March 18, 2008
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Should homeschooling be illegal? Why or why not?
Yes. It should be illegal because most times it is administered incorrectly and for the wrong reasons. The reason I have heard most often is that homeschooling is necessary to protect the kids from bad outside influences especially from the liberal, secular brainwashing that happens in public schools.
Granted there is liberal, secular brainwashing that happens in public schools. And frankly, I believe our public schools in America are a total failure at preparing the future of America to compete intellectually with other nations. But it does teach students to operate on a schedule, in a hierarchy, and with one another. Learning to deal with the complex social dynamics is important to function in a society. You can’t learn that at home with mommy and daddy or by going over to friends’ houses or even participating in intermural sports. It has to come from an environment that mimics the greater society (even if that society is corrupt and filled with idiots, criminals, and other scum–perhaps especially).
You also learn about the democratic process, even though you learn that democracy in America (or perhaps has always been even in Greece) a farce and a joke manipulated by the popular, good-looking, smooth-talking (Barak) and the rich.
It is the parents’ responsibility to keep the dialogue open and to train their child to operate in a contaminated environment and maintain her integrity. Homeschooling is just chickening out of that responsibility. Frankly, I’ve known and taught, too many people who have come out of that environment. They’re stunted socially. They don’t think that they are, but they are: no volume control, no ability to adjust to different kinds of people, no ability to work in a hierarchical environment that requires time management and a schedule.
Look, we’re not talking about the old days of the educated leisure-class elite. Their social activities were dances and balls and such. Their days were filled with servants and people and teachers and tutors of all kinds of subjects from dancing, to art, to science, fencing (*sigh* for those days again–I can rely on family connections and not have to eek out a living as a schoolmaster). There was no need for the social training we need now as bourgeois that need to function in a bourgeois workforce and workplace.
No. Homeschooling is for the ultra-rich who can afford the best tutors and who don’t need to rub elbows with other ordinary joes and take orders from THE MAN–heck they are THE MAN. It always has been. As for private schools or charter schools. That’s a different discussion entirely.
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Comments (14)
I find it interesting that I am now classified as being at least mildly incapable of working with a schedule, or other people, simply because I’ve spent my entire education thus far in my own home…interesting, because if ever there was a day in the last 12 years that I was not sitting with my school books at 8 AM, on the dot, I was rebuked and punished. Interesting, because I am generally considered in my church, my extracurricular activities, and my work places as one of the more pleasant, well-mannered, and sociable people around.
However, I did enjoy reading this. Very few people who are against homeschooling have any reason to be. So, on that note, thank you for presenting some food for thought.
That’s interesting. At a quick glance I just dismissed the featured question as, “No it should not be illegal, if they want to home school kids, fine by me.” But I got curious and read some responses yours being one of the first.
You have some good points that I didn’t think of right away until I thought back to kids that I knew who were home school and every point you brought up is pretty accurate. To be fair though, I don’t know many home schooled people and since you are in the profession you very likely have a better insight than I do.
Overall I thought it was a very good response.
It’s a tradeoff. You can go to the public schools and learn how to socialize but never how to think for yourself…or you can homeschool and learn independent thinking but never how to socialize. That is a huge generalization, but there’s truth in it.
To make homeschooling illegal is to force children into the public schools. When the government controls education it controls how the children vote. When the government controls the people’s vote the entire democratic system fails.
You should think about this topic more before you advocate taking away one of our rights.
It is the parent job to teach their kids to operate in a contaminated enviroment, when they are ready to learn said skill, they shouldnt be forced to make their kids do it at a young age if they dont have to. That’s crazy.
Options :
-No Education
-Homeschooling
-Public Schooling
-Private Schooling
You can provide any argument to “ban” any of the above.
Option one : We need to ban this because educated individuals have proven to be more effective to the economy as a whole.
Option two : We need to ban this because it goes out of the uniformity of schools.
Option three : We need to ban this because it is very uniform to a specific audience. It also falls in line with socialist ideas which are subsequently communist ideas. Furthermore it encourages immoral business ethics [competition] that may destroy others in the future.
Option four : We need to ban this because it is very unfair to those in public schools who do not have the money available to obtain a higher grade of education.
No matter how stupid the arguments may be, there are arguments present for each.
And yours can easily be said as ‘stupid’ to some people as well – as any argument can to a biased viewpoint.
Hurray! I was homeschooled and I want it outlawed now! Thank you for posting this!
@Reko34 - I was homeschooled and I say: yes, Palamides makes excellent points. Thanks for keeping an open mind!
wtf? “Most of the time it is administered improperly”? You need to get your hands on some statistics of test scores and college admissions of home schooled vs. Public schooled. The average home schooler has outscored the average public, parochial, and private school student for the past 20 years, and possibly longer but they didn’t start keeping stats until then.
Nice to hear that my family is ultra rich. Somebody want to tell that to my checking account?
It’s interesting to see all of the responses about homeschoolers being social misfits. From my experience, we all get alone fine with others, but when asked what school we go to, all of a sudden everyone steps back, and we’re under scrutiny. I don’t have a problem interacting with uneducated, public educated, private educated, or homeschooled people. I don’t scrutinize their social skills based on where they got their education. I see a wallflower as a wallflower, and an outgoing person, as an outgoing person. But to others, homeschoolers either are incapable of social interaction because they’ve been too sheltered (maybe that individual is just shy?), or too outgoing, and desperately in need of learning proper social skills (loud, opinionated, outgoing people are just as common in public schools).
How ridiculously ignorant this blog is! I choose to homeschool, not because I want to avoid all secular influence, but because I want to LEARN without distractions.
My, my. Such interesting responses. Thank you. I enjoyed reading each of your responses. I’m glad all those years reading Cicero and Quintillian have helped improve my deliberative skills to elicit some sort of response from the audience. Nice readings and mis-readings.
@nuiginiprincess - There are exceptions in all nonsensical, prejudiced, and generalized arguments
. Glad to meet one.
Reko34 - I’ve known a fair share. They’ve done well by homeschooling. To each their own really. It doesn’t really matter how one gets an education, but what one does with it in the end. I’m glad that you enjoyed my essay against homeschooling.
@TheSocraticClub -
I’m curious: since when did it become an right? BTW do you really think that the individual vote matters? Why did the Founding Fathers create a representative democracy in the first place if they could trust the average voter? These are not attacking questions. I really am interested in your ideas.
@FastingFrogs - I agree.
@lol_1337 - All viewpoints are biased as long as a human is holding the viewpoint. There is no real objectivity only solid arguments and not solid arguments. Even stupidity is a subjective concept as you can see by the other comments to this post.
@fullmetalbunny - Tell me about your experience. I’d like to hear about it.
shedinator - Interesting point.
Yes I do need to get my hands on some facts–but since you brought up statistics to counter this argument: do you know some off hand or know where I can find a credible source? You mustn’t counter my generalization based on biased experience with just a vague appeal to generalized facts; how do you know that they’ve out performed over the past 20 years? I’d really like to know. 
@The_Botzy_Blog - Genuine thanks for your comment.
Though, I think you’ve misread two points:
(1) “Homeschooling is for the ultra-rich who can afford the best tutors.” This is not an assertion that you have had the best education or that your family is ultra-rich. Only that the ultra-rich can have the best homeschooled education. And that they are the only ones that should have it (elitist, I know, that’s the stance for this essay
).
(2) “They’re stunted socially. They don’t think that they are…” This statement preemptively refutes/discredits your statement “I don’t have a problem interacting with uneducated, public educated, private educated, or homeschooled people…”
Other than that, I think your viewpoint is interesting about the person’s personality is her personality. Out of curiosity though
, how to do you think that their personality and social skills are formed? By environment or is it inborn?
@letitbe09 - Good for you. There are too many annoying distractions for a normal person in a public or private school. But really, tell me where the argument was ignorant? You’ll need more an apodioxis to repudiate this argument.
I’d like to read your counter argument.
Thanks again guys. I’d love to hear our opinions on this or other subjects. Keeps me on my toes
Cheers!
Pre-empted that sentence possibly, but you failed to pre-empt the idea, that that sentence was part of. I could take just about any sentence of your essay, and do the same.
I think personality is determined by a little of both. It cannot be strictly determined by environment, or every child in the same family, would have the same personality, although I do believe environment does have some effect, just not to the extent that the “homeschoolers are socially inept” people want to give it credit for. If a family has a good sense of humor, so will their children, even if some of those children are outgoing, and others not so much. Some will find themselves at ease in large settings, others only in more intimate settings. The same can be said for children in any family, no matter how they were educated. It’s only more closely scrutinized in homeschoolers, after they reveal where they were educated. In public school, it seems to either be endearing, or drugged. (I’d love to see a study done on it. I believe they’d likely find quite a large distance between the numbers of public schooled children on medications for ADD/ADHD, personality disorders, etc., than in homeschool students, because the parent is more capable of finding ways of filling the gap that the classroom cannot. Whether by studying their child’s learning style, and educating them in the way they can best understand, or by the closer emotional bond with the child.)
Believe me, I am not the only homeschooler that has noticed people go from interacting just fine with us, to stand-offish, critical, and assuming, moments after asking what school we attended. I’m not talking about asking questions, questions are great, but downright rudeness. Homeschoolers are often portrayed as judgemental, discriminatory, etc. (generally untrue, yet we’re drowned out by the public masses, with their assumptions), yet this is what we encounter day after day. Who is incapable of socializing with who here?
Homeschoolers participate in a myriad of activities. Including (but certainly not limited to) debate clubs, sports, volunteer work (where they have time to volunteer almost daily), and many even run small businesses. The possibilities for social interaction are endless. Those interactions include people of all age ranges. Whereas public schooled children remain in classrooms for 7 hours a day, with a very limited age range with which to interact. Which is more like the greater society? I can’t think of a job yet, where people only work with others within a 1-2 year age range, and all follow the person 30-50 years ahead of them.
With the number of children being homeschooled now, and more every day, I think it will become even more apparent in the next 10-20 years, that we are perfectly capable of interacting with others, just as much, if not more so, than other graduates.
You obviously agree that public schools are a failure, so why would you force children to attend one, when studies have shown time and time again, that homechoolers rank at or above average in test scores? Is learning to operate on a schedule (which homeschoolers are more than capable of) that much superior to academics? Any well run home has a schedule. That can be learned anywhere. I should send my child to an inferior learning environment, so that they can learn how to operate on a schedule? That’s the most ridiculous argument I’ve ever heard! Perhaps I should send them to boot camp, so that they can learn to keep their room clean, and bed made, as well?
As far as tutoring being the best form of homeschooling, I’d be interested in seeing what study you read to come to that conclusion, or if it’s just something you came up with on your own? Homeschool scores have shown to be nearly identical, whether it be charter, tutor, or parent led. Top universities actively seek out homeschooled students, because of their high test scores, and capabilities in self-led studying.
If you’d like, you can see a comparison study of how homeschooled children compare academically, based on the education level of the parents, race, money spent on education, government regulation in their state, parent certification, gender, and the like, as well as a brief look at socialization, here: http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/comp2001/HomeSchoolAchievement.pdf
One more survey, in case you think that the previous one may be biased. http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v7n8/
We have a right to do anything that does not infringe upon another person’s life, liberty or property. I’m sure you’ve heard that before. Homeschooling falls into the category of rights.
@Palamides
Always happy to be exceptional.
Your parting line was that a discussion on private or charter schools is a different discussion. I just wanted to say that it’s a discussion I’d be interested to read/be a part of. While, obviously, I didn’t entirely agree with your views of homeschooling, you do actually HAVE views, and arguments to match, which is more than so many people today, thereby I’d be quite interested to see what you have to say on other methods.
Also, what do you teach? And what do you, personally, find attractive about the public school system to place it above homeschooling? Obviously the social side, but you were at least slightly self-deprecating relating to the public systems actual educational value. Is it reasonable to say that it is more important to learn how to be part of the democratic way than to learn, say, where that way came from, why it’s useful, and how it really affects us? I’ve always been sorely disappointed in my discussions with public schooled friends, as they seem to have so small an idea of the greater world, in both a modern and historic sense.
Sorry that this went a little long. If you have a moment I’m interested in hearing your opinions. Cicero and Quintillian have taught you well, I’m intrigued.
Cheers!