Location, Location, Location

I posted this to a couple of local Yahoo Groups today.

Call me crazy and correct me if I am wrong but I am getting the feeling that homeschooling parents are a hard group to get together or to co-operate at organizing events. If these yahoo groups have around 100 members but can only get 4 to show up on any given day then that says something about our society. I'm not trying to knock this group, I am just pointing out a definite quirk. I am having the same difficulty with my homeschool blog. I invited everyone, got five to participate but in the end it is up to me to keep the thing going when I've been told by so many that it was a fantastic idea. We all seem to want to work with others or get information from each other but when it comes time to actually commit, the pool of people runs dry. We are only tapping the tip of the iceberg. We are only getting to the people seeking information on an ongoing basis.

I am willing to try something completely different to help everybody but it requires everybody in this group to participate if it is going to be successful. I am cross posting this message to other groups so you may see it duplicated but will require someone else to post it to WILC since I cannot participate in that group yet since my daughter is only 4. If you like the idea and can post this to some of the religious homeschool yahoo groups then that would help me too. If everyone will send me an email with their email address and the street or a cross street that is near their home and a zip code, I will put it on a map like the one we are doing for our neighborhood yard sale next weekend which you can view here. Each dot will be identified only by an email address so contact can be made between homeschoolers. If this works then maybe I could identify things better but the initial idea is to get an indication of where we all are. The result may be quite enlightening!

For suspicious minds, here is why I want to do this and how it may be beneficial (Bear with me);
I asked a member of the Dayton Public School Board to tell me how many children are home schooled within the DPS district. The answer was 160. My next quest will be to see if I can get the virtual academy charter schools to tell me how many students they have in the DPS district and in Montgomery County. I'll bet the numbers will be in the hundreds. Over time, and I am sure it will take several months, this map will start to "light up" as more people find it, are willing to participate and are able to communicate with others who live in their very own neighborhoods. The numbers of homeschoolers will only increase as our public education system struggles with the paradigm that if they keep throwing money at the problem it will take care of it.

It is my belief that if our city and the Miami Valley region were so homeschool friendly that it was sickening and if there was a strong network of established homeschooling and virtual charter school families identified in all neighborhoods then it would attract educated, like minded people to Dayton and the suburbs. Some of the children of these educated parents will end up in the public school system at some point causing test scores to go up. Something our City officials and school boards are missing completely. People will no longer use Dayton Public Schools as an excuse not to live in the city where housing values are a bargain compared to the rest of the nation. People may actually want to move here because of it. Those of us who want to can create their own co-ops and true neighborhood schools. We would be able to locate local parents with similar interests.

Why am I the only person who knows of 8 or 9 other homeschooling families in my own neighborhood? If there are 500 of us within a 20 mile radius of the City why don't we know it? If there are 500 of us, then we can see where the higher concentrations are located and ask the public school districts, private schools or community centers and libraries for services, resources or such things as open gym time. We could also establish neighborhood teams if people were so interested. Neighborhood co-ops could begin to form. If we can do stuff like this then you will never have to deal with that "socialization" stigma that we get whacked with all the time. My motivation for this is purely selfish. I have acquired the last house I will ever live in (within Dayton city limits) and I want to make my life easier when it comes to educating my daughter and being a little selective with regards to who she plays with. I mean, why should she play with someone who thinks a screwdriver is used to steal a car or stick in an electrical socket when she can play with someone who wants to grow up to be an engineer. I can make life easier for many others in the process which is why I am making this suggestion.

Remember, my daughter is only 4 so I have some time to get this done. If you want to benefit from it sooner don't sit back and wait. This won't cost a dime, you won't be contacted by phone and I won't try to sell you a set of encyclopedias! I don't need to know who you are, just an idea of where you are. If people want to change information or expand on this concept then we can see after the initial map is set up. If you live in Springfield or even Wilmington, send me the info. It may be beneficial to someone. You will become a dot on a map with an email address. If everyone in this group participates then at the end of a week I could have an extensive map for all to view. I am posting this to my blog in case you want to forward the message to people who aren't members of this yahoo group. I'm just the maker of the map. What we choose to do with the information will be up to us as individuals.

OK. Tell me I'm crazy or send the email so I can get this project started. Of course if someone has already done this, please tell me so I don't waste my time and can add the link to my site!