Home Schoolers

I was in the grocery store at midday during the week recently and saw several tweeners and teenagers shopping with what I would guess would be a parent.

Now there were not a lot of them, but there were enough their appearance struck me. I was sure that it was not a school holiday and it was definitely during school hours when I was shopping. Then it occurred to me that I was looking at home schoolers out on an “educational outing”.

General Observation

I could not help but observe that various klatches of home schoolers (a couple of singles, a couple of doubles, and a triple if memory serves me) and I could not be struck with a recurring thought that almost all of them seemed as if they could benefit from some social interaction.

Between running around uncontrolled or acting totally withdrawn, they all seemed a little in need. I grant you a few caveats.

First, kids are not well controlled in social environments, like grocery stores. It may be nothing more than my association of these being home schooled children that caused me to give more credence than it merited. So be it. This does not abrogate my claim that social interaction may, just may, alleviate this abhorrent behavior, especially if it is not coming from the home.

Secondly, and probably most troubling, is the withdrawn attitude and body language of a couple of late teenagers. Once again, I may be reading more into it than I should, although I did find it unusual to see this kind of interaction in a male. I know that this is sexist, but so be it. My thoughts were that, in an non-closed environment, these youths might get supportive help with peers or counselors that they could not avail themselves in their situation.

My thoughts

I am fully aware of most of the “justifications” for home schooling but they generally do not hold water. In the rare case where a child cannot attend a regular class, home schooling has been a Godsend. Where that has not been the case, it has been a crutch and an excuse for parents to, in general, foster a personal agenda that has little or nothing to do with the education and welfare of the child.

Now I know that the curriculum for home schooling is highly regulated, with text books and tests approved by the state. But that is such a small amount of school. I should know. If I had been allowed to be home schooled, I would have done well as I can learn very well from textbooks. But the benefits I gained from the school experience far exceeded any classroom environment. People need to interact with each other. That is a great benefit of school.

I know that some people will bring up such issues as bullying and the like to justify home schooling. That goes to the exception not the rule. Even then, however, is the answer to withdraw your child to a cocoon or deal with the issue? Is withdrawal the answer in the real world.

The Teacher

Perhaps my biggest concern is the educator in the home school environment. You can say all you want about schoolteachers and some of the worst things you say are probably true. I know, I have experiences some really bad teachers. I have also experienced really, really good teachers as well.

What they all have in common is that they have met a minimum education requirement, have been trained as a teacher, are generally required to obtain ongoing advanced training and education, and have years of experience dealing with a large range of students.

Now take you home school teacher. It is mom, dad, or designated friend/neighbor/co-believer who takes it upon themselves to monitor the child’s education. They are not required to have any education standards and often do not. They are not required to have any training in behavioral sciences and generally do not. They are definitely not unbiased about their students’ education. This can be a good thing but can also be a detriment in getting the student appropriate help. And, they definitely cannot assist the student in their education beyond what is in the “teacher’s guide” unless they have personal knowledge. Good luck with that.

In short, you as a parent choosing to home school you child, have decided to assign your child an untrained, possibly uneducated, biased instructor who is punching out of her/his weight class.

Conclusion

Go ahead and home school if you want to. I am not going to convince you otherwise. But you are generally doing you child a disservice and you child really, really disserves better.