Lion's Den

"OH!  Look at you! LOOK at you! You look fabulous--LOOK at that necklace!"  With a shriek and jumping up to hug me, my friend Emily, the very person who had picked out and forced me to buy that necklace, ensured that an entire lobby full of people stopped their own conversation, turned to me and stared, each performing individual fashion autopsies.  As they reached the "nothing unusual, just another middle aged woman" conclusion, conversations slowly bubbled back to life.

I decided to count this as desensitization training.  In just over an hour, I had to walk into a room filled with strangers and all eyes would be on me, performing a different type of autopsy.

Dead woman walking.  Those who easily speak in public really can't understand the anxiety I felt all week leading up to this presentation.  Or how I tried to wriggle out of it, contacting the gentleman who invited me, wondering if his agenda had filled and if he might prefer me to provide a written comment instead?  "Of course not!" came his quick reply.  "Come whenever you can, we will work the meeting around your availability."

Crud.

How bad could it be?  I mean, yes, it's a State Board.  But's it's a State Board of the Science Olympiad competition.  That must mean teachers, right?  Maybe 10?  Sitting around a table informally discussing what-ever-it-is that sciencey people discuss?  I could do that.

"How many folks should I prepare for?  Can you send me more particulars?"

About 30 came the reply.  Ok, more than I bargained for, but not an unmanageable number.

"...people from all over the state.  Associate Chancellors, deans of colleges and universities and some regular classroom teachers too."

Thud.

"You can't even spell chancellor," my (former) BFF who has known me for 26 years asserted.  "You have no business speaking to this group.  What are you talking about again?"

The homeschool rule.  I launched into my reasoning as to why the rule was unfair and the chilling effect it was already spreading to other organizations that included home schoolers.

"Oh, rules?  Homeschool?  You'll be fine.  You love to talk about that stuff.  Just don't be antagonistic and self-righteous."

Moi?

"Praise God!" shot back another friend when I wrote of how I wanted to throw up just thinking about talking to these highly credentialed people.  "Look who God is putting before you.  Step out in faith and see what He will do."  Maybe she had a point, but seeing as she directed training seminars and used to be in charge of a whole continent for a large corporation, speaking to groups probably didn't require quite the same leap of faith for her extroverted personality.

"Oh, and spend some time telling a bit about yourself to build rapport.  Don't just complain.  And stick to the point.  Don't veer off into controversial areas.  Remember, people get defensive over educational choices.  Be careful in what you say."

Beginning to sense an unflattering theme as to how my usual talk strikes those who know me best, I became even less sure I was the woman for the job.

The rapture didn't happen on my drive to the meeting, despite my fervent prayers.  I neither fainted nor puked during my presentation.  I didn't speak nearly as well as I had wanted to nor nearly as poorly as I expected I might.  The sciencey folks were for the most part warm and polite and moved to ask Science Olympiad to reconsider their national rule vis a vis Illinois.

Most importantly, God saw fit--wouldn't you know that friend of mine was right!--to place in the audience not just State Board folks, but a Science Olympiad National representative.  Not just a representative, but the man who will be in charge of all of Science Olympiad next year.  Whatever I said, God pricked that man's ears.  The grand poobah followed me into the hall, gave me his card, said he wanted to speak to me more about this and it was definitely something that needed attention.  He thought perhaps we should get together for lunch.

Food?  One on one?  Talking about homeschooling?  This I know how to do!

Yet, when I think I know how to do something, that's usually when the trouble starts.  Perhaps you should pray that God continues to keep me a bit off-kilter.  He seems to do his best work in those circumstances.

Blessings,
Holly

Good News or Merely More Confusion?

Hi, all!

There is some potentially good news on the homeschool MathCounts team issue.  You may remember new homeschool teams were banned from competition this year.  We were fortunate in our region to have a coordinator who scored our kids' team on an "unofficial" basis and reported those scores to me privately.  They, by the way, "unofficially" won that portion of the competition and "unofficially" placed second overall as a team.  For their fantastic debut effort, they received nary a nod or applause or mention from the podium.  We were the only ones who knew of their achievement.  Great way to treat kids, hunh?

MathCounts just issued a new ruling for the upcoming competitive season.  I've listed it below, but some concerns remain.  For instance, my local middle school competes in one region even though the school draws kids from two different MathCounts regions.  I live in a town that straddles two counties.  According to the new modification, if a homeschooled kid lives just 10 minutes from where our team practices, he or she would have to drive an hour to the homeschool team in that region/county rather than 20 city blocks to our team.  Seems to defeat the intent of the ruling, which is clearly to restrict homeschool teams to a small geographic area.  Also, there is no such thing as a legitimately recognized homeschool group in my state.  Homeschools are legal private schools in IL.  This year, I had all our competitors' parents sign an affidavit saying they were in full legal compliance with the state code regulating private schools.  I don't see any way our state could require any more.  Or would our homeschool math team be considered a legitimately recognized homeschool group by virtue of our regular meetings and practices?  Who is the arbiter of legitimacy here?

I applaud MathCounts for relenting on their unreasonable rule of last season, but as long as we have magnet schools, private schools and public schools who are not in compliance with the rules below, the policy remains discriminatory toward a group of kids merely because of where and how they receive their primary instruction.  And in my book, that's just plain wrong.

Team Eligibility Rule Modification:  Coordinators were notified that the Homeschool/Small School eligibility rule will be modified for the 2011-2012 program year.  Homeschool groups will once again be allowed to register a team for the competition program.  However, all homeschool groups registering a team will be required to meet the following qualifications:  1. All registered members of the team must live within the same chapter they will be competing in and 2. Homeschool groups registering a team must complete a Homeschool Affidavit that identifies the school as a legitimately recognized homeschool group within the state and discourages the homeschool group’s students from registering independently should they not be selected to represent the homeschool group noted on the affidavit.

The rule prohibiting small schools from combining with other small schools to form a team still will be enforced for the 2011-2012 program year.

Although the MATHCOUNTS Board of Directors has agreed to modify the team eligibility rule for the 2011-2012 program year, the format of the affidavit is still in the development stages.  Additional information concerning the rule modification will be provided to coordinators when it becomes available, as well as in the 2011-2012 Coordinator Manual and in the 2011-2012 MATHCOUNTS School Handbook.