Hylton Promotes Abandoning Neighborhood Schools
POTTSTOWN, PA – In today’s installment of Pottstown School Board member Thomas Hylton’s latest series of paid advertisements touting “superior forms of education”, we find a curious advertisement supporting homeschooling and how it can work well for Pottstown.
Here is today’s Mercury advertisement for your review:
Gee…after reading today’s advertisement we can almost smell that apple pie baking in the oven while mom homeschools her kids!
If homeschooling can work well for Pottstown, then there certainly is no need for the school district to keep and maintain five 40+ year old elementary schools. Because, after all, with all of the responsible Pottstown parents homeschooling their kids enrollments will drop and we won’t need all these empty school buildings.
While Hylton goes out of his way to paint a pretty picture of how everyone can be happy and bright when homeschooled…as with all of Tom Hylton’s selective reasoning…some pretty key components have been omitted from the equation.
One of the biggest disadvantages of homeschooling is the lack of socialization. Now, maybe for an individual like Tom Hylton (who has no socialization skills), homeschooling would have been a perfect fit. But, for most normal kids, learning to get along and socialize with their peers goes a long way in character building and becoming a productive and contributing member of the community. Traits that are present in corporate politics and work relationships begin to surface in high school. While a homeschooled student might be able to learn how to be polite and talk to others without issue, they show naivety when they get to a work setting. Learning about pecking orders and how to succeed even when others are creating adversity might seem to be unimportant, unless you are the homeschooled student on the job oblivious about what’s happening and how to cope. Also learned in a traditional school setting is how to discuss and disagree with peers, which is quite the important trait. Hmmm….maybe Tom Hylton was homeschooled as a child.
A second disadvantage is that resources aren’t as readily available as they are in a public/private school setting. Parents who choose to homeschool, as opposed to free public schooling, are primarily responsible for purchasing the curriculum needed, which can cost, on average, approximately $400 per child each year. This includes costs for field trips, computer software, and materials for projects, as well as the many other resources available to parents. Unless a parent has an education background, it may be difficult and challenging for that parent to teach their children. Being a homeschooling parent means the loss of a second income, which can be a big disadvantage. Most families today cannot afford to have a parent stay home and bake pies, teach their kids (and maybe even paint that white picket fence). That’s a classic Tom Hylton fantasy that is unrealistic for today’s hard working families. Heck, most Pottstown families today are having serious financial issues with both parents working…let alone losing that second income. How about single parents? There’s no way they can forfeit a salary to homeschool their child.
Another big disadvantage with homeschooling is whether a parent has the discipline and patience to teach their kids. While some parents do…most do not. A homeschooling parent needs to be able to separate themselves from the parent/teacher role. Being a homeschooling parent is physically, emotionally, and financially challenging. It’s not a free ride…it’s a full time job.
And what about teachers as mentors? How many of you fondly recall teachers you had growing up who made a big impact on your life? Teachers can open up subjects, or niches within subjects, that exposes a child to something a parent hasn’t even heard about. This may become the child’s passion, and could influence their vocational choice and their lifelong happiness. Teachers or guidance counselors can help children understand the college application process and what opportunities may be open to them. This might be an area that parents are not as familiar as professional educators, as they went into a different college system decades earlier – or they didn’t attend college at all. Some homeschooled students graduate thinking that college is out of their reach financially, which is not true!
So…let’s move forward with homeschooling and get rid of all of Pottstown’s underutilized school buildings…starting with the five elementary schools we won’t be needing. Isn’t that right Tom?
NOTE: After we posted this article, we did a little searching on the PA Department of Education website. Their most recent homeschooling figures are from the 2006-07 school year. According to that data, the Pottstown School District had 43 students who were homeschooled (22 ages 5-11 and 21 ages 12-18+). The total number of homeschooled students in PA was 22,136, which was a decrease of 1.2% from the year before. It was the fourth year in a row showing a decrease in homeschooled students, with 40 of PA’s 67 counties showing a decrease. Montgomery County was the fifth county in the state with the most homeschooled students (994 – 4.5% of the student population).
A long time ago, when cyber school and the related cost to the Disrict first was introduced, I suggest that we pay the cyber school costs and shut down all the buildings — reducing overhead by 90%. At that time I meant that mostly in jest as we searched for ways to educate the children and save taxpayers. Who knew that the idea would gain life under Mr. Hylton. The problem then and the problem now is that for home/cyber school to be effective there needs to be a consistent influence at home that supports education. Really for all education to be effective that home influence is required. Not all the children of Pottstown are fortunate enough to have that kind of support. Education is the great levelizer and ALL children deserve equal opportunities. To have a current School Board Director advocate against public education means that the children are not well represented. To have that same person advocate for keeping facilities over educational opportunities means that the taxpayers are also not well represented.
Judyth Zahora
Are you kidding me???
Pottstown has a large share of low income families that contribute to the pretty high numbers of low income students enrolled in the district (see percentages of free/reduced lunches). While low income does not mean uneducated it might suggest an inability to ‘take time off’ to educate your kids or pay for escalating property taxes AND instructional materials. While home schooling is an alternative, for some families, there is MUCH more to it than that little advertisement suggests.
Frankly, in this economy, I don’t see this as the new trend in education in this town. Sure, in the age of technology we live in there are a VAST number of resources online – there is a fair percentage of households in town without access to a computer at home. The lack of home computer access is already something the teachers in the SD have to work around. We should seek, in some way, to improve that to better the quality of life in town before telling people how to educate their children.
Here’s another rub, too. So, people choose to home school and take on any costs associated with that program AND still pay property taxes to the SD (same as those attending private schools). Is Mr. Hylton suggesting having Pottstown parents home school their children for the SD to have a revenue center? The SD makes money through the property taxes still being paid and the child(ren) is(are) at home thus dropping enrollment numbers leaving, perhaps, a surplus of money? What does this lead to? Does it mean down-sizing or ultimately reducing tax burden? I’m unclear where this little ‘rah rah’ for home schooling is supposed to be leading people and their thoughts.
Running a home school is a rather labor-intensive job. Quite honestly, I think it is enough to make those people choosing to do it appreciate the struggle teachers go through trying to settle on a contract. I know enough to know that IF I home schooled my children I’b be wishing for a pretty big salary – it’s a job and a half to be a parent and teacher. That said, I would sacrifice a great deal for my kids and would do it if I felt it was best for them and because I could/wanted to. Nothing is as fulfilling as making connections for/with your child – but things still need to be paid for.
I just don’t see this as viable for many people in Pottstown. I could be wrong. I’m not sure how this fits what we know about the general lifestyles of people, today. Public schools don’t fight against this type of education, they partner with it allowing participation in sports and extra-curricular activities and assistance with materials. I am perplexed.
I must mention this one last thing: Is anybody else as amused by the fact that Mr. Hylton used, as his example, a family that started home schooling because it was too difficult to get to school? The bus stop was a mile and a half away, they were in a remote area of Oley and it became troublesome driving Brad to and from school… The first thing on the list is something they could’ve dealt with (they chose to live in the country) and the other two items are life choices, period. Are these people contributory to the obseity problem in America, too? They could have great excercise to and from the bus stop and made different choices their reality. Hey, each family has to do what works best for them and they, I’m sure, had their reasons but reasons Mr. Hylton has put out there, in the past, make some of these things all the more amusing to me. They don’t really fit the profile of many (if any) Pottstown parents, either.
monkeybz, you are SO on the money!!
I can only assume by all of this that Mr Hylton is suddenly promoting home schooling and cyber education in an attempt to make the sitting School Board – or ANY School Board – unnecessary. Basically, he’s throwing a hissy-fit. If he can’t have the S.B. then no one can.
In an attempt to make himself look good, I think, though, that he’s just shot himself in the foot. People who home school do it by choice, but not because it’s the ONLY choice! Most parents are more than happy to ship their kids off to school every day. If the only choice in Pottstown was to home school, nearly every family in the Boro with children would move elsewhere! How’s that for revitalization?
SR – Thanks!!
You are so right, make the current school set-up more or less irrelevant. Is this how we equalize the system? We encourage people to pull out of it rather than allow it to evolve? Mr. Hylton’s commentary makes me feel like he isn’t supporting the sytem he is governing – sounds like he’s ‘throwin’ it under the bus’!
For that matter, as Ms. Zahora pointed out there are struggles in some students’ homes for family support. With home schooling requiring more intensive support this just doesn’t make a great deal of sense, based on demographics. If you look at statistics on a site like citydata.com for education level among residents it makes even less sense that this is a choice worth exploration for many. The key ingredients in home schooling are time, willingness to do it well, the space needed for material storage, money to obtain needed materials, ability to adapt to a child’s learning style and more things not expressed by Mr. Hylton. A common theme emerges, once again, not all relevant information has been offered to the reader.
Wonder if the next ad will be about some kind of ‘Home School (Charter) Academy or Collective, of sorts?
Frankly, I know we have a shortage of people wanting/willing to run for SB but I can’t help but wonder if the needs/wishes of the community would be better voiced if we moved to a Regional set-up. Divide the 9 seats among 3 areas (3/ea area) and change the terms to 3 years/ea thus having yearly elections for 3 seats. Other places do it in this or a similar manner (Quakertown springs to mind and perhaps S-F, too). This keeps a constant stream of thought to leadership and keeps a SB, IMHO, fresh and a body that has to work together to accomplish things while placing an accountability on a member for their election area. It seems to me this particular arrangement would create a more accurate representation and, hopefully, bring about more constant involvement of the community to shape something they directly fund.
Just a thought.
I’m sure there are problems with this configuration for Pottstown that I haven’t thought of but this constant blame of a lame duck SB making decisions and the pressing need to enact change in only 2 years tends to predispose the town to either snap decisions or blame casting for things ‘done before’.
Isn’t it too bad that none of “the smartest people” Tom Hylton knows are products of Pottstown public schools? Some of his wife Frances’s former students, maybe? People who attended the most-perfect-and-excellent-form-of-elementary-education-known-to-man that Hylton has fought to protect lo these 30 years?
Some of the smartest people I know are products of Pottstown public schools. They are thoughtful, analytical, empathetic people who have the ability to advance their minds, to change, learn, and grow, to evolve. My heavens! Now that I think about it, they have almost nothing in common with the purveyor of suspect pedagogy who pays to publish these wretched advertorials!
Actually, consider this: Tom Hylton’s entire advetorial on home schooling is a ruse. His intention: get everyone all riled up about this concept as “detration” so when he slips his true intention forward it will seem pale by comparison, although even more hidious than this idea. Who know what could be next? Perhaps he is trying to make the neighborhoods schools appear to be a better choice by throwing out this “home schooling” bone. Watch out for the next one and remain very very astute.
UpSideDown,
I hadn’t thought of the ruse angle. Nice call – you could be absolutely right!
ANY idea that he comes up with will be heinous.
Actually, I’m waiting for him to tout the Combined Schools Campus idea as if it were his and his alone. He seems to be able to do an about-face whenever it suits his motives and is completely oblivious to the flip-flop.
What I can’t understand is why the School Board President doesn’t sit on this guy. I know he doesn’t speak for the whole Board, but c’mon. He sits on the Board and is identified with it!
BTW – completley off the topic, although maybe not so much – did you all see the self-agrandizing article in The Mercury about being named as a top ten newspaper? If that’s the case, I’d hate to read some of the ones that weren’t!!