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Title: Elite take home-school route
Source:
USA Today
URL Source: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/prep ... -06-07-home-school-cover_x.htm
Published: Jun 8, 2005
Author: Sal Ruibal
Post Date: 2005-06-08 10:20:58 by Mr Nuke Buzzcut
Keywords: home-school, Elite, route
Views: 56
Elite take home-school route By Sal Ruibal, USA TODAY When his Blue Wave teammates finish their workouts, they will rush to catch a bus that will take them to their public schools. But Viana, an aspiring Olympian, will head home for a second breakfast and his lessons, taught by his mother, Tracy. He'll be back in the pool by midafternoon. Viana and his family are part of a small but growing trend kids are taking to the elite levels of athletics without setting foot in a classroom: home schooling. The practice is controversial; advocates claim it is a boon for the talented, while detractors say it puts short-term athletic goals ahead of academics. There were more than 1.1 million home-schooled youths in the USA in spring 2003, up from 850,000 in 1999, according to the most recent numbers from the National Center for Education Statistics. That's about 2.2% of the USA's student-age population, or one of every 45 students. Most learn at home because of their families' religious beliefs or concerns about the educational environment at traditional schools. But some are bypassing the traditional high school-to-college-to-professional path to hone their skills with more flexibility and fewer restrictions from school activity associations and league rules. "Home schooling is an especially good educational strategy for children with exceptional talents," says Mitchell Stevens, associate professor of education and sociology at New York University and author of Kingdom of Children: Culture and Controversy in the Home-schooling Movement, a look at the social history of home schooling. "Parents can organize learning around the passions and skills of their children." Their numbers are still few, but some have impressive athletic credentials: * Basketball player Mike Beasley, a rising junior from Upper Marlboro, Md., is projected by some analysts to become the first player to go directly from home school to the NBA. He has verbally committed to play for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte after he graduates in 2007. * The ranks of action sports champions are thick with home-school graduates such as 17-year-old X Games snowboard gold medalist Shaun White, 19-year-old motocross champion James "Bubba" Stewart and 17-year-old mountain bike champion Kyle Strait. * Basketball player Sam Warren, who was home-schooled until his senior year, has signed a letter of intent to attend the University of Virginia, an academically rigorous school in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Virginia athletics department officials believe he will be the first home-schooler to enter on an athletic scholarship. Formal home-school leagues have been formed and hold local, state, regional and national championships in basketball, soccer, volleyball and softball. There are national rankings for home-schooled teams in soccer, baseball and softball. As the number of home-schooled athletes increases, so do questions about the quality of the education they are getting and the potential exploitation of athletes who could be sacrificing their right to a basic education in pursuit of sports goals. "There is valid moral criticism of parents who endanger their children's academic and employment futures in their quest for athletic stardom," Stanford political scientist Rob Reich says. "How much of this is the child's decision and how much is it the parents'? These children are becoming hyper-specialized at a very early age." Greater flexibility Alfred and Tracy Viana have four home-schooled athletes, but they didn't start out that way. "At one time I was looking forward to the kids going to school," Tracy Viana says. "I was hoping to get some help. We prayed that God would not ask us to home-school. Faith is important to us. "But then we became certain that this was what God wanted." What the Vianas got was their oldest son, Will, emerging as a serious Olympic prospect without having attended regular school. Will and his siblings ? Robert, 11, Joseph, 9, and Katie, 6 ? are members of the prestigious Blue Wave Swim Team and train at Brandon Sports and Aquatic Center, home of former Olympic champions Brooke Bennett and Micki King. "Will really doesn't have time for both (regular school) and swimming," says his mother, who teaches the children religious studies and monitors other online lessons. "His weekly pool time is 20 hours, maybe more. And that doesn't count travel time. "He could do swimming well and school well, and that would be it, with time for nothing else. He is a talented pianist and loves doing that, too. He doesn't want to give that up." Blue Wave coach Peter Bart says Will has an advantage on traditionally schooled swimmers because his more flexible schedule allows time for two things critical to success as an endurance athlete: nutrition and rest. "He leaves for the pool by 5 a.m. and has another training session in the afternoon," Bart says. "The other kids scramble to catch the bus to get to school and then again after classes are over. If William needs a snack or a nap during the day, then he can take one." The ability to adjust school hours to fit training needs also has worked well for mountain bike stunt-jumper Strait, who has a six-figure income from sponsors such as Red Bull energy drink, Oakley sportswear and Specialized bicycles. "If I needed to go to the skate park to practice for eight hours, I could do that," says Strait, a Redlands, Calif., native who recently completed his high school studies. "I knew I'd have to make up that school time that night, but it really helped to have that option." Questions remain Despite its newfound acceptance, home schooling has had to battle for legal and social legitimacy. The National Education Association, which represents public school teachers, demanded tighter controls on home schooling, asking lawmakers to ensure that home study is monitored by local school administrative personnel and that students participate in state or locally mandated testing programs in "suitable settings." The NEA still has that position but is no longer lobbying for those tougher rules. Reich ? who has argued in several essays that it is in the best interests of society and the individual to teach children subjects that might be in opposition to a parent's beliefs ? says there are legitimate reasons for more regulation. "The state has a role in reining in possible abuse," he says. "Sports are by no means unique in the potential to limit a child's independent future. The situation is the same for child actors, musicians and other specialists." NYU professor Stevens says there is nothing inherent in home-schooling athletes that would create conditions for abuse. "Would we be raising these questions if we were talking about a prodigy in violin or physics?" he asks. "Exploitation or abuse doesn't come because of sports; it comes because of money." Some home-schoolers with exceptional talents outside sports have given home schooling's academic credentials a big boost. Rebecca Sealfon of Brooklyn, N.Y., won the 1997 Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee. Three years later, home-schoolers won first, second and third place in the 2000 national spelling bee. And May 25, seventh-grade home-schooler Nathan Cornelius of Cottonwood, Minn., won the 2005 National Geographic Bee. To the minute Coaches and academics say home-schooled athletes have plenty of motivation and superior time-management skills. "The paradox of home schooling is that freedom from adult time management usually results in an increase in time-management skills by the children," Stevens says. "Home schooling makes it possible to develop relationships with a wider range of people. Schools are organized by age and organize kids' lives for them. "Home schooling obliges them to be more responsible." Paul Yetter, who coaches Hoff, says she is a master of her time. "She is always on time, to the minute," he says. "She is always prepared for that day's workout. Because she is so together, I can do my one-on-one coaching with her in less time than it takes other swimmers. And that leaves more time for the others and makes for a stronger team." Tracy Viana says that despite Will's heavy training load, her son has passed his school-taught peers in and out of the pool. "He doesn't lack opportunities," she says. "William goes to an all-day math class at another parent's home and takes German away from home. He's already doing high school-level math work." Dean Graves, whose daughter Giorgie, 11, also trains with Viana's Blue Wave team, says he, too, was skeptical when his family switched to home schooling this year. "The school route was all I knew when we started," he says. "I thought there had to be a strict structure, but we soon learned that you have to throw all that out the window." Much of home schooling takes place away from home. Giorgie Graves has completed a NASA-sponsored project that involved several other home-schooled children and was led by a neighborhood mother who served as the science teacher, her father says. The students were asked to select a planet or other celestial object and conduct research to determine if it would be feasible to visit that site with a spacecraft. The project was graded by NASA employees and was judged successful. Graves' father says home schooling also has brought his family closer together and in ways he never thought possible. "Swimming is a lonely sport, not like football or other team sports," he says. "There are times when she's disappointed in her performance, and there are ups and downs. "I assigned her to read the book Wooden by John Wooden, which inspired me when I first read it. We read excerpts from it together, and now I see her picking up the book for inspiration when she feels down. "Just because a teacher isn't grading her doesn't mean she isn't learning."
Poster Comment: 
Will Viana gets out of bed at 4 a.m., washes his face and pads into the kitchen of his family's home in Valrico, Fla., for a bowl of oatmeal. This is not a middle-of-the-night snack: The slim 13-year-old soon will head out through the rainy gloom for several grueling hours of swim practice. * Swimmer Katie Hoff ? a 2004 Olympian ? is home-schooled.
And the opportunities for home-schooled athletes to show their skills to college coaches are growing. According to the Home School Legal Defense Association, 14 states allow home-schoolers to play on public school teams. The NCAA has given home-schoolers equal status with traditional students and streamlined their access to its academic eligibility clearinghouse.
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