I knew that some people – okay, a lot of people – had some warped ideas about homeschooling. But I didn’t realize that some people thought it was so evil, it should be banned.
One such person is a
professor at one of the Ivy League universities. Not wanting to give her more
undeserved glory than she’s already gotten for herself, I’m not going to name
her. I will, however, comment on a couple of things she said.
Logic
doesn’t follow intellect
First of all, she’s
called homeschooled children “victims.”
Victims. Hmm. Let’s
think about that for a a minute, shall we? Children who are homeschooled get to
drink water when they want. They get to go to the bathroom when they need to.
Without begging for
permission to do so.
Children who are
homeschooled don’t experience peer pressure that leads them into potentially
dangerous behaviors. They aren’t bullied…unless the parents are abusive, but
this is an exception in the homeschooling world, not the rule. Just like in the
world at large.
They aren’t being
constantly told what to do and how to do it. They don’t have a constant threat
hanging over them if they don’t toe the line. They aren’t forced to sit in a
chair for hours every day, while they’re growing bodies beg to move.
Homeschooled children,
victims?
No. It’s the children
who are sent to day prison – I mean, school – who are victims. I have to
wonder what planet this professor is from. She obviously has a very skewed
memory of what school was like when she was growing up. And proof that logic
doesn’t necessarily proceed intelligence.
She’s
oblivious to the truth of institutional education
Another thing this
woman said? Parents who homeschool have “authoritarian control over their
children.”
Wait, what??
So, schoolteachers aren’t authoritarian? Principals? As a former schoolteacher,
I’ve even seen administrative staff and teacher assistants treat students as
though they were inmates.
And what does she
think parents are for, anyway? To make babies, then let those babies rule the
roost?
Oh, wait. Okay. No,
parents are to be good little robots that obey the government, sending their
children to school to become good little robots. People are a means to an end
for the Powers That Be. To work for the government, either directly, or
indirectly by enslaving oneself to a corporate job so that the one percent
wealthiest people can continue to lord it over the rest of the population,
thereby improving the economy, thereby feeding corrupt Big Government.
Even if that’s what
she believes, I can’t see how someone who believes that schools are a healthy
place to be can also believe that parents aren’t to have any authority in their
children’s lives.
If lawmakers won’t
ban homeschooling, she says, at least they have to strictly regulate it.
Because as we all know, the
traditional school curriculum is the be-all-end-all for creating a healthy, happy,
and successful human being.
Hold on a minute. So,
the government can be authoritarian over children, but not parents?
Or, no. Wait. That’s
right. The professor doesn’t care about any of that. She just wants a bunch of
government-brainwashed robots.
Or...she might be
against parental authority for a reason that has nothing to do with
homeschooling per se. She might be against evangelical Christian parents
who "force" their children to learn about God and the Bible. How
terrible! How dare a parent love their child so much that they teach them about
their loving Creator?
She
talks out of both sides of her mouth
The woman in question
seems to hold two conflicting beliefs. On the one hand, she apparently believes
that most homeschooling parents are radical unschoolers, allowing their
children to eat sweets all day and not making them brush their teeth. This
borders on neglect, and I can see why she would take issue with that. So do I.
But radical
unschooling parents are the exact opposite of authoritarian. Indeed, the
authoritarian homeschooling parents aren’t doing anything different from
government schools! Except, of course, allowing their kids to take care of
their physical needs as necessary.
Oh, and, yes,
possibly teaching them that God exists.
The professor should
think about going into politics. She’s quite adroit at talking out of both
sides of her mouth.
Whichever way you
slice it, she seems to want children to grow up into non-thinking, apathetic
adults who work for the pleasures of the weekend. She'd better be careful what
she’s wishing for. Because today’s young children are the ones who will be
ruling her world when she’s old.
I can only hope that
by then, she’ll be too senile to keep demanding that children be kept
imprisoned by Big Government.
