News for Week of September 5, 1999
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The number of families choosing to homeschool their children is increasing dramatically in the past five years. Support organizations include The Association of Canadian Home-Based Education (ACHBE), The Rose Rock Global Homeschool Network. Conferences this month include the Homeschooling, Unschooling and Curriculum Fair in Toronto, ON September 18 and GWS (Growing Without Schooling) Conference in Great Barrington, MA September 24 -26.
On Tuesday, the first cohort of grade nine students enter the new four year high school program (changed from 5 years) in Ontario. Due to delays in ministry information and documents many teachers have had little more than policy documents to prepare for the new courses. Course profiles for only 40% of the year were available for three-day summer institutes in August which were oversubscribed. Text books are just coming off the presses. With new funding policies, the number of experienced teachers to mentor new teachers is down due to early retirements, department heads who used to work on curriculum issues are gone, teacher prep time has been cut and development days eliminated. Parents of ninth-graders will want to monitor progress closely this year.
Updated September 6, 1999