The 2015 Pennsylvania law that affected homeschooling made significant changes to the Portfolio Requirement. You still have to do one, but you will NOT turn it in to the school district! That will be a big relief to the school districts to not have to handle and review all those folders. But that also means that your evaluator is the sole audience of all your work. Which for me means that I have an increased “liability” before the...
Which diploma program is right for your teen?
I work with the PHAA, Susquehanna Valley, and Mason-Dixon Diploma Programs for highschoolers in Pennsylvania. Each program has a unique niche and slightly (or dramatically) different requirements. Most of the differences have to do with what is required for English credit each year. In order to keep it all straight myself, I created a table summarizing the differences which you can download here and print or use for comparison. The law requires...
Teaching Boys Differently than Girls
Two summers ago I read some books by Dr. Leonard Sax, M.D. about dealing with boys in the classroom. Though he is not a believer, his observations and recommendations resonated with me. I have since put together a workshop presentation that I have taught a few times now. The homeschool moms and lady teachers seem to really enjoy the content of this workshop! Teaching boys is definitely different than teaching girls — but equipped with...
Book review about the Crisis of Teen Girls
Girls on the Edge: The Four Factors Driving the New Crisis for Girls From Sax’s introduction to this book: “Early on I began to understand that girls are not the winners in this story. Both the girls and boys are disadvantaged, but they’re disadvantaged in different ways. More and more boys are developing an epicurean ability to enjoy themselves – they enjoy video games, pornography, food, and sleep – but they often don’t have the drive and...
Review of “Boys Adrift”
Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men Reviewed by Timothy Anger, M.S. Recently I read “Boys Adrift” – a book by Dr. Leonard Sax, a pediatrician and psychologist in Exton, Pennsylvania. As a result of writing the book, he is now a speaker in very high demand around the United States and the world. This book explores the phenomenon of a generation of boys and young men who are...