Tonight I decided to do a little research on anti-homeschoolers and the points they're set on. I thought it would be good to think of answers to say to them in defense - sort of like home-schooling apologetics ;-D
Anyway, I found this (rather disturbing...) article that luckily had follow-up comments. I decided to put my own two cents in. Here's what I said, and the author's points are in italics before my answers to them.
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I'm 16 years old and I've been home-schooled my entire life. I wouldn't have it any other way. I want to give my opinion. I know people are going to disagree - but that would most likely be the result of a different worldview, and difference of worldviews are the reason home-schooling debates exist. So while I'll back up most of my points with spiritual motives, I'll try to point out some logistical and common sense points as well.
10. “You were totally home schooled” is an insult college kids use when mocking the geeky kid in the dorm (whether or not the offender was home schooled or not). And… say what you will… but it doesn’t feel nice to be considered an outsider, a natural outcropping of being homeschooled.
Actually, I honestly don't care. I know I'm not a geek. I keep up with fashion, I watch T.V., etc. ... but my point should really be, if somebody judges me based on where I was educated, I consider it to be THEIR problem, not mine. Furthermore, as a devout Christian I believe that it doesn't matter what the world thinks - it only matters what God thinks.
9. Call me old-fashioned, but a students’ classroom shouldn’t also be where they eat Fruit Loops and meat loaf (not at the same time I hope). It also shouldn’t be where the family gathers to watch American Idol or to play Wii. Students–from little ones to teens–deserve a learning-focused place to study. In modern society, we call them schools.
What does being home-schooled have to do with eating meat and cereal together? Do you really think we're so ignorant that we have no taste buds? But anyway... being able to concentrate no matter what your surroundings consist of is a GOOD thing to have under your belt, in my opinion.
8. Homeschooling is selfish. According to this article in USA Today, students who get homeschooled are increasingly from wealthy and well-educated families. To take these (I’m assuming) high achieving students out of our schools is a disservice to our less fortunate public school kids. Poorer students with less literate parents are more reliant on peer support and motivation, and they greatly benefit from the focus and commitment of their richer and higher achieving classmates.
Not a problem. Home-schooling isn't nearly popular enough for that to take hold. If it gets to that point, well, then you can get back to me. ;-)
7. God hates homeschooling. The study, done by the National Center for Education Statistics, notes that the most common reason parents gave as the most important was a desire to provide religious or moral instruction. To the homeschooling Believers out there, didn’t God say “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations”? Didn’t he command, “Ye shall be witnesses unto me”? From my side, to take your faithful children out of schools is to miss an opportunity to spread the grace, power and beauty of the Lord to the common people. (Personally I’m agnostic, but I’m just saying…)
Ooh, this is a fun one.
Psalm 127:4 says "As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth." What is the logic of a parent putting their arrows into the enemy's quiver? This branches off into an entirely different conversation that I won't get into now, but basically it's safe to say that (as a Christian) it's wrong to follow the world's standards (Romans 12:2). So if (as Christians) we're not to listen to the world, is 7 hours a day of humanistic teaching a good idea?
Now, about witnessing to others. I won't say whether or not it's legal to witness in school, as that does vary by district. But I will say that there are MANY ways to witness otherwise. I'm involved with many extracurricular activities. Those are the places where I witness. And there's things like charity work and mission trips.
6. Homeschooling parent/teachers are arrogant to the point of lunacy. For real! My qualifications to teach English include a double major in English and education, two master’s degrees (education and journalism), a student teaching semester and multiple internship terms, real world experience as a writer, and years in the classroom dealing with different learning styles. So, first of all, homeschooling parent, you think you can teach English as well as me? Well, maybe you can. I’ll give you that. But there’s no way that you can teach English as well as me, and biology as well as a trained professional, and history… and Spanish… and art… and counsel for college as well as a school’s guidance counselor… and… and…
Guess what? Being able to teach myself has been one of the greatest home-schooling benefits I can think of. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a lot more self-motivated than my friends who attend public school. They've even said it themselves. They have trouble getting themselves to do things. I've found that a lot of home-schoolers I know are more self-motivated - it's a proven fact.
Also, please do some research. Most home-schoolers are involved with co-ops. This is where someone can take classes in which they need a specialized teacher to teach them a subject. I take a writing class. I'm not particularly gifted in that area, thus my teacher has helped me get better so that I can prepare for the ACT.
5. As a teacher, homeschooling kind of pisses me off. (That’s good enough for #5.)
Sorry. Do people who specialize in anesthetics get 'pissed off' when a woman decides to deliver her child naturally? I could think of more examples, but I'm sure you get my point. You can't get angry when someone decides not to put you to work.
4. Homeschooling could breed intolerance, and maybe even racism. Unless the student is being homeschooled at the MTV Real World house, there’s probably only one race/sexuality/background in the room. How can a young person learn to appreciate other cultures if he or she doesn’t live among them?
I absolutely despise racism. Again - I'm involved with many extracurricular activities. I know many, many people who are of different race/sexuality/background than me. As for the majority of home-schoolers, I can't imagine that not being submersed in a certain environment doesn't mean that they aren't completely aware of it. There isn't a crucial difference between the two (complete submersion and being aware) and anti-home-schoolers tend to overlook this fact.
3. And don’t give me this “they still participate in activities with public school kids” garbage. Socialization in our grand multi-cultural experiment we call America is a process that takes more than an hour a day, a few times a week. Homeschooling, undoubtedly, leaves the child unprepared socially.
I've touched base on this earlier. You don't have to be submersed in something 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, 9 or so months a year in order to be able to understand and act on it.
2. Homeschooling parents are arrogant, Part 2. According to Henry Cate, who runs the Why Homeschool blog, many highly educated, high-income parents are “probably people who are a little bit more comfortable in taking risks” in choosing a college or line of work. “The attributes that facilitate that might also facilitate them being more comfortable with home-schooling.”
More comfortable taking risks with their child’s education? Gamble on, I don’t know, the Superbowl, not your child’s future.
This is why many parents home-school for awhile and then send their kids to public school. Or they do it all the way through. It just depends on what they feel the need for. If you've come across a home-schooling parent who has obviously (for academic reasons, not social as we obviously disagree on what social requirements consist of) made the wrong choice, I'm sorry. Can't win 'em all, I guess. But I'm fighting for home-schooling in general. Just like you're fighting for public school in general. And there are kids who obviously got their drug addictions and dirty language from being in public school, so... I'm sure you get my point. ;-)
1. And finally… have you met someone homeschooled? Not to hate, but they do tend to be pretty geeky.
There's really nothing to say about this.
I'll reiterate what I said earlier. The main problem behind the home-schooling debate is a difference of worldviews. The majority of parents who home-school do so because they don't want their child to learn from humanistic and evolution-based curriculum. But for a lot of parents who send their kids to public school, that's exactly what they do want. So I think I'm making my point pretty clear. I say tomato, you said tomahto.
No hard feelings here. I just felt the need to defend myself, my parents, and my fellow home-schoolers. Best of luck in your career. :)
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I hope you enjoyed that. My favorite part was when he used "home-schoolers are geeks" for two seperate points. :-)
Happy Homeschooling. It's one of my favorite things about this crazy, wonderful, wild life that God has given me.
