Unfortunately for those who hate the kind of people they imagine are homeschooling, the truth is quite different. Home-schoolers come in all sorts of flavors, to include hippy, secular, progressive, and free-thinking. And many of these iconoclasts are well educated and able to write. And don't forget the lawyers. Home-schooling is legal and mostly unregulated in all 50 states because of constant vigilance and judicial activism, not because we're a country which values educational choice.
Home-schooled students also do as well as or better than, depending on which set of figures you check out, traditionally schooled students. So, if home-schoolers aren't all aesthetically unappealing bible thumpers, how can self-appointed, authoritarian types crush homeschooling's sexy non-conformity while pretending it's all in the name of diversity? Why, charge sexy edgy homeschooling families with letting down the team! Call us privileged and selfish!
We're privileged because some one in the couple has to be making a selfishly large salary to allow the other one the luxury of staying home and lavishing huge amounts of effort on their spoilt children's education. That's not fair for those who do not have that option or who prefer to put their money elsewhere. In fairness, all of our children ought to meet on a level school yard. Well, unless, of course, one can afford to live in a good school zone or pay for private school. Let's not talk crazy here!
We're selfish because we are not meeting our social obligations to be shining examples for all the less enlightened parents and students. We're also stunting our children's ability to empathize with people from diverse socio-economic backgrounds by not having them mix it up in public schools.
Here are my counter arguments:
1) Homeschooling families are economically diverse. Many of us make material and career sacrifices to keep one of us home. The statistics bear this out. Critics ought to let us know where they live and how much in property tax they pay, so we can determine whether they are being socially responsible citizens or not.
2) I don't care who you think I ought to know or who you think my children ought to mix with. That's our call, not yours. We all choose our social groups -- to include all the people who struggle to land a house in a good school zone. Go after their commitment to a diverse schooling experience. There are so many more of them.
3) I'm interested in the intellectual development of my children, not in hardening their class consciousness with cliches about the moral importance of sitting in the same room as other children assigned to be there based only on property taxes and location. Feel free to pretend your children are better people simply by being in proximity of what you label "diversity". Or that your children enrich the lives of others because you consider yourself enlightened.
Or loose, or tight-fitting T-Shirt, basic type of low-waist jeans with white canvas shoes, hides many of the details of the seemingly simple mix.
Posted by: Nike Free 3.0 V2 | 09/13/2012 at 10:48 PM