison and 4-H.

According to the individual school boards, each decides and makes a ruling on home schoolers being able to show animals and otherwise participate in local stockshows, said Dennison and Branecky.

"We're not allowed to show because we're home schooled," said Branecky of the Flatonia area.

All 4-H students are able to show and participate in the county level stockshows and competitions, so this makes 4-H a vital part of the home schooler's education, said Dennison.

"Many people, nowdays, are home schooling their kids because they don't like the situations in public schools. This might be an audience we could target, because we have a lot of curriculum," said Dennison.

"We need to get agriculture explained to all the kids, but there's so many other disciplines within agriculture, like science as well as math and writing."

4-H offers a number of different curriculums from county and state government to gardening.

"Some of the public schools have incorporated these into block classes, like some of the home schools do, and agriculture is a great medium to do that," said Dennison.

Students are able to use their math to measure out ingredients for mixing and measuring the size of a garden, and they use science to study the flowering, budding and production of fruit on plants.Writing assignments are used to explain all of the above, said Dennison.

"The 4-H has a large number of kids who are home schooled...probably close to one-third are home schooled kids.At least one-fourth of the kids are home schooled, and there's a large number of kids in the state as well as the nation that are home schooled kids," said Dennison.

"They (home school teachers) find the curriculum because we (4-H) are Christian based.We have a 4-H prayer.We don't encourage any religious preference, but we do have a prayer.Our motto is, 'To make the best better'," said Dennison.

He offers home schoolers experience with "delayed satisfaction," when they plant seeds and watch them grow into a mature plant, but not overnight.There is an "egg to chick" program that is used in public schools and is available to home schoolers, too.

Recently, the group of home schoolers met at a local animal shelter to hear how the animals are taken care of as well as what education levels are needed to be a technician or veterinarian.They assisted the staff in cleaning up the cages as an act of community service.

As far as what 4-H can offer all kids from 9 to 19, "the sky's the limit," said Dennison.