Methinks the Homeschooler Protests Too Much

I have several friends, some of who I’ve known since high school, who are militant homeschoolers.  They, after careful consideration and reviewing their options, decided that it was in the best interest of their children to homeschool them, rather than send them to either public or private school.

Now it may come as a great disappointment to them, but I am not here to question the wisdom of home schooling.  I’m not going to attack the very concept of homeschooling along one of the many, well-worn argument paths that have been laid out, so as to allow them to use the equally well-worn counters and defenses.

I have nothing against homeschooling in general.  There are certainly specific cases I personally know of that demonstrate some glaring flaws, but I don’t want to be the kind of person that points to a small number of people engaged in doing things the wrong way as evidence to try and discredit an overall concept.  That would be churlish.

However, my friends who have chose to homeschool seem to feel like an extremely persecuted minority.  They love to post and repost pithy retorts to the apparent hordes that castigate them in the street for their heretical views on education.

And you know what?  Maybe they are constantly beset by people from all sides, who somehow spot them on the street for homeschoolers and proceed to spit on them and hurl out hateful epithets like “aren’t you afraid your kids won’t be properly socialized?” or that most egregious offense, “I don’t think I could do that, it just doesn’t seem right to me,” (that’s like the N-word to homeschoolers.)

That seems pretty churlish too.

So if they come off as a little defensive of their choice in as far as decrying those who ignorantly dismiss the choice they have made for their children, I guess I can understand that.  More power to you, sisters.

But it never stops there.

I get a near constant barrage of news posts about terrible offenses against elementary school children, perpetrated by hidebound, overly Liberal teachers and school officials.  They gleefully share specific examples of abuse to besmirch the overall concept.

Like I said, churlish.

Nary a week goes by without an anti-public education activist finding and posting some local news story about a young child who was reprimanded or suspended for the most ridiculous offense, usually in the form of imaginative play.

Of course, these stories only tell the parents' side of the story.  You see, schools are legally barred from discussing anything about such a situation.  They are not allowed to talk to the media, in order to protect the civil rights of children.

So you have a parent, who may have an obvious agenda of protecting their child, talking to a news media that feeds on anger, and which knows that people are already predisposed to find fault in our terribly ineffective and badly run public education system.  On the other side?  You have a school bound by laws.  Do you really think you have the whole story?

But you know what?  Most of those stories may be true.  Hell, even if every one of them was true, why are you posting this?  How did you even find this story?  There seems to be a whole network of people who go out and find the most ridiculous, anger-inducing stories, just so they can post them (and others can repost them ad nauseum,) and justify their anger.

Why?

Personally, I find the world filled with enough evil and despair, that the last thing I want to do is go out and find more things to be angry about.  If a story does not affect me directly (i.e. it is something I can be forewarned of and protect myself and my family,) I avoid it.  I want to know about world events and keep abreast of politics, but if a rural school district in Arkansas suspended a child for shouting “this meatloaf is the bomb!” that knowledge can in no way enrich my life.

But maybe that’s because I don’t homeschool.

Perhaps, if I had taken a risky proposition, and gone against decades of conventional wisdom, and faced comments of disapproval from my friends and neighbors who chose brand X, I might be a little defensive.

These stories of terrible teachers and wooly-headed school administrators must provide a comforting vindication.  When once sees a terrible situation in a public schools (don’t we all just love seeing badly-spelled teacher letters and signs?) it does seem to provide more points in the ‘pro’ column for the homeschool discussion.

So here’s the thing.  If you homeschool, that’s great.  I support you fully, as does EVERY SINGLE TEACHER I HAVE EVER SPOKEN TO IN FIFTEEN YEARS.  Be proud of your choice.

Don’t feel like you have to defend your choice to us, and especially, please do not feel you have to show how awful public schools are to justify that choice.

Doing that is not only insulting to teachers, but also to those bad parents who unconscionably send their kids to the horror-mills you have made public school out to be.

I think home-schooled children can get an excellent education, and my wife and I discussed it as a possibility.  But it doesn’t matter what we think about it, because it simply isn’t a possibility.

There’s no way we could afford to live in our house, pay our bills, and be able to feed and clothe our children if one of us quit our job to home school.  We are both public school teachers, and even together we have to scramble to get by, dealing with unexpected expenses like roof repairs.  So it is a moot point.

Does that mean we are not good parents?  And what about those who went to public school, and feel they got a good education?  Are people allowed to believe that public school can be a good thing?

Have you considered that it is this adversarial relationship that makes non-homeschoolers feel the need to defend their choice by attacking homeschooling?

How about we all just worry about our own children?  Whether we choose to “make them into anti-social freaks by denying them the experience of high school,” or are “criminally irresponsible enough to abandon our children to an unthinking, soulless robot factory that cranks out unimaginative drones on the taxpayer’s dime,” how about we all do our best to monitor our kids, and make sure that we give them the best education, and the best chances in life that we can.

And seriously, enough with the churlishness.

If you would like to learn more about homeschooling for your kids, there are many great websites with advice, lesson plans, and general information.  Go find them yourself.