Tag: Accreditation

Alternatives to Accreditation: A Practical Guide to Home Education – Finishing Strong (Part 5)

Now that we have established that parental ignorance of the systemic use of accreditation, largely motivated by the increased funding associated with it, is to blame for the normalization of public school credits at home, I would like to provide an alternative to public accreditation.

Once the accumulation of “high school” credits is started, whether at home or at school, there is no turning back, as anything short of the full completion of all requirements for a high school diploma deems the student a dropout, much the same as the GED does.

That is, if a student earns a single credit either through school or a school-based program, a provincial transcript is created that is attached to the individual’s Alberta Student Number (ASN).

Parents should be warned that home education providers who offer high school credits usually do not reveal this information, as it is not in their best interest.

While it is imperative that parents understand that accreditation is not essential to successfully transition to the post-secondary level, it is also important to note that to seek accreditation is to embark on the most demanding and frustrating option for the secondary level of a home education.

This is due to the challenge of trying to complete a program designed to be delivered by a teacher in a school, forcing students and parents to jump through the hoops required to complete a high school program.

Parents or students motivated by wanting to outperform regular school attendees at school programming, need to consider that demonstrating the ability to do better at school work, comes with questionable benefits.

Students “schooling at home” place themselves in competition for post-secondary admission with every other accredited student. Since it is more difficult to “honestly” do better with “school work” at home than at school, students often find themselves handicapped with lower marks.

Also, if the focus of the family faith is biblical, parents should be aware that the accreditation route does not follow biblical principles.

Christian parents should, therefore, be concerned when a school claiming to be “Christian” offers public programming as an incentive to attend or register with their institution.

Parents should also be wary of schools and home education providers “pretending” to meet the course requirements in order to award credits. Although doing so greatly benefits the school, students rarely complete the requirements for a high school diploma and usually do not merit the marks required for post-secondary admission using this approach.

Whether credits are honestly or dishonestly obtained at school or at home, public accreditation returns us to the secular world for our future direction, acknowledging the state as lord of our education.

It is far better and easier to allow a student to be who God has created than fitting him or her into the “one-size-fits-all” expectations demanded by those who know nothing of the child.

Completing secondary training at home, without government accreditation, is a much better option because there is no time wasted on subjects that are not needed. Students are allowed to be comfortable with who they are, can specialize early and by the time they are old enough to drive, are usually ready for the world to receive them.

Meanwhile, their school friends are putting in time awaiting the day when they are paroled from the institution with no greater access to post-secondary options than those who chose to continue their preparations at home without the burden of meeting that which is required for accreditation.

Even though most post-secondary institutions will advise that credits are needed for admission, (due to the fact that most applicants come with a school-based education), most usually have alternative admission criteria that take alternative students, including the home educated, into account.

Alternative students following alternative home education curricula that more closely compares to first year post-secondary programs than to a school grade 12, have a definite advantage over standard school students.

When taking into account the fact that the traditional home educated, who have been given the freedom and opportunity to advance at their own speed, in keeping with what interests them, usually have a higher level of maturity and a more highly developed work ethic, it becomes easier to understand why most excel at the post-secondary level.

So, is there a need for government accreditation at the high school level? No! Alternative students use alternative methods to gain access to post-secondary opportunities, whatever that may be.

Once ready, post-pubescent students will begin to show signs of ownership and self-motivation, resulting in a great deal of learning usually taking place in a very short time. This should be the parent’s cue to back off from “programming” and allow the child to mould into their future, without neglecting to provide new opportunities for learning.

Finally, please understand that only in a traditional home education setting, can a student truly follow an individualized program which cannot be obtained through public accreditation.

To Be or Not To Be Accredited: A Practical Guide to Home Education – Finishing Strong (Part 4)

To be or not to be accredited? That is the question most people ponder as their children enter the secondary phase of their education.

Mostly as a consequence of having our eyes focused on the future rather than eternity, we quickly default to the only known solution for future preparation, which is government accreditation.

I do not believe there is a home education issue more plagued with misinformation and manipulative traps than this one, and there will be no lack of encouragement to go the credit route.

There are three main reasons that this concern arises. The first is, unfortunately, your doing! Another is systemic. And then there is… the money!

Going to school has become so normalized, so entrenched, so unquestioned as the only way to educate children that the mere suggestion of doing otherwise often brings confusion, laughter, derision, even open hostility. After all, when you are doing something differently your actions are saying that you believe there is a better way, without even saying a word.

The possibility of damaging your children’s potential future options, whether real or perceived, creates real fears and concerns that will challenge your resolve to continue to teach your children at home.

After all, your initial motivation was to provide them with the best preparation for their future. Now that it is here, what are you going to do? It is much easier to simply “go with the flow” and default back to doing what you have experienced and to follow what most everybody else is doing.

The second reason that accreditation arises at this stage is the systemic belief that only government accreditation can qualify students to move on to the post-secondary arena.

Once again, it is important to understand that when only one choice is presented, people come to understand that this is the only option.

Made worse by our being continually discouraged from questioning what we are being told, accreditation is believed to be the only way a student can succeed in life.

All that needs to happen to break free from this manipulative systemic belief is for people to question why this is so and to come to understand that while government accreditation is most certainly the accepted standard, it is not the only approach available to home educators.

To understand how money can often be the driving force behind the normalization and advancement of the need for government accreditation, one needs to know that up until the “high school level” is reached, Alberta funds students on the basis of attendance. This means that from school grades K-9, a registered child is a funded child.

Once the high school level is reached, funding is no longer based on attendance, but rather on the number of credits being offered in the child’s program. Even if the child fails the course, funding is advanced to the school for having made the accredited course available.

The only exception to this rule is if students are home educated, in which case funding is still based on attendance (registration) and at the same rate as K-9 students.

To successfully complete a high school level program, a student must acquire a minimum of 100 credits. The actual prescription of what is needed to acquire a high school diploma can be found by going to https://education.alberta.ca/graduation-requirements-credentials-credits/high-school-diploma/everyone/diploma-requirements/.

This complicated website address alone should show you that to accomplish this feat, one is best to simply attend school!

One more thing to consider with “high school” level programming, is the fact that while home education funding remains at 25% of the base funding to public schools, credits are funded at the same rate as public school (100%) or private schools (70%).

One does not have to be a mathematician to understand that to offer or advance credits will triple or quadruple the income of the school that “helps” the parents with “their” accreditation concerns!

Therefore, when you combine the fact that most parents have only experienced “high school” using government programming, likely never having been exposed to possible alternatives; with the fact that the vast majority of Alberta students follow government accreditation, adding to that, the powerful lure of much higher levels of funding, it becomes easier to understand why accumulating credits is so commonly advanced by providers as the only possible way to complete a secondary level education.

While the Godless, status quo education system can be forgiven for pushing an agenda that benefits itself, one has to question the motivation of private schools and their associated home education agencies. How can they justify claiming a Christian foundation, then take advantage of unsuspecting parental ignorance by advancing the much higher paying credits of a Godless, unbiblical, anti-Christian system?

More importantly, we should ask how anyone claiming a biblical foundation can exploit the ignorance of the people they are supposed to help, encourage and instruct. I believe Christians and Christian schools should be advancing God’s accreditation rather than the world’s, even if it pays less.

What About Standards and Accreditation? Fears and Concerns Series (Part 8)

One of the most common fears and concerns at the secondary stage of learning is meeting high school standards and accreditation.

Standards are very difficult to define. Even a certificated teacher can’t actually define what a standard is other than as a process.

The dictionary definition of a standard is “a required or agreed upon level of quality or attainment,” or “an idea or thing used as a measure or norm or model in a comparative evaluation.”

Confusing? The question is, what are we comparing? People? Really?

The modern world has over seven billion people and it is estimated that more than 100 billion people have walked this earth since its creation.

When considering that no two people have ever been the same or shared the same fingerprint for that matter, the idea that we can standardize humans is preposterous. Yet most people assume that standards for education not only exist, but can actually be reached even when they cannot be clearly defined.

If standards for people cannot exist or be properly defined, how then can they be measured or universally applied? The advancing of standards in education is one of the biggest lies told by the industry. Forcing students into doing the same thing at the same time at each level of a predetermined schedule is not to maintain a standard, but to make sure they all end up the same.

Let me tell you what standards are. The only place that I can really apply this dictionary definition of a standard is in a factory. All the products coming off the assembly line had better be the same. You do it for quality control, which is designed to prevent problems.

When we apply the dictionary definitions of standards to school, we realize that there are a number of similarities between it and industry. We want to make sure that all the products coming off the assembly line are the same, for quality control, to prevent problems. Yet no two teachers will be able to consistently deliver or meet these supposed standards.

There are your standards. They are more a measure of how everyone should be. Not how to think, but what to think. Not celebrating God’s created diversity and freedom, but the secular alternative of standardizing all to a bondage of conformity. If everyone is the same, it is much easier to control them.

Now on to accreditation.

Accreditation is the action or process of officially recognizing a person as having a particular status or being qualified to perform a certain activity, or official certification that a school or course has met standards as set by an external regulator.

This dictionary definition is more complicated stuff that is based on a faulty notion that people can be standardized! What this translates into, is that there are ways and means to make sure that people are properly trained to accomplish a particular task and to do it well.

It is a good thing to have expectations of people and standards for positions. The problem is that we get this all mixed up and start expecting the standardization of people, rather than of skills.

Accreditation is best understood when looking at certification. A person who is licensed or certified to do a particular job is accredited by an agency as having met certain expectations and requirements to properly and safely conduct themselves in that position.

Once again, this is not to standardize the person, but the level of skill needed to do the job. We would expect nurses to have some level of training, as we would the welder, the lawyer or any other position. To have a standard expectation of excellence is fine.

However, when put into perspective, seeking accreditation is to seek approval from man. This also is okay if we can keep this standard to positions, not people. When seeking accreditation in a high school program, we seek man’s approval of what God has created and that does not make sense. Man’s school program and God’s directives do not have the same objective!

High school accreditation is more a matter of standardizing the student than to assure he or she has met an agreed upon level. The proper collection of credits towards a high school diploma may indicate that the student spent a minimum 12 years to get it, but does it guarantee that anything was learned?

Are they all literate? No! Are they all numerate? No! Are they truly ready for post-secondary level positions? Maybe. Depends. Remember that in order for everyone to be able to get their diplomas, the level of expectation must continually be reduced. Where is fifty percent good enough in life outside of the “standard” expectation of the education industry?

God has created children to be different. Man insists on making them all the same. While it is good to expect excellence of the students, it is unreasonable to expect them to all reach the same level and to accomplish the same things.

The goal of home education should be educational progress with high and reasonable expectations while allowing students the freedom to be who God has created them to be. We should be seeking God’s approval rather than man’s accreditation in our secondary level education.

God makes no mistakes, and our faith in His abilities will eliminate the fear of not meeting standards and the need for human accreditation in education.

Who Says… We Need Accreditation?

Part of the series Who says…
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2015-04-06.

Government high school accreditation has no place in a Christian education.

Building on a foundation that God is, that He created the universe and that He ultimately is responsible for our children’s being, should provide ample substance upon which to build our faith. This lengthy series will identify the secular thinking that has eroded that faith.

Bible Reference: 2 Tim 2:15

Accreditation has a few definitions but can generally be described as a process of giving official authorization or approval for someone or something to occupy a particular place or position. But who is the one who does the authorizing or approving? Scripture tells us that God does, but government disagrees. By assuming authority over parents in the training and teaching of children, the government takes it upon itself to authorize and approve people to function within the government’s world. It is easy enough to understand how people can be made fearful of failing to meet government expectations since they seem to hold all the cards, but if you take a closer look at the cards and you will discover that they are mostly jokers!

If government can convince us that it has the authority, it can convince us that we will not be successful outside of its claimed jurisdiction. Those of us who understand that God has never changed his mind about who is responsible for the training and teaching of children, will have no problem trusting God to direct our children in their future. However, when the institutional church generally supports the government in their claim as authorities in education, to the point of creating public schools that are “Christian” in name only, parents can be deceived into accepting what their “spiritual leaders” normalize as right and good.

If accreditation and approval is the Lord’s domain, our seeking approval of the state is to claim that the state or government is Lord. One would wonder how any organization claiming even a superficial faith in God could ever offer state programming. The answer is very simple. Money! If there was no money attached to the delivery of public programming, most “Christian” schools and home education providers would cease to offer the government programming and likely also, cease to exist. In the meantime, nearly every organization claiming to have the Christian parent and student’s best interest will either take advantage of the near universal ignorance or redirect those who question the authority of government back to the public programming because it pays bigger money in one way or another.

Parents are not without excuse in this matter. How many parents, who have started their home education program with their children from the start, end up losing their resolve to see the job properly completed in keeping with the directive of God and sound reason? Many, because most people have far more faith in what they can see and understand, such as government accreditation, than in a God they cannot see or fully understand. It is the same choice that was given in the Garden of Eden and unfortunately we seem to have not learned much from that mistake.

If government was capable of creating children, real children, they may have some claim on having the authority to accredit and approve based on a their ill-defined standards. But, since parents are the only ones who have the God-given ability to create children, it is they who have the responsibility and authority to train and teach their children and to trust that the creator has already accredited and approved the student in keeping with what He has created.

Who says we need accreditation? Parents who are fearful in their ignorance and school boards willing to cash in on it. Education Unlimited has never awarded a government credit and does not know of a student who has been truly handicapped through this approach. Somehow God always seems to “show up” when we trust Him! Indeed, there is a place for government to accredit and approve, but not at a “high school” level.

We Don’t Need Credits

Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-05-19.

Greater faith in man than in God will lead us in lots of directions, but probably not the best one.

We often refrain from being honest because we do not wish to offend those who need to hear the truth. Opinions expressed in this blog are intended to offend those who would advance anything, other than the truth, in order to benefit themselves.

Bible Reference: Galatians 3:3

It is simply amazing how parents can throw away everything they have done to properly prepare their children for their future, as soon as post-secondary options are considered. Students go to an institution and, without making any reference to having been home educated, ask what is required to gain admission. They are shocked when they are told that they need government accreditation! What did they expect? When 95% of the students making application to the post-secondary institutions are coming from public schools (including separate, alternative, charter, online, private, home school providers, etc.), where they get government accredited programming, it should not surprise us if the expectation is government accreditation! Home education is not about having someone else take responsibility for the education of the children, but an opportunity to to take control of that education. Students and parents would do well to at least inform the admissions people of the fact that they have been home educated and then to help them understand that they do have an excellent foundation from which to advance to the post-secondary level. Instead, students leave disappointed and discouraged, often blaming their parents for having directed them to failure! Parents are tempted or simply forsake home education and go where credits are offered. There are no shortage of places willing to help the parents get those credits as this process does result in extra cash to the provider. Besides, can we not be as foolish as the Galatians who, having begun by the Spirit, were seeking perfection by the flesh!

God does not need accreditation and neither do his children. Secular thinking, that assumes all children are the same evolutionary product, will program children and accredit them. Institutions have long taken accreditation for granted as they normalize the process. Faith in God means working hard while trusting Him to direct us in our lives. If He wants us in college, we will get there. But, if we put our faith in man, don’t be surprised if at the end of the day, you find that you have made a mistake. No problem! God will still be there and still be directing you, after you discover that you decided to go backwards in order to advance.