Extra Credit

Patricia Z. Downey

Kensington

Montgomery public schools spokesman Steve Simon discussed Downey's complaint with Steve Zagami, director of the Department of Student Services. Zagami acknowledged that his field staff member "did make an inaccurate statement in referencing an '80-20' rule or guideline," Simon said. That would seem to clear that up, except Zagami then sent a letter to Downey with language that seems to me designed to confuse parents and make the home-schooling experience more bureaucratic and annoying than it ought to be. This is the sentence that got me: "MSDE has provided local school systems guidance that while a parent may use a tutor or college course to supplement instruction, the tutor or college course would have to be in addition to the instruction that the child receives from the parent in the home, not in lieu of the home instruction program provided by the parent."

Huh? I thought the idea was to help kids learn. I don't understand how worrying whether additional instruction is "in addition to" rather than "in lieu of" parental teaching fulfills that admirable desire. Maybe somebody out there can explain it to me.

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