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pickausername
Junior Member
Joined: 01 Dec 2012
Posts: 3
Location: US, Maryland
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 Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:30 am Post subject: Maryland Music Educators Association |
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I would like to be able to participate in the Maryland All-State ensembles. Currently, however, only public and private schooled students who play in their school ensembles are eligible to participate. Since I'm homeschooled, I am not permitted to participate, though I play in a homeschool ensemble. Additionally, I play in a local youth orchestra and take private lessons.
I can't explain the situation better than I did in a flyer, so I've copied and pasted part of it:
When MMEA (Maryland Music Educators Association) was founded in 1941, homeschooling was illegal. 70 years later, homeschooling has been legalized in all 50 states, and the Maryland State Department of Education has said NO legal reason prevents MMEA from including homeschoolers. MMEA’s outdated policy does not allow homeschoolers, even when they meet the same requirements that private schoolers meet. Please help us urge MMEA to update this policy to include homeschoolers in activities such as the All-State ensembles and Solo & Ensemble Festival.
Why should MMEA include homeschoolers?
The MMEA mission is to “provide enriched musical opportunities for students, encourage student participation in music, and improve the quality of music instruction.” Some MMEA members direct homeschool ensembles: allowing the students in these ensembles to participate in MMEA events would support MMEA members. Other states already allow homeschoolers to participate in state-wide MEA activities. See Virginia’s VMEA site for their progressive, inclusive policy http://www.vmea.com/index.php/overview.html
What do you think? Should the MMEA change its policy to allow homeschoolers like myself to participate in its activities? If so, would you mind sending a short email to the MMEA board asking them to change this policy? Their emails can be found here: http://goo.gl/TJ94J Thanks! |
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Lemuel
Site Admin
Joined: 12 Aug 2010
Posts: 515
Location: Mt. Elgin, Ontario
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| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 1:28 pm Post subject: |
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| It appears from your post that some MMEA members are already participating in homeschooling activities in some states. Do you know the specific reason, why Maryland is not bending? Perhaps if you can find out, it might give you a new perspective to solving your problem. |
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pickausername
Junior Member
Joined: 01 Dec 2012
Posts: 3
Location: US, Maryland
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| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 4:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Lemuel wrote: | | It appears from your post that some MMEA members are already participating in homeschooling activities in some states. Do you know the specific reason, why Maryland is not bending? Perhaps if you can find out, it might give you a new perspective to solving your problem. |
When I first contacted MMEA, they said they were worried about the legality of allowing homeschoolers. Upon request, the Maryland Department of Education released a statement that MMEA is free to allow homeschoolers if it wishes. That was over a week before the All-State auditions. I heard nothing back from MMEA until the night before the auditions -- they said they weren't going to allow homeschoolers. I showed up to the auditions, hoping to find out more (reasons, info, could I audition anyway in hope of a policy change). I was given no reason other than "technical difficulties" and "we're not interested." If the reason is technical difficulties, lawyers from the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) sent a letter a year or two ago asking MMEA to respond if they encountered any concerns when allowing homeschoolers. MMEA never responded to that letter.
I'm starting to feel ignored -- I've gotten no response to my last several emails -- so I decided to (nicely and respectfully) post on forums, send emails, and make as much noise as possible. Even on my first email, I got nothing back until I asked a few music teachers to send emails to MMEA.
Though your question is, "why would MD exclude homeschoolers and not other states?" and hence not directly asking this, you might be interested to know about a piece of flawed logic that might be slowing Maryland down. I've already discussed it with others (in forums, in person, via email), so I'll just copy and paste my explanation for you to read if you're interested. If not, you can skip it, because it is all hypothesis -- none of it came from MMEA -- and obviously other states decided to change their policy anyway.
I believe there is a fear of homeschoolers held by teachers. I say this coming from a family of public school music teachers. I believe they see homeschoolers as a threat to their jobs. Strong teachers' unions in MD are responsible, I believe, in keeping homeschoolers out of public school activities -- they desperately want to discourage homeschooling. I think this is the same fear that is working in the minds of the leaders of MMEA.
I do think there is some level of legitimacy to this argument -- especially because in the digital age, it IS getting easier to homeschool, and the number of their jobs may well shrink. I am taking a math course where my teacher is on a MP4. This year, I am taking online AP Chemistry, AP US History, and AP English. While I also take some classes at a community college and other physical locations, technology has facilitated my homeschool education. But the loss of some jobs due to technological advances is inevitable. Nobody can fix that.
Really, there are two major flaws to this jobs fallacy. Firstly, something is missed in this logic. Many homeschoolers are homeschooling for religious reasons or they think there is some problem with the default public school. Even in my family, religion played a role, though perhaps not as great, in my homeschool education. You're not going to discourage those from homeschooling who are doing it for mostly religious reasons by excluding them from public school activities. Then you have those who are homeschooling for a better education. True, you might have some in this bucket who are truly discouraged by exclusion from public school activities. But seriously, you're not likely to exclude many. There are homeschool co-ops and classes filling the public school's role, negating the impact of this exclusion. The public school teachers would gain many of these students in their classes by allowing students to participate in one class at a time. I think those who are discouraged from homeschooling and end up staying in the public schools are more than outweighed by the number of additional students lost by forcing them to take all or none.
I can speak firsthand that the exclusion has no impact on my decision to homeschool. I can also say that I would have probably taken several classes at my local schools had I been allowed to do so.
Secondly and more importantly, this attitude of excluding homeschoolers doesn't make any sense. Moving out of a fear of "keep our jobs" -- which I just showed was largely unfounded, and indeed, perhaps even counterproductive -- my parents are paying taxes to pay public school teachers. If my parents are helping pay for 10 teachers, does it not make sense that my parents and I should be allowed to make use of 3 of them when we need them? Doesn't that seem a bit ridiculous?
But I need to move from the reasons for the exclusion policy of the schools to the reasons for the exclusion policy of MMEA. As an association of teachers, MMEA holds many of the same fears that are responsible for homeschoolers being excluded from public school courses and activities. I think these fears are why MMEA does not wish to allow homeschoolers to participate in its activities. Really, though, All-State is not going to be the difference between attending a public school and homeschooling. More importantly, MMEA is missing out on supporting homeschool music teachers jobs* AND music in homeschool settings. If they are truly worried about their jobs, they should be worried about the music education in all environments -- that is what will determine their future jobs more than anything else. I can say that several kids have dropped band who would have still been doing band had they had the experiences of All-State and Solo and Ensemble Festival. (of course, none of them stopped homeschooling, they just stopped their instruments -- an example of how this policy is counterproductive)
*I put a star, because in many cases, the jobs pay little or it is purely volunteer work. But, private school jobs don't pay much either... so why pick on homeschoolers?
I think that's the core of the "exclude homeschoolers" logic. I hope you also see how it doesn't achieve its goals, nor does it make sense from a practical viewpoint. Other states have seen this and have moved on to allow homeschoolers to participate, while Maryland remains stuck in the 1940s. |
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Lemuel
Site Admin
Joined: 12 Aug 2010
Posts: 515
Location: Mt. Elgin, Ontario
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| Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2012 12:15 am Post subject: |
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Good logic on your part, even though the projected fears of the MMEA are hypothetical.
Is there not one single person in Maryland who is a member of MMEA that might have good relationship with homeschoolers? Have you tried to contacting HSLDA yourself? |
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pickausername
Junior Member
Joined: 01 Dec 2012
Posts: 3
Location: US, Maryland
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| Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2012 12:49 am Post subject: |
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| Lemuel wrote: | Good logic on your part, even though the projected fears of the MMEA are hypothetical.
Is there not one single person in Maryland who is a member of MMEA that might have good relationship with homeschoolers? Have you tried to contacting HSLDA yourself? |
I have sent emails to many members of MMEA, and most thought homeschoolers definitely should be allowed to participate. Many also said that they contacted the MMEA board asking them to consider changing their policy. Several even said that they had homeschooled their children.
Unfortunately, members of MMEA do not make any decisions; the executive board does.
My parents have been in correspondence with HSLDA (parents, not students, are supposed to contact HSLDA), but there's nothing further that HSLDA can do since MMEA does not want their help. |
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