The Modern Homeschooling Movement

Homeschooling is a popular and fast-growing trend in the United States and Canada. This article presents a comprehensive overview of current research on homeschooling and provides historical, academic, psychological, and political information to build a proper context for appreciating the contribution of homeschooling to civic welfare

Duchowy charakter całości edukacji powodem odradzania się edukacji domowej

All education is spiritual and ergo homeschooling is resurging. Parent-directed, family- and home-based private education schooling – that is, homeschooling – is millennia old and has experienced a notable renascence around the world during the past 40 years. With respect to homeschooling, “Parent-directed means the parents have deliberately chosen to take responsibility for the education of their children, controlling both the education process and the curriculum (course of study). Family-based means the center of educational gravity is the home, with other resources being secondary” (homeschoolingbackgrounder.com, 2020). One of the key reasons that home education is growing is that more parents and more of the general public are recognizing that all education of children deals with values, beliefs, and, ultimately, an overall worldview (Weltanschauung). Because worldview is a comprehensive conception or apprehension of the world, especially from a specific standpoint, it is, de facto, spiritual. This paper shows that all education and schooling is the teaching, training, and indoctrination of children, that the worldwide rebirth of home education came with a focus on spirituality, that empirical evidence shows that all education is spiritual and spirituality is motivating many homeschoolers, and, finally, that scholarly theoretical arguments against homeschooling involve the spiritual.Każda odmiana edukacji ma „duchowy” charakter, czego konsekwencją jest renesans edukacji domowej. Kierowana przez rodziców, oparta na rodzinie i domu prywatna edukacja – tj. edukacja domowa – ma tysiące lat, a od czterdziestu lat doświadcza zauważalnego renesansu na całym świecie. Oto jego definicja: „Kierowanie przez rodziców oznacza, że dobrowolnie przyjmują oni na siebie odpowiedzialność za edukację swoich dzieci, kontrolując zarówno jej proces, jak i program (treści). Oparcie na rodzinie to wskazanie, że środkiem ciężkości edukacji jest rodzinny dom, a jej środki mają drugorzędne znaczenie” (homeschoolingbackgrounder.com, 2020). Jednym z głównych powodów upowszechniania się edukacji domowej jest to, że coraz większa liczba rodziców i coraz większy segment opinii publicznej uznaje za istotne wartości, przekonania, a ostatecznie ogólny światopogląd (Weltanschauung). Jako że światopogląd jest ogólną koncepcją lub wizją świata, szczególnie z konkretnego punktu widzenia, to de facto ma charakter duchowy. Artykuł ten wykazuje, że cała edukacja i kształcenie są nauczaniem, wdrażaniem i indoktrynacją dzieci, że światowe odradzanie się edukacji domowej dokonuje się z orientacją na duchowość oraz że empiryczne dowody przesądzają o tym, iż całość edukacji jest duchowa, przy czym duchowość motywuje wielu edukatorów domowych, a wreszcie że akademickie, teoretyczne zaledwie argumenty przeciwko edukacji domowej same zdradzają swoiste uduchowienie

Parental Physical Activity and Resilience During Pandemic-Related Schooling at Home

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education for millions of families, forcing an instantaneous overlap in parental responsibilities and a resulting decline in personal mental health. Psychological resilience is an important contributor to handling prolonged stress. As physical activity (PA) is known to improve mental health, it is possible that PA during the COVID-19 education disruption could result in a significant difference in parental resilience. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine if PA levels during the COVID-19 educational disruption resulted in statistically significant differences in perceived resilience among parents of school-aged youth. METHODS: Fifty-six parents/guardians of youth aged 10-18 years completed a survey in fall of 2020. In addition to demographic questions, participants completed the recreational and sedentary portions of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Physical Activity Questionnaire and the Adult Resilience Measure, resulting in overall resilience as well as personal (e.g., individual thoughts, behaviors) and relational (e.g., mutually empowering connections) resilience subscale scores. Parents were classified as meeting or not meeting WHO recommended PA levels. T-tests examined differences in resilience scores between groups. RESULTS: Overall, personal, and relational mean resilience scores for parents who did (n = 36) versus did not (n = 20) meet WHO recommended PA levels were 73.39 ± 8.66 versus 67.95 ± 9.30, 41.78 ± 5.25 versus 39.70 ± 4.78, and 31.61 ± 4.45 versus 28.25 ± 5.54 respectively. T-tests revealed a significant difference in total (t(54) = 2.19, p = .033, d = .61) and relational subscale scores (t(54) = 22.48, p = .016, d = .67), but no difference between personal subscale scores (t(54) = 1.46, p = .149, d = .41). CONCLUSION: Parents of school-aged youth who did not meet WHO recommended PA levels had significantly lower overall perceived resilience than those who met recommended levels. The significantly lower relational, but not personal, resilience scores seen in parents who did not meet WHO recommendations also suggests the importance of meaningful connections during PA. In short, meeting PA recommendations resulted in significantly higher perceived parental resilience during the COVID-19 educational disruption

Effects of Vision on Dynamic Stability Against Backward Loss of Balance in Young and Elderly Subjects

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Parental perceived built environment measures and active play in Washington DC metropolitan children

AbstractObjectivePrevious research identified associations between perceived built environment and adult physical activity; however, fewer studies have explored associations in children. The Built Environment and Active Play (BEAP) Study examined relationships between children's active play and parental perceptions of home neighborhood built environments within the Washington, DC metropolitan area (DMV).MethodsWith this cross-sectional study, a questionnaire was administered in 2014 to parents of children (7–12years old) residing in the DMV. Data were collected on children's active play, home built environment parental perceptions, and demographics. Active play response data were dichotomized by whether the child did or did not meet the 60-min/day Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (PAGAs) recommendation. Perceived home neighborhood built environment data were also dichotomized. Chi-square tests determined differences in parental perceived built environment measures between active and non-active child groups. Logistic regression assessed the association of parental perceived built environment variables with active play while adjusting for demographic variables.ResultsThe BEAP Study population (n=144) included a uniquely diverse population of children with 23.7% African Americans and 10.4% Asian Americans. A statistically significant greater proportion of active children's parents agreed with the importance of neighborhood esthetics, active play areas, walkability and safety as compared to the parents of non-active children. Fully adjusted logistic regression models demonstrated that some parental perceived built environment measures (e.g. access to play equipment) were predictors of their children meeting the 60-min/day PAGA recommendation.ConclusionOur findings support the important role of home neighborhood built environment perceptions on childhood active play

The mPower Study, Parkinson Disease Mobile Data Collected Using Researchkit

Current measures of health and disease are often insensitive, episodic, and subjective. Further, these measures generally are not designed to provide meaningful feedback to individuals. The impact of high-resolution activity data collected from mobile phones is only beginning to be explored. Here we present data from mPower, a clinical observational study about Parkinson disease conducted purely through an iPhone app interface. The study interrogated aspects of this movement disorder through surveys and frequent sensor-based recordings from participants with and without Parkinson disease. Benefitting from large enrollment and repeated measurements on many individuals, these data may help establish baseline variability of real-world activity measurement collected via mobile phones, and ultimately may lead to quantification of the ebbs-and-flows of Parkinson symptoms. App source code for these data collection modules are available through an open source license for use in studies of other conditions. We hope that releasing data contributed by engaged research participants will seed a new community of analysts working collaboratively on understanding mobile health data to advance human health

Development and performance assessment of an integrated vermifiltration based treatment system for the treatment of feedlot runoff

The objective of this study was to treat feedlot runoff by developing an ecologically sustainable, affordable, and resilient treatment system having a relatively long life span. Three horizontal flow soil biofilters were utilized in this study: 1) without earthworms and plants (Biofilter (BF)), 2) with earthworms only (Vermifilter (VF)), and 3) with earthworms and plants (Macrophyte Assisted Vermifilter (MAVF)). The experiments were conducted with a hydraulic retention time of four days using Lumbricus terestrris earthworms and Carex frankii wetland plants. The average COD removal from the BF, VF, and MAVF were 23.2–30.4%, 61.4–69.1%, and 68.3–78.1%, respectively. Average TN removal efficiencies for BF, VF, and MAVF were 15.5–21.4%, 34.4–38.8%, and 39.1–44.0%, respectively. Additionally, average TP removals for BF, VF, and MAVF were 31.9–40.8%, 48.0–54.0%, and 51.1–58.3%, respectively. Comparison of results with literature indicate that the developed system can facilitate more nitrogen removal. Plant roots, along with earthworms, create an aerobic ecosystem within the treatment filter, leading to high organics oxidation and nitrification efficiency among BF, VF, and MAVF. Observational analysis indicates the system with earthworms is prone to clogging while the system with earthworms and plants was less prone to clogging. Thus, it can be concluded that if modularized, the application of MAVF systems can treat feedlot runoffs with higher removal efficiency and expanded life span

Intersections of Competencies for Practice and Research in Community Psychology

The Community Psychology Practice Competencies (Dalton & Wolfe, 2012) have helped the field of community psychology clarify the skills necessary to engage in community practice in our discipline and have begun to be used for designing curricula and other educational tools in community psychology training programs. Many community psychologists, however, combine elements of both practice and research in their work, and research skills are less represented in the practice competencies than other types of skills. Society for Community Research and Action’s Council on Education recently developed a set of Community Psychology Research Competencies to provide additional depth of understanding of the types of skills and knowledge associated with rigorous and impactful research in community psychology. This paper describes the research competencies and their development and considers them in the context of the existing practice competencies in the interests of expanding the understanding of how research and practice intersect in our training programs and our work in both academic and non-academic settings. An action-research cycle model is presented to help explain how practice and research competencies complement one another and how both are informed by a common set of principles guiding all the activities of our field. Recommendations are then offered for integrating the research and practice competencies across practice- or research-focused training programs

Intersections of Competencies for Practice and Research in Community Psychology

The Community Psychology Practice Competencies (Dalton & Wolfe, 2012) have helped the field of community psychology clarify the skills necessary to engage in community practice in our discipline and have begun to be used for designing curricula and other educational tools in community psychology training programs. Many community psychologists, however, combine elements of both practice and research in their work, and research skills are less represented in the practice competencies than other types of skills. Society for Community Research and Action’s Council on Education recently developed a set of Community Psychology Research Competencies to provide additional depth of understanding of the types of skills and knowledge associated with rigorous and impactful research in community psychology. This paper describes the research competencies and their development and considers them in the context of the existing practice competencies in the interests of expanding the understanding of how research and practice intersect in our training programs and our work in both academic and non-academic settings. An action-research cycle model is presented to help explain how practice and research competencies complement one another and how both are informed by a common set of principles guiding all the activities of our field. Recommendations are then offered for integrating the research and practice competencies across practice- or research-focused training programs

Measuring and Correcting Wind-Induced Pointing Errors of the Green Bank Telescope Using an Optical Quadrant Detector

Wind-induced pointing errors are a serious concern for large-aperture high-frequency radio telescopes. In this paper, we describe the implementation of an optical quadrant detector instrument that can detect and provide a correction signal for wind-induced pointing errors on the 100m diameter Green Bank Telescope (GBT). The instrument was calibrated using a combination of astronomical measurements and metrology. We find that the main wind-induced pointing errors on time scales of minutes are caused by the feedarm being blown along the direction of the wind vector. We also find that wind-induced structural excitation is virtually non-existent. We have implemented offline software to apply pointing corrections to the data from imaging instruments such as the MUSTANG 3.3 mm bolometer array, which can recover ~70% of sensitivity lost due to wind-induced pointing errors. We have also performed preliminary tests that show great promise for correcting these pointing errors in real-time using the telescope's subreflector servo system in combination with the quadrant detector signal.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures; accepted for publication in PAS