The case against homeschooling

[Homescrewed]

The case against homeschooling
teacherrevised.org/2009/05/30/the-case-against-homeschooling/
By JESSE SCACCIA



Homeschooling: great for the self-aggrandizing, society-phobic mother…… but not quite so good for the kid.

Here are my top ten reasons why homeschooling parents are doing the wrong thing:

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.

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.

8. Homeschooling is selfish. According to this article go2.wordpress.com/?id=725X1342&site=teacherrevised.wordpress.com&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fnews%2Feducation%2F2009-05-28-homeschooling-report_N.htm%23uslPageReturn 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.

7. God hates homeschooling. This study go2.wordpress.com/?id=725X1342&site=teacherrevised.wordpress.com&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nces.ed.gov%2Fprograms%2Fcoe%2F2009%2Fsection1%2Findicator06.asp, 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…)

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…

5. As a teacher, homeschooling kind of pisses me off. (That’s good enough for #5.)

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?

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.

2. Homeschooling parents are arrogant, Part 2. According to Henry Cate, who runs the Why Homeschool blog (go2.wordpress.com/?id=725X1342&site=teacherrevised.wordpress.com&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwhyhomeschool.blogspot.com%2F), 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.

1. And finally… have you met someone homeschooled? Not to hate, but they usually tend to be pretty geeky.

[momo]

Jesse wrote:

"you think you can teach English as well as me?"

Actually, it's "as well as *I can*. (Oh, "the ironing is delicious." LOL)

I remember reading this when it was originally posted on the blog. It's hilarious.

The more I read, the harder I laugh. And this person is a teacher? Why does this not surprise me, lol.


Last time I checked, 98% of the kids in my local public elementary school were white. They're not getting anything even remotely multi-cultural in their experience.

And "Homeschooling could breed intolerance" ? S/he must be joking.S/he is saying that the social environment in school, between both students and students & teachers does *not* breed intolerance? Haha!

In #5 s/he states that Homeschooling pisses him off because he's a teacher and that's reason enough. That statement alone is *extremely* intolerant.

I could tear this post apart sentence by sentence, but I have better things to do.

But thanks for the laugh!

[Nicole]

I agree with almost every point of "Homescrewed"'s. I only disagree on the point of removing the "rich" students; they would have attended private schools regardless.

I was "home schooled." It was an excuse for incredibly religious parents to remove me from not just society, but from an education that they felt was inappropriate to my gender. In Wisconsin, there weren't even any required tests to ensure I was completing my education. For better or worse, I'm intelligent enough that I may have passed them regardless. At twenty-eight, I am still recovering from the abuse and neglect and lack of an education.

I will always be against unrestricted home schooling. I do not say that no one can do it well, but it is also a very easy avenue for abusers. Nobody sees the marks when the student never leaves home. Nobody knows the child doesn't bathe, that their home life is disgusting and degrading; nobody knows that they are being so fully indoctrinated that it will take them the rest of a lifetime to overcome.

Even if my home life had otherwise been fine, my parents abused my future and the trust given to them by society by withholding my education. And to those who would so abuse their children's future for religious purposes, I say this: I despise organized religion, and I will work until my last breath to destroy its hold on our childrens' futures, that no other must suffer as I did. May they always so effectively create warriors against their cause.

[Survivor]

First off, thanks for those of you here who decided to have an opinion on the topic and not just an opinion of someone else who has an opinion.
Really momo? You come to an antihomeschooling site and rip on someone for their English/grammar. Get real all... noone types on a message board the way they would in a class. So if that is all you have, I suggest you go elsewhere.
On your intolerance statement... Hating something is not intolerance. Please look up the definitions if you so choose. If you grew up in a school where it was 98% white, you are kind of giving a little too much for us to take you seriously as valid opinion.
Sharing opinions between 2 parties even if they disagree is what creates tolerance. Thus the teacher to student and student to student dynamic. When someone can have an intelligent conversation about ideas, not just looking for whats wrong in someone's comment, mutual respect is developed.
I totally respect the loyalty of a Muslim suicide bomber, but I hate what he does. Would I die for what I believe in? Apparently, I haven't made that choice yet...
Being told "this is what our family believes and I am going to shelter you from any other ideas so you believe it too, is not intolerance, but it is certainly putting you in Ivy league training for it.
I welcome your comments, but lets have a dialog about the issue at hand, not petty bull about grammar, and parsing words that you apparently don't know the definition of either.

[Survivor]

Nicole, thanks for the comments. Way to show others how to agree and disagree with a real thought.
You know I hadn't thought about what you had said about kids possibly not bathing. You would like to think that most parents wouldn't neglect something like that, but when you have people who clearly neglect their children's social needs, what would make you think that they aren't neglecting their physical needs as well.
I don't ever remember getting a new toothbrush growing up, or even being told to brush my teeth. We didn't go to the dentist. I was told I could rub baking soda on my teeth. Granted... could that keep your teeth clean? Sure, but will a child do it if not told to... No.
I just want to encourage you Nicole to keep an open mind as you go on your vigilante spree. I am all with you sister, but just remember to use your brain, listen, and grow on the way. There are good people out there. They need to hear our thoughts, and why it didn't work.
I am glad you made it, although the scars are hard to deal with.

Survivor

[Tally Marx]

As a homeschooler, I can say:

10) Why, yes, I have been called "homeschooled." I've also called others "homeschooled." In fact, it's a running joke to say, "You're so homeschooled!" when one of us says we haven't tried something. Why is it a joke? Because we know it's not true. We can laugh at the accusation. I'm in college now, and guess what? People envy me because I have a 4.0 gap and make friends so easily. I am only geeky in so far as I am smart. No one has ever called me socially dysfunctional, or considered me nerdy and ignorant of life. When someone calls another homeschooled, it's a joke. And if it's meant as an insult, it's only ignorance talking.

9) No, a student's classroom should be where there are three hundred equally immature people, all dressed the same, all learning the same thing, all being taught by a stranger who only cares because he or she is paid to. Yes, that's a much better environment, don't you think?

8) Well, I would disagree, because I don't personally know a lot of homeschoolers who are rich...and I know a lot of homeschoolers...but the point is moot. Kids are called nerds because they are smart, and smart is smart wherever you stick it, and so is nerd. Furthermore, rich kids would be sent to private schools anyway.

7) I've Evangelized a bunch of people. I began arguing pro life causes when I was thirteen, online, and have been the bane of pro choicers ever since. Same for my Faith. Besides, if you threw a Christian kid into a giant pool of materialistic ones, who is going to be converted? Not the pool! Homeschooling would, at the very least, give a person a strong foundation and make them more effective Evangelizers later. But you are grasping for straws, because you couldn't care less about Christianity.

6) You can know everything in the world and still be a terrible teacher. What do parents know that you don't? They know THEIR KID. They know what he likes, how he learns, what he needs. You, who only care because you are paid to, do not know that and never will. You cannot know someone else's child better than their parent. Especially not a parent who cares enough to take the time and effort to teach their own kids.

5) It pisses you off because it threatens your job. You are paid to teach, and if you have no one to teach you have no paycheck. You could not care less about the kids; you care about lining your wallet.

4) I know a homeschool family who has ten kids, each adopted from a different country. How is that for diversity? Two of my best friends--also homeschoolers--are from Russia. How is that for diversity? Many of my homeschool friends are in 4-H. How's that for diversity? Most of the people at my church are not homeschooled, and I am very involved in my parish. Face it: we DO meet people.

3) I will give it to you, because I DO meet people. I work at my church, I do community service, I make films, surf the Internet, go shopping, went to college while I was still in highschool, attended youth conferences, went to movie theaters, played sports... I could go on and on.

2) Again, I'm not rich. I couldn't afford just any college. I worked, studied, got a 29 on my ACT and had colleges pay me to attend. In fact, many colleges prefer homeschool students, especially ones who used my particular curriculum. ...what were you saying, again?

1) You haven't met me. Or anyone else I know... Unless, of course, smart, cool, funny, intelligent, adventurous, motivated all =greedy. Then you are 100% correct, thank you.

Now, please excuse my typos. I am on my iPod (yes, I do actually know what that is!) so you understand the difficulty of typing...

1)

[Survivor]

I want to apologize for not responding to this post earlier...
If you want to see someone who has completely drank the coolaid, here it is...

Brags about everything, including their homeschool gpa (do they know who gives them their grade?

Can't believe that anyone would make fun of them, and even takes it as a compliment.

Thinks that learning should only come from someone that knows your "likes."

Thinks evangelizing is being a "bane" to someone. Because just as Jesus said, "They shall follow me and be saved, because I was a royal pain in their ass" Tally Marx 1:1

At least they understand they have no chance of reaching those evil "materialistic people." Jesus didn't come to save them.

Diversity is no longer a mixing of ideas, it is taking people from all over the world and making them believe what you do.

CAN YOU SEE THIS EVERYONE! THIS IS WHAT HOMESCHOOLING IS DOING TO PEOPLE!

Not one thought that was looking to interact with someone else.
Not one statement, where there was an exchange of ideas.
Not one possibility where maybe they weren't perfect.
Not one hint, that maybe others have good ideas too...

Why? They were never given the choice to believe otherwise.

Thanks for showing us what happens when you lack the ability to break away.

Stay strong all you HSAHS minions!

Survivor

[Tally Marx]

You do not know much about homeschooling, if you have never heard of accredited curriculums, tutoring, other such options, and even college (of course not college, what stupid homeschooler would ever get that far?!).

I can believe that false impressions exist, just recognizes then as false.

It's not about likes and whether your teacher knows your favorite color. It's about *how you learn* and every child learns differently. Being taught by someone who doesn't know how you learn has a log shot at success.

Hyperbole is not in your vocabulary, apparently.

What reality do you live in, where kids aren't influenced by their peers?

And if you want judgmental, unthinking, and interaction-lacking, re-read the original post. Because condemning something simply becauses it pisses you off was, last time I checked, not very conducive to an exchange of ideas, and not very indicative of open-mindedness.

[Trish]

Since the original author of this post wrote it she has apologized and removed the post. I thought it only fair to post the link for her.
teacherrevised.org/2009/05/30/the-case-against-homeschooling/

[Lauren]

wow that God hates homeschooling was a good one! its true too! i can finally convince my parents hopefully they will figure it out

[tetradyne]

here is the deal. i am a survivor of homeschooling. fortunately, i was able to attend public school during my high school years. homeschooling is ridiculous, to say the least. people who support homeschooling have simple minds, so i will put this as simply as possible. You wouldnt try to remove your childs appendix, because you arent a doctor. you arent qualified. So why would you try to be a teacher? Yes i am sure its fun for a while, and you dont have to do all that pesky parenting, like preparing breakfast, getting up early, taking your child to school, etc. The scars, both psychological and social, will never heal. Im sure you have excuses that make it seem like you are doing it for your child, but we can all see through these. You are lazy. You are inconsiderate. You do not love your children. Your childrens academic life and psychological well-being are nothing to be toyed with, simply because you dont like the school system, or dont feel like getting your fat lazy blobular self out of bed before noon. our school system is not the greatest in the world, granted. Most homeschool parents will single out the few public school teachers who simply dont care, and present them as a representative of the whole. Because this is the only leverage you have. When it comes to school (or surgery), leave it to the professionals.

[Georgia Kriz]

Hi all,

My name is Georgia Kriz and I edit the University of Sydney's student newspaper, Honi Soit (www.honisoit.com). I am currently writing an investigative feature piece on the dangers and untold stories of homeschooling. I would love to chat with any of you about your stories - please email me at [e-mail] if you are interested in talking with me. I can keep you completely anonymous upon request.

Cheers,
Georgia Kriz

[Concerned Granny]

I am from the Uk and this site is the only place I have found that isn't run by the 'home-school'bunch. I feel totally helpless, I know my grandchildren would be better off in school, they are not abused, but just missing out on so much. Our Government and Councils just pander to the rights of the parents - no-one is sticking up for the children at all. Their life choices are so limited.