Originally Posted by
Shea Frazier
As a non-shitty teacher (middle school, special education), I have to disagree with you, Rip. Very few parents are qualified to teach their children. Contrary to popular belief, teaching (I'm referring to actually providing children with the tools [both academic and social] that they need to be successful in life.) isn't easy. Sure, there are kids that will learn regardless of the specific situation they are placed in, but those kids would learn just as much in a public school as they would at home. These students are in the top 10%. The rest of the population benefits from rigorous, quality instruction (Rare these days.) provided to them by people that are qualified to do so (Even rarer than rigorous, quality instruction.). In my personal opinion, pushing for homeschooling is a cop out. It's a 'take my ball and go home' mentality. Instead, people (and I mean ALL people...even those without children) need to demand improvement in their local school systems. Better schooling means better post-secondary outcomes for your citizens. Better post-secondary outcomes for your citizens benefits everyone living the in the community (i.e. less reliance on welfare, lowers costs of policing/incarceration, lowers costs of health care, etc.). Can you homeschool your kid? Sure. But you're still going to be paying for/dealing with the end results of a crappy school system for the rest of your life. Why not take the time to improve the school system, and by extension, your entire community?
In addition to the lack of parents qualified to provide their children with an education, there are some really important social-emotional skill sets that children in homeschool situations don't learn without the parents going out of their to expose them to the situations required to develop those skill sets. I work with students outside of school (quite a few of which have been homeschooled), and I can easily point out the kids that haven't ever attended a public school. They're often socially awkward and have few, if any, friends. They missed out on the whole hidden curriculum (social-emotional) that a vast majority of public school students learn intuitively. Whether you realize it or not, this is just as, if not more, important as the concrete information that students learn during their years in school. You can be brilliant, but companies aren't going to hire you if you're incapable of working with your peers. You're simply not worth the HR hassle.
Just my two cents.