Homeschooling thought of the day 
Monday, October 24, 2005
This goes into the files of "we are still making this decision and every piece of information matters"

Nazi girls spread hate - I noticed they QUICKLY mentioned homeschooling in the article. Of course, we all know the rise of homeschooling in this country is to blame for all of the ills we see in this country today ... NOT.

I am not as much worried about how to deal with the criticism of homeschooling on this front as dealing with the very real problem of the minority of homeschooling parents that shouldn't be teaching their kids. Is there anything we can do as parents concerned for these kids OR is this the price we pay for the freedom to raise our children as we feel is best?

My wife and I have not formally homeschooled day one and the vast majority of the parents we meet are up to the task. That said, there are a few familes whose kids we wonder about. Do you pray? (of course you do) ... Do you say something? Do you encourage the passing of laws to require certain standards from homeschooling parents AGAINST the voices of many within the homeschooling movement calling for as much freedom as possible?

These are tough questions and homeschoolers need real answers to silence the legitimate concerns of critics. A unified blanket of leave us alone only feeds the fire raging in the minds of the majority of Americans who find already homeschooling "creepy".
M Ashton 
Monday, October 24, 2005
The question of the parents who shouldn't be homeschooling is the same as the question of those parents who shouldn't be raising kids. If you argue against homeschooling because some few parents are violently unsuited to it, you also have to argue against parenting because some people are violently unsuited to it -- and what do you do then? Raise all kids in daycare using licenced child-raising experts? Go with Socrates' plan in the Republic, where every child is a "bastard born in a bureau"? (He was not entirely serious, by the way.)

There may be arguments against homeschooling, but that's certainly not one of them. The concern is not that. The concern is those in society who will sway opinion against it on this untenable, nonsensical basis, or on any basis at all, because the public is not taught to use reason; they are rather taught to shun it.

It's amazing what you can accomplish in a society when you obliterate reason ... ever heard of abortion?
Ggoose 
Monday, October 24, 2005
Good point and one I didn't immediately think about when posting this ...

My biggest fear is that the mob against homeschooling is going to use things like this to point out why homeschooling should be squashed. This seems like BETTER ammo than some of the other things I hear. In fact, I just heard for the billionth time the argument that homeschool kids need to be in school and day care SO they can get sick more and build a better immunity to disease. That is a canned response I have heard from more than one working mother about her choice to send her kids to day care. After all, they have, ummm "science" on their side with this one. ... I guess ...

The mode of operation of many folks I talk to is:
Choose a position
Demonize the opposition
Select statistics that seem to defend your position
Feel smug that you have "science" on your side

I have heard a similar thing from someone in an effort to denigrate our decision to convert to Catholicism, and I quote "Don't think too much" (about God, faith etc). I was taught in school that it is important to know why you think the way you do but that sentiment is incomplete without a reference to truth.

Thanks for stopping by BTW ... You should really post more although I perfectly understand how real life can get in the way of these e-lives we lead. :)

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