I read a very disturbing blog posting this morning called "The Case Against Homeschooling," which
fortunately was rather transparent and poorly stated, but
unfortunately was widely read and very typical of those who disagree with homeschooling for all the wrong reasons.
The blog itself can be found at http://teacherrevised.org/2009/05/30/the-case-against-homeschooling/. You may check it out so you have a frame of reference, if you wish.
I am using this post to answer each of Ms. Sciacca's points. It is obvious to those who are homeschooling for educational reasons that she is completely clueless about why most people pull their kids from school -- or homeschool from the beginning. In our broken public school system (which has become focused on crowd control and "managing" the social issues created by forcing together children from different walks of life to learn the same way at the same time), parents are told that they do not know what their children need, are disrespected by the educational establishment at almost every turn, and are unable to advocate for their child(ren). When you add the increasing problem of bullying, gangs, the movement away from real teaching to concentrate on preparing children for testing, and the basic disrespect for authority that is rampant in most public school classrooms, and you have a recipe for failure that no one is dealing with.
Those of us who are able to teach our children at home, and are willing to make the financial and logistical sacrifices to do so, are making sure our children are raised to be problem-solvers and inventors instead of mindless clones who can walk silently in a straight line and ace a multiple-choice test. Last time I checked, workplace productivity in the real world was measured by the practice of creativity and deductive reasoning, not whether or not you used a Number 2 pencil and followed directions to the letter!
Here are my responses to Ms. Sciacca's blog post:
10. Whether or not some college students out there use "homeschooling" as an insult when tormenting other students who don't seem "cool" to them is more a measure of their immaturity and poor upbringing than any short-comings on the part of the homeschooled student. It is behavior like this that goes unchecked in public school classrooms and playgrounds, and I would much rather my child be labeled as a "homeschooler" than learn how to be insulting and antagonistic so she can be "cool." By the time she's in college, she will be better equipped to handle people like that, and she will be uninterested in hanging out with kids who behave that way in the first place.
9. Contrary to Ms. Sciacca's comment that "a student's classroom shouldn't be where they eat Fruit Loops and meatloaf," I disagree in principle. I believe that a student's classroom should be the entire world, and if that means they read the morning paper while they eat breakfast, or discuss their current lapbook project over dinner, then that's perfectly acceptable -- even encouraged -- at my house. We have converted our den into what we call "the class room," yet most of our work is done at the coffee table in the living room or at our kitchen table. We love the flexibility of having a snack while we're working on a project, or incorporating a Discovery channel program into what we're doing, and that requires the ability to move around and use different environments at different times of the day. Although we rarely eat Fruit Loops, my daughter loves helping me cook and bake, and that has the same educational value as long division or diagramming sentences. And am I supposed to teach her math and life skills only from a book at a desk, or is it possible that the hands-on approach to measurement and learning to cook has more value than reading about it?
8. Yes, homeschooling is very selfish. As a mother, my job is to make sure that at the end of 18 years, my daughter is mature and self-sufficient enough to enter the adult world and make her own choices. As an educated adult, I have determined after much soul-searching, research, and experience, that the North Carolina school system offers nothing of value to my daughter after the 4th grade, and actually contributed to a stress-induced anxiety disorder that our family has successfully resolved after 6 months of homeschooling. The students that my daughter was supposed to be influencing -- from lower socioeconomic environments and less-educated families -- bullied her, openly defied school rules, convinced her that "behaving" smart was not cool, and actively slowed the educational process down by demanding the constant attention of the teacher to keep them under control. The only influencing being done here was BY those less fortunate, and my daughter was never able to compete with the aura of negativism that existed in her public school classroom.
In addition, Ms. Sciacca's assertion that the pool of homeschoolers is increasingly wealthy and well-educated families is not accurate, but even if it was, wouldn't that be an indication that those same people are realizing that their children aren't getting an adequate education in public schools? And that they understand that they are educated enough to provide more opportunity for education and exploration of the world around them than the crowd control-focused teachers in the beleaguered public system? Isn't it our JOB to protect our children and point them in the right direction? If that makes me selfish, than I'm proud to be so!
7. I am not Christian, but I am not a nonbeliever, either. To say that "God hates homeschooling" is just a bold attempt to incite a reaction. Although many Christians do homeschool, it's rarely in reaction to the lack of prayer in schools or the fact that we don't teach the Bible there. Families have successfully transferred their moral code to their children outside of the school environment for centuries. What HAS changed has been the transference of the religious and political debates of our time to the playgrounds and classrooms as children regurgitate what they hear their parents say around the dinner table or with friends/family. In the old days, adults did not talk about religion or politics around children because they knew that young minds weren't able to digest the issues. Now, it's all around us (thanks, CNN) and it isnow acceptable to tell our children to go to school and tell all their friends who to vote for and that they'll go to hell if they don't go to church. We shouldn't be promoting religious and political debate among our children -- all they understand is the emotion behind it, which is much easier to fling at other children and much more injurious than the actual information the children hear. Funny enough, we're involved with two homeschool co-ops, with families of a variety of religious and political backgrounds, and religion and politics have never come up in conversation among the parents, let alone among our kids -- those things are handled as private family matters, as they should be.
6. To think that homeschooling parents are "arrogant" because they assume they can teach their children better than a teacher with two masters degrees is simply a sign of an insecure public school teacher. First, for a teacher to think it's his or her JOB to "instruct" and her students' JOB to sit still and soak in her incredible knowledge is clearly still bound by outdated practice in teaching and learning. The movement AWAY from "teachers impart, students drink in information" is well underway, and most colleges are embracing the notion that true learning comes from active student exploration rather than being led to knowledge by an omniscient, all-knowing adult. Second, to think that a double major in English and education, two masters degrees, student-teaching, and years in the classroom somehow automatically makes you a great teacher is truly an arrogant assumption. Third, in my 16 years of dealing with public school staff, none of the guidance counselors I dealt with had any clue how to counsel students -- especially on college decisions. Basically, there is no information a teacher has that a creative, intelligent parent can't find with some sleuthing, and one of the reasons most homeschooled children are so bright is that they've learned how to find information by themselves with the "guidance" of their parents rather than simply being "told" about it.
5. "As a teacher, homeschooling kind of pisses me off." That pretty much sums up the reason she wrote this entire list in the first place. It's easier to attack something that threatens you than to find out why it's happening and work out a constructive way to reverse it (like improving the educational system to meet the needs of bright, motivated children).
4. Racism and intolerance is bred within families who start out racist and intolerant -- it doesn't develop without a seed, and it's absurd to think that the public school classroom is the only remedy. The school I pulled my daughter out of was 70% Caucasian, 25% African-American, and 5% Hispanic. There were a few adopted Russian and Asian kids, but primarily it was suburban, white, middle class students. My homeschool co-ops include Vietnamese, Korean, Native American, African-American, Eastern European, Japanese, Middle Eastern, Hispanic, and Caucasian families, to name a few. We have over a dozen religious faiths represented and quite a variety of family types. My daughter's exposure to different socio-economic and cultural influences has greatly increased since she started homeschooling, so there's no risk of intolerance or racism in our household (not that there ever was in the first place!).
3. "Socialization" is the great fallacy of homeschool critics. They spout off about how dangerous the lack of socialization is -- again, as if the public school environment is the only place on the planet where children learn to get along with one another. Between homeschool co-ops, sports teams, art classes, drama camps, family get-togethers, scouting programs, and playing with their friends in the neighborhood, children get plenty of time with other children during the course of a week. Homeschooled children do not learn in a vacuum, and their parents have them out and about in the world far more often than children who are juggling the mandated 6.5 hours of school plus homework every night.
2. The arrogance issue again -- Ms. Sciacca asserts that homeschooling parents are arrogant because our wealth and education tends to make us risk-takers. First, I'm still looking for all my wealth. After paying education taxes to the county and state, and then paying for all the resources for my daughter's education on top of that, I'm happy to hear that I'm wealthy. If Ms. Sciacca knows where my wealth is hiding, I'd really like to hear from her! Second, if I'm arrogant because I'm well-educated, then "guilty as charged." I am proud of the fact that I constantly read and explore my world, even though my formal schooling is behind me. I happen to think that makes me a better person!
1. Have you ever heard the saying... "Geek as a child, successful professional as an adult"? How many of us have gone to our high school or college reunions to discover that the geekiest of our class have turned out to be the most successful, and the coolest kids turned out to struggle the most? Ms. Sciacca says "have you met someone homeschooled? Not to hate, but they do tend to be pretty geeky." She sounds just like the college kids she highlights in #10, and definitely nothing like what I want my daughter to turn out like. I've met many homeschooled kids this year, and very few are geeky... however, I'd rather have a geeky child who isn't ridiculed by people like Ms. Sciacca and grows up to create or invent something that saves society from people like her.
Nuff said...! :)
