Answering the Same Homeschool Objections . . . Again

I started home educating my oldest son when he was in first grade. Unhappy with the private school he was attending, and a bit concerned about the condition of the public schools in the area, my husband and I decided to try homeschooling.

I was working for a large mortgage bank in the legal department, but I had attended college in order to become a teacher. The idea of teaching my own child sounded like bliss. So we went for it.

In these last 20 years, I have heard the same objections to homeschooling again and again. They have been addressed over and over, in newspapers, magazines, by educational establishments and research projects, but that doesn’t stop people from asking as if they are the first person on earth to imagine them.

Moderndaychris is a blogger, and a junior at Gettysburg College, studying American Studies, Music, and Education, with many exciting opportunities in his future. To that I say, “Congrats, and go for it!”

He is again asking questions, often in the form of accusations, at this post “The Home School vs The Public School.” So I thought I’d answer a few of them.

First, I want to say that I do not view public education and home education as opposites or adversaries. They are both legitimate options for parents. Private education is also in the mix as a valid choice when deciding where their child will receive academic instruction.

I can understand that for many people, having only experienced public education or the traditional classroom, it is difficult to imagine that a parent could provide anything similar in their own home.

Of course, that assumes that I want to provide something similar to public education.

However, the idea that public schools are the only place where students can learn teamwork, converse about modern culture and entertainment, or debate ideas, is incredibly narrow-minded for someone who claims to have a broad view of the world.

Are we supposed to believe that a classroom is the only way to learn about the ‘real world’? How much ‘real world’ experience happens in a classroom? I’ve been in the world for 47 years, and the last time I was in a classroom as a student was in 1989. The rest of my life has been ‘real’, I am almost sure of it. I’ve married, had a couple of careers, four children, read books, traveled a little, and enjoy being involved in our community. I’ve been a volunteer in nursing homes, helped train service dogs for disabled children, and learned sign language in order to communicate with the deaf. My Spanish really stinks, though. But I am really, really sure that this is the real world.

We are also supposed to believe, according to Chris, that only in public schools are we going to meet folks of different ethnicities and cultures. That is certainly news to all of us who have not been in public schools for lo these many years, and yet manage to have many friends, acquaintances, and business associates who are from a variety of backgrounds. Since, as a homeschooler, my kids are not excluded from these regular interactions, as well as forming relationships on their own, I am sure that this news about how their black, Hispanic, Asian, Jewish, Christian, and agnostic friends are quite possibly figments of their imaginations will be a great disappointment to them.

Oh, and while every private school in America is also only attended by people of one ethnicity, religion, and socio-economic background, somehow every public school is rich in ethnic, socio-economic, and religious diversity. Apparently even the ones in suburbia and inner cities. Neat-O. And in public schools, kids are introduced to new ideas, allowed to make their own decisions, and never forced to comply with or internalize what the teachers believe. Ever.

Chris asks some specific questions that he believes will get to the heart of the difference between public schools and homeschooling:

Does your child feel comfortable interacting with students the same age? Are they able to work with students they generally don’t feel comfortable around?

Yes. They are around all kinds of people for various reasons at regular intervals. I’m not going to expound on where we go and what we do and how we live our lives.

But wait—Chris says that social situations can be manufactured by the parent to ensure the child’s comfort, thereby robbing him of any social challenges.

[I]f the child is involved in tennis than [sic] the students that child is working with are also interested in tennis, where as [sic] the students in public school all share a diverse interest and you can maintain a friendship whether child A likes tennis or child B doesn’t like tennis.

To which I say, “Huhwha?”

Chris is attempting to point out the flaws in the ‘homeschool system’, because no system is perfect, and apparently he has had some unpleasant experiences with homeschoolers who have claimed to be perfect, or that homeschooling is always flawlessly performed by perfect homeschooling parents and perfect homeschooled children.

Okay—valid point. People aren’t perfect, therefore any system or methodology invented by or utilized by man is highly unlikely to ever reach perfection. Except for coffee makers and curing bacon, without which the world would dissolve into oblivion, as life would no longer be worth living.

Homeschooling, however, is not a system. It is an education method used by individual parents who wish to have the freedom and flexibility that homeschooling allows.

Some families are religious, some are not. Some are two-parent homes, some are not. People of various ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds are homeschoolers. Many military families are able to provide a consistent education experience in spite of moving from base to base at regular intervals. Athletes often opt to home educate so that they can focus on their sport. Musicians and artists also are grateful for the freedom to spend time honing their skills.

Homeschooling isn’t just about parents wanting their kids to receive a top-notch education, although that is often a motivating factor at the outset. Once parents begin the homeschool journey, they realize the abundance of opportunities available for their kids to get a taste of the real world by living in it, volunteering in it, apprenticing in it, and getting a job in it. As opposed to spending day in/day out in the same few rooms on the same campus with 30 kids their own age.

By the way, Chris, have you ever seen a John Hughes movie? Just askin’.

Let’s get to the point: this means that public schools aren’t perfect either. There are awkward and shy and sociopathic kids in public schools. There are learning gaps, and some kids still fall through, no matter how much we try not to leave any child behind. There are teachers who are unbelievably dedicated and awesomely creative, but are hamstrung by NCLB, CCS, and teaching to improve standardized test scores. There are also teachers who are violent, sexual predators. There are kids who don’t want to learn who consistently disrupt the class, thus ensuring that the material is not covered properly. There are buildings in disrepair, and schools that do not have the staff or funds to provide teaching and training in the use of new technologies.

If I were to employ Chris’ debate methods, I’d make a case against public education by pointing out that jails and mental institutions all over America are jam-packed with people who graduated from a public school. But I am not going to pit one straw man against another in a divisive attempt to ‘prove’ that public education can make you criminal or make you crazy.

Chris is right though—no system is perfect. So I traded in the imperfect public school experience for the imperfect homeschool experience. My kids and I can live with that.

Chris ends his blog post with this statement:

In order to better understand the world you must interact with it, become apart of it, and understand it.

I agree, Chris. That’s why we homeschool.

Susan R Bio

Susan is West Virginia born and raised, and now lives in SW Ohio with her loving and supportive husband. She has four energetic and imaginative kids, an elderly-but-feisty mom, and an attack Yorkie. The Rabers have been dedicated homeschoolers since 1994. Their firstborn graduated in 2006 and has gone on to serve in the military and start a life of his own.

Discussion

The discussion on “truancy” laws for homeschoolers has been interesting. I do fail to see how such laws have anything to do with an acceptable education, especially given different laws about homeschooling.

The biggest problem I see is, even if the homeschool laws in a particular state/county would be so particular as to designate specific attendance on specific days, how would the law be enforced? If it’s just through records, anyone could make the records say anything they wanted. So will a state representative make the rounds to each homeschool every day of the school year to see what is happening? What about days for field trips, or other similar reasons to be away from school? I have had my children work on their schooling even when we are away from home. How would the enforcer check up on that? If enforcement is not consistent, how would the truancy laws actually help the children?

Our state is even looser in its requirements than Susan’s. Under the requirements section of the law, I am required to operate the school 9 months out of the calendar year. That is, in fact, the only part of the requirements dealing with time, though we are required to keep attendance records. So it seems under our law I could operate the school for 9 days, an hour or less each day. How would truancy laws work together with this requirement? Under the “recommendations” section (where it is specifically stated that it is not law, but “encouraged”), it is “recommended” that the school operate for 180 days of about 5 hours each — very similar to the Ohio 900 hours. I guess my students would be truant if I only operated 8 months but still accomplished at least 900 hours, although if I could say the school was “operating” one day that month, that might be enough to fulfill the requirement. I don’t think I’ve ever had a school month with 0 days of instruction, but I know we’ve come close in December, when our family sometimes visits my wife’s family in Germany, though I’ve never failed to use parts of such trips for educational purposes. If you want to teach history of the transmission of our Bible, for instance, how better than to visit Erasmus’ house and discuss why he was important? I didn’t count such days as school days, but I’ll bet just as much learning took place. I could have marked one of those days a school day to avoid “truancy,” but I wouldn’t see the point.

The reality of homeschooling is that one of its main strengths is flexibility. I have allowed my kids to “double up” on their work occasionally, having a very long school day in order to get a day off. I haven’t found that to be an impediment to learning at all. In fact, sometimes they got better grades doing that then when spreading it out more. Should they be counted as truant for the missing day?

I fail to see how truancy (except in very extreme cases, some of which, at least in my state, would be legal — I’m actually kind of surprised the requirements are as lax as they are) is at all related to compulsory education. No particular day or days are needed to get not only a minimal education, but a good one.

I’m sure there are a few “crazies” out there, or those who are too apathetic to give their kids a good homeschool education. I’d have to see hard numbers though, to convince me those numbers are anywhere near as large as the number attending the government schools who get an equally poor education. And I fail to see how implementing truancy laws for homeschools will somehow magically improve those poor homeschool examples. Calling a day a school day will not make a poor teacher or school into a good one.

Dave Barnhart

1)those who think there are only two kinds of people

2) those who don’t

Bro. Joel- the issues you raise are parenting issues, not education issues. As you said, there are crazy parents whose kids are in public or private school, so to point out that there are bomb-shelter parents who homeschool doesn’t say any more about homeschooling than pointing out the number of public school graduates in jails and insane asylums does about public education.

What I often wonder when these kinds of conversations happen is whether or not people believe, down deep, that reproduction should be controlled by gov’t, and that only responsible people be allowed to become parents.

I appreciate your post. What many people don’t understand about the nature of homeschooling is how it becomes inextricably intertwined with family life. Most days I couldn’t tell you when school started or stopped, because we read so much together, we talk about things during breakfast, lunch, dinner, before bed, while we are in the car… I don’t even know what grade my kids are in, because they are doing different grade level work in different subjects. When they can progress, they keep going. If they need more practice, they work until they reach proficiency. My kids get straight A’s because we simply do not go forward until they understand, internalize, and demonstrate mastery in each concept or subject.

If age-segregated graded classrooms are all a person knows, they often have NO concept of homeschool life. They think they can imagine it. Well, I’ve seen Apollo 13, but I would never sit down and tell an astronaut what it’s like to go to the moon.

I was thinking about Bro. Joel’s comment- I don’t have a passion for homeschooling so much as I have an intolerance for people who want to demand gov’t control and legislation over an activity about which they know nothing. At least have the courtesy to say “I don’t know how that works, could you explain it to me?” Oh no- it’s “I haven’t got a clue but let me berate you about your choices anyway.”

please ……. shalom!………I wasn’t berating you about anything.

All I was stating is that in my view the three approaches (home, Christian, public) all have validity, strengths, weaknesses, etc….and as such we as a church would not allow members to “go-off” on other brothers/sisters on the school choice issue.

My only other point is simply if you are going to home school, be a responsible homeschooling family - not the bomb shelter kind. That’s all I was saying. I’m not gunning for you Susan.

Straight Ahead!

jt

Dr. Joel Tetreau serves as Senior Pastor, Southeast Valley Bible Church (sevbc.org); Regional Coordinator for IBL West (iblministry.com), Board Member & friend for several different ministries;

Bro. Joel- I wasn’t speaking of you as a berater, but of people who criticize homeschooling whose only experience with it is “there was this weird family…”. Homeschooling does not cause weirdness. Being weird causes weirdness. But should it be illegal to be weird? ‘Cause someone should call Hollywood immediately and file a report… ;)

Hi Susan,

Don’t feel bad. Those of us whom God has called to use the public education system take a lot of flack from the church. I have even been questioned as to how can I as a pastor do such a thing. So, in a round about way, I feel your pain.

Roger Carlson, Pastor Berean Baptist Church

Susan, I hear Joel is making a new list of home-schooler types. There is the Type A, Type B, and Type C. I look forward to the parameters of each type.

Straight ahead Joel.

1 Kings 8:60 - so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God and that there is no other.

Hilarious man - once more I’m sure I deserved that.

Straight Ahead! :)

jt

Dr. Joel Tetreau serves as Senior Pastor, Southeast Valley Bible Church (sevbc.org); Regional Coordinator for IBL West (iblministry.com), Board Member & friend for several different ministries;

Laws of the actual road I’m all for, as such. But, a public-school-only-er’s laws of education? A tar sandwich may be so called, but unless there’s any actual food in it, it’s not something I ever want to find on a public school cafeteria menu. Apple pie with paint stripper mixed into it? Not even a chance. Pie are square in my book.

I was homeschooled from age twelve to GED, and this illegally (contra things which ‘have the force of law’ by mere hegemony). I also was unschooled from birth, though attended both public and private schools from K-5. For me, part of the backbone of being YEC (Ken Ham-ish) is that I see human education is exactly that. As I summarise it: it’s all in Adam. It’s not in group-ism or dominion-of-some-humans-by-other-humans-ism, much less in a particular kind of group-ism (Marxism, factory-model ‘individualism’, re-engineering-Adam-ism, etc.).

The origin of mental/psychological disabilites aside, I think the only reason school shootings happen is the nature of ‘school’ itself as a child-herding/trick-training institution (its very hegemony means that entire communities of parents have no clue but to respond to disturbed ‘non-conformists’ generally in ways that are injurious to those disturbed ‘non-conformists’. By way of analogy, a ten-pound house cat may seem objectively light on the healthy chest of a prone adult human, but, unlike a human body, a person’s psyche is all-but-insensible to others despite any normal theory-of-mind assumptions.

(see The Empathy Imbalance Hypothesis of Autism: A Theoretical Approach to Cognitive and Emotional Empathy in Autistic Development)

(full text: http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1031&context=tpr)

(from http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/tpr/vol59/iss3/9/)

The next word you read is true (and now it's the seventh-to-last word).