  |
            |
 |
The following announcements appeared in the HERO e-mail update to help clarify the pupose and intended audience HERO. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - WHO ARE THE HERO UPDATES FOR? Due to some recent inquiries, we thought it would be helpful to clarify who the HERO e-mail list is intended to reach. The HERO e-mail list is specifically created for and offered to parents who are teaching their children at home. And, as you know, it is a Christian network. It is not intended for parents of students enrolled in a public school full time (such as a virtual academy which is a public charter school). It also does not include parents of students enrolled in a community school (which is a private school where some of the work is done at home). School done at home is not necessarily the same thing as home education. If a family does not qualify to file an Affidavit of Intent to Home School because their child is enrolled as a public school or private school student, that family is not part of the intended subscribership of HERO. We realize that there are parents whose children are virtual academy students or community school students who could benefit from participating in the HERO network. However, our mission is specifically to support and encourage parent-led, family-funded home education. We would encourage parents of virtual academy or community school students to form their own e-mail networks where they could encourage one another and share information. It is not our intention to cause any offense or hurt feelings. However, we offer this e-mail network as a ministry to our fellow homeschoolers, free of charge, at our own expense for the web site, investment of our time and energy, etc. HERO was started 4 years ago with the specific purpose and target audience of parents who teach their children themselves at home. It continues to serve that same purpose today and will do so in the future. We hope this is helpful in clearing up any confusion over who may subscribe to the HERO e-mail list. We have adjusted the "Welcome Letter" to include a note about this as well. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - HUMBLE APOLOGY FOR ANY HURT FEELINGS FROM NANCY MANOS I want to humbly apologize to anyone who I hurt by my clarification yesterday of who the HERO e-mail list is intended to reach. My heart is heavy knowing that my actions caused pain to others. I do care for each one of you regardless of our education choice differences. Let me share a summary of what I have shared individually by e-mail with a number of people who contacted me today ... Please remember that I am just one woman. A woman who loves the Lord, loves her family, and is passionate about home education. I am a volunteer. I invest at least 2-4 hours each day just facilitating HERO. Often I allow my volunteer work in the homeschool community to invade my family's time and I am striving to be more balanced so that they are first and they get the best of me. I have poured much into many families over the past 4 years of running HERO. I love doing this! And I want to continue for the long haul. I ask you to honor my need to make decisions, sometimes very difficult and painful decisions, so that I am able to be a good, faithful steward of ALL that the Lord has entrusted to me. It is not my desire to be divisive or to make HERO an isolated community, nor is it my intention to create an "us" vs. "them" atmosphere. I apologize if my comments came across that way. I am not criticizing or judging parents who choose to enroll their children in public or private school. I simply need to focus on the group of people I am called to serve. I cannot be all things to all people. I can only do what I have on my heart to do. I realize there are people who disagree with me and I sincerely respect that. Please understand that there are only so many hours in the day and I am doing the very best that I can. I am not a perfect communicator, leader, decision maker, or human being. I wouldn't need Jesus if I were. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God ... Including me! Many of you do not know me personally and e-mail is a poor form of communication at times. My desire is that you would be able to see my heart and my consistent, faithful service. I pray that you would know that I am trying to make wise decisions and simply offer myself as an imperfect vessel for the Lord to use to be a blessing to others as He leads me. I look to Him for the grace and strength to do my best in caring for the people and responsibilities He has placed in my life. That is all I can offer. As I shared with one mom, I do not measure the success of HERO by the number of subscribers on the list. I do not care about being big. What I care about is providing a place for home educating parents to connect and share information with one another. I realize there are several "hybrid" options that have similarities to home education. Those are not my focus. I am not called at this time to minister to parents of public and private schooled even though I do respect parents choice to educate their children through those avenues. That simply is not the purpose of HERO. I do encourage virtual academy families and community school families to consider forming their own networks to connect and share information with like-minded families in similar situations. Thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts and feelings with me about this today. And thank you for bearing with this lengthy post from me about this. Most of you know that my motto for HERO is "Brevity is key!" :-) For those of you who are believers, I would humbly ask you to pray for me that I would be wise and fair in my decisions and leadership of HERO and that lives would be touched and enriched because of their participation here.
|
|