u235

And today's rant is on the topic of home schooling. Why is it stupid in 99% of the cases? Well, I'm glad you asked, but first let me lay out the 1% where I think it is acceptable.

One scenario is a hostile or violent environment. I can understand that a parent, fearing for their childs health or safety might want to home school. That seems quite fair.

Another might be the case where a school is not willing to work with the child and their parents to develop an education plan for a kid that needs extra attention. Again, that's totally fair, if the kid has physical or mental disabilites that require a sigificant amount of attention (especially where it detracts from the other kids) I can see a benefit.

But for all the other cases where it's just a "choice" on the part of the parent to isolate their kids from social influences at large... well I think that's bullshit. I suppose if you're Amish or part of an isolated religous society where you don't ever plan for your child to have a need for the social skills in the world at large, great - it's not really an issue. However most people who choose to home school don't necessarily plan for their kids to stay at home for the rest of their lives.

My take on this is that these parents are trying to prevent their children from being exposed to alternate concepts, thoughts during their most open minded years. They're hoping that by preventing exposure to their peers they can emerge - fully formed as narrowminded adults in the fashion of their parents. I would easily wager that parents that home school also tightly control everything and everyone else that their child interacts with for as long as they can.

Lately there has been an issue with home schooled kids trying to get into colleges. Colleges are requiring these kids to prove that they really know what they need to know as freshmen and home school parents are incensed. In the case I read about, the college wants the kid to take an extra class to ensure she can mange the freshmen courses she needs... and the parents (of course) want to duel it out in court. Wtf.

Step back a second here - and look at a few of the benefits of putting your kid in school. There's social skills, tons. A tremendous part of teaching kids in a pack (as humans have been doing since we settled down and discovered an agrarian society) is that they learn how to interact, tolerate, stand up to, abuse and be abused by their peers. Another is the fact that each of teachers is a skilled professional, assisted and monitored by other skilled professionals. Face it - if every home schooling Mom were a fucking genius in every damn field from kindergarden to 12 they probably wouldn't be married to relgious loonie and aspiring to baking cookies for sunday school. Yet another would be that the cirriculum is something that's reviewed by people who are again, professionals, and that cirriculum is taught in a uniform manner. There's lots of excellent reasons why public and private schools are important to the health and welfare of the kids they teach - all of which has an impact on our society, and the health of the nation.

I have met people who home schooled their kids - and in every case they're 'soo proud'. They all make the claim that their kids are now super geniuses by comparison to other kids of the same grade. The bright-eyed, squirrley fanatacism always makes me want to edge quickly away and run for the safety of bright lights. I suppose in a world where parents can make the decision to 'pray' for their kids rather than take them for the medical help they need home schooling is a far smaller evil.