So I got three votes for the economy and foreclosures, and three votes for homeschooling. And one that said "I’ll read anything you write!" (BadMutha, you sure know how to make me blush! And, honest, 75-100 is not too shabby as regular readers. Nothing like The Big Guys, but still not too shabby. I say so as someone with an average visit of just around 100.)
Since Mrs. Fibgy voted for the economy but said she’d be interested in the homeschooling critique critiquing, I used that as a tie-breaker.
Whilst wandering around ScienceBlogs last week, I came across a snippet of a "critique of homeschooling" on Greg Laden’s blog. I followed the link to this article. I read it. Really! I actually forced myself to read it, even though my former editor’s brain kept shrieking, "ACK! ACK ACK! ACK ACK ACK!" and my analytic brain kept grumbling "cherry-picking, dammit!" and my marketing brain kept snickering, "Ooooh, yeah, let’s get some more stereotypes in there, why don’t we?!"
Of you go. Read. Go on, go go go. I’ll just wait right here.
Done?
First, let me reveal a snobby bias: A poorly written article automatically prejudices me against the author’s viewpoint. I hang my head in shame. Lots of people who Think Good Thoughts can’t write their way out of a paper bag. But clunky construction, poor verb-subject agreement, awkward (or nonexistent) segues, and downright errors in articles make my eyes cross and my brain stutter.
But, hey. We all know that this particular post of mine will be inevitably riddled with errors, this being the Way of the Kozmik All. "Whom the gods destroy they first make proud" and all that. So let’s take that as a given, and I don’t want to hear any grumbling from the roaring mob about how not only am I a snob but an utter hypocrite to boot.
Let’s get to the substance.
The author ranks the reasons for homeschooling as: Violence in the school system/safety and desire to provide better education. She mentions in passing that many homeschoolers are religious, but doesn’t list that as a reason. She waves her hand at "my research" but doesn’t say where she researched or what information she got.
So I had a go at looking for reasons for homeschooling. The U.S. Department of Education performed surveys of homeschooling parents in 1999 and 2003. The "most important" reasons for homeschooling given in the 2003 responses were:
| Concern about environment of other schools |
31.2% |
| To provide religious or moral instruction |
29.8% |
| Dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools |
16.5% |
| Child has other special needs |
7.2% |
| Child has a physical or mental health problem |
6.5% |
That "concern" about the environment included drugs and peer pressure, not just "safety". And having an "analysis" so poorly written that reason #2–religious or moral instruction–was conflated with other reasons and not discussed separately bugs me.
Then the author goes on to sniff at any concerns about the school environment, asks homeschooling parents what the crime rate is in their neighborhoods (?), and immediately takes off after…
…all those psychotic moms and dads who homeschool their kids and abuse or kill them. Like Andrea Yates. Or a lady named Deanna Landrey, who beat her kids with rocks to Save Them From Satan.
Because the Big Problem with homeschooling, dontchaknow, is that the kids are socially and physically isolated, and that’s a good way to hide child abuse. Aside from the everyday horrors of not being socialized.
I stop here to say, yes, I know that there are, indeed, plenty of homeschooled kids who are socially isolated. And social isolation is an excellent method of hiding abuse.
But then I look at all the homeschooling families I know of. I worked in ITS with two. I’ve made friends with a bunch via the web. The parents of one of the dotter’s friends (another child adopted from Guangxi, whose birthday is one day later than hers) are homeschooling their child. And the parents of one of her fellow ballet dancers are more homeschoolers. Every single one of these parents has been using what’s known as a "home schooling co-op". Some have been religiously oriented. Some have been definitely non-religious. All the kids that I’ve met are happy, healthy, dreadfully social children. They go on homeschooling co-op field trips. They play sports with other homeschooling kids and in the soccer leagues and the softball leagues and dancing and gymnastics.
The author goes on to say that those who are concerned about their kids’ educations should be more concerned about homeschooling than public schooling, because there are no requirements for teaching in a homeschool and the parents won’t be able to teach all the various subjects. Amazingly enough, most of the homeschooling parents I know recognize quite well when they’ve reached the limit of their knowledge, and turn to the homeschooling co-ops for help. Their children get taught science or math by parents in the co-op who are (gasp!) scientists or mathematicians. They get taught English by parents in the co-op who are literature or English majors. They learn online. Or their parents study the subjects before their kids reach that point, so they can guide them.
Ah, but public (or private) school teachers are certified! They’ve studied pedagogy! They’ve done student teaching! They have all the latest teaching theories under their belts! They know how to handle 16 to 30 kids at once! In some states, they need masters’ degrees! A person without all that preparation simply can’t teach children! Because they don’t Know How To Teach!
To which I say–pish tosh. Again, the homeschoolers that I have encountered are wildly motivated to get their kids to learn. Some have specifically taken their children out of school systems because…because…their kids weren’t learning. All that teacher training, the masters’ degrees, the certification, the theories…and their kids weren’t learning.
To top it all off, she says that homeschoolers will share their biases (not "there bias’s") with their children.
Um. Yeah…? Do you know of any parents who do not share their biases with their children? The only way I can think of for parents to not share their biases with their offspring is to…well…just keep their mouths shut. All. The. Time. In addition, the implication that teachers in school systems don’t share their biases with the children they teach is mind-boggling. In every way, in every word, in every path of teaching, those teachers do share their biases. The kids learn a whole slew of biases from the school system. And from their parents. And from their aunts, uncles, friends’ parents, and everyone they encounter.
Of course, being exposed to one, and only one, set of biases isn’t the best of all worlds in my mind. Many parents do homeschool precisely because they don’t want their precious loinfruit to have their ears sullied by the word (or concept) of evolution, or sex education, or Harry Potter books.
I am not an apologist for homeschooling, trust me. I do think that some people are quite capable of fucking up their children via homeschooling. But to use an "analysis" such as this one to trash homeschooling is insanity. This article is so full of stereotypes, misconceptions, scare mongering, lack of citation, and just bad writing, logic, and grammar, that it is, in my opinion, totally worthless. If you’re going to disapprove of homeschooling and attempt to persuade someone that it’s a bad idea, this is not the article to use.