-Caveat Lector-
{{When my children were in school, I did a sort of home schooling
without realizing it. I always took their lessons to the next step
while doing homework with them and supplied extra books on their
subjects. Fortunately, we had a very extensive home library and
often had much of the subject matter at hand but it takes a parent
or someone suggesting the added reading and research. This paid off
later and I highly recommend it for they both were able to get many
college credits from Advance Placement tests when the time for that
arrived. So, hats off to Tenorlove and all others who are doing
this! Amelia}}
The World's Most Unselfish Act
by Karen De Coster
I was at a baptism party for a friend's baby daughter, recently,
and met a couple of young girls who let it slip that they were
being homeschooled by their Mom. They were somewhat surprised by my
exuberant reaction, because, according to both of them, it is more
common that they would see signs of disdain upon an adult learning
of this fact.
"What are the reasons?" I asked. Well, it's the same-old, same-old
cliches that seem to appear, judging by the explanations of the two
girls. That is, people think that home-schooled kids cannot be
"properly socialized." Now this is quite amusing because it's just
so wantonly incorrect. Besides, it's an answer that reveals lazy
naivete and mere repetition of a popular aphorism. After all, what
else could someone so ignorant of the facts have to say about
homeschooling?
These ignoramuses just repeat the blather of the shameful media and
they recite the garble of the State: homeschooled kids don't have
friends, they can't learn normal social skills, and they are just
plain weird. It's the typical cop-out response to justify an
adult's selfishness, passivity, and or general inclination toward
irresponsibility. After all, if one is dumping their kids in the
midst of the four walls of the State, and for free, they don't want
it to appear that the parents of those homeschooled children may
have something over them.
Well, these parents do have something over those other folks.
Homeschooling parents, of course, are some of the most solid,
principled people you may ever meet. In fact, home schooling is the
most unselfish act that a parent can render unto his or her
children. The sacrifices that one makes to take on the
responsibility to teach, train, and endow their children with
requisite life skills at the expense of their own sweat and labor
are revealing. It reveals a great tenacity to want to enable your
children to grow up with a tailored scholastic experience outside
of the realm of collective brainwashing at the hands of a despotic
educational bureaucracy.
After all, it is the parents who must make all of the qualitative
education decisions; no longer is picking five classes out of a
4-page catalog and signing a permission form the only parental
responsibility. No longer does the parent dump the kids into an
unrestrained system that promises to provide for all their future
needs - from tutelage to psychological therapy to self-esteem to
condom handling. It is the parent that actually acts as the
fountainhead of truth and scholarship in a homeschool setting.
At this particular baptism party, the host of the party relayed to
me that the mother of the two homeschooled girls was literally
shocked when she heard that someone reacted favorably to her
homeschool situation in the presence of her girls. Upon meeting
her, and further discussion about her kids' education, she affirmed
the overall contemptuous reaction to her decision to actually raise
and teach her kids herself. It is shameful that the tendency toward
having the Public Nipple in every aspect of our lives actually
breeds contempt for those who choose to shove the nipple aside, and
take on the more difficult, yet rewarding task of detachment from
the Welfare State's feedbox.
On the subject of socializing, the typical home-school family does
not live on 100 acres in Idaho, 30 miles from the nearest patch of
civilized life, with the organic herb garden, home gun range, and
paramilitary parents in camouflage pants. Homeschooled kids live in
neighborhoods like most other kids do. They play with other
children and their siblings just like your average public school
drone. They join sports teams and they may take ballet classes.
They are even more likely to participate in church-related groups.
The difference is, they are not packed like lemmings into a
classroom with thirty other incompatible and unequal ragamuffins,
while trying to learn at a pace that is deemed "average" and
sufficient for that individual child's age group.
It was the malignant philosopher John Dewey who stated that only
public education could aim for and accomplish greater social
competence for children, and therefore, determine a proper living
environment and socialization nature as the child grows into
adulthood. Let me mention that John Dewey was a diehard
collectivist, and despised the notion of the individual removed
from the substantial influence of the self-elected, pedagogical
elite. The ennobled Dewey, as a noisemaker for the State and its
educators, helped to ingrain a sense of helplessness and
forbearance in succeeding generations of parents with his
philosophical rubbish.
Homeschooling folks have greater objectives for their children than
do most parents, and that is, to shield their children from the
harmful, unwanted effects provided by outcome-based education
techniques; they wish for their children to develop a sense of
spirituality and a values system that is desired in the home, and
can only be taught at home, by family; they desire an
individualized, more classical-oriented education for their
children; they wish to control the daily influences that their
child receives; and they wish to make all time spent learning
quality time, which cannot be the case in the never-ending,
disciplinary atmosphere of the public zoo.
Some folks homeschool their children because they exalt the
individuality of their offspring and they take parental
responsibility seriously. This is showing the greatest respect for
God's gift to them. If you don't homeschool your kids, that's your
choice. However, keep your empty-headed slurs to yourself, shut
your mouth, and put these folks on a pedestal, because they deserve
it.
September 5, 2001
Karen De Coster, CPA, [send her mail] is a freelance writer and
graduate student in economics, and works as a business consultant
in Michigan.
Copyright � 2001 LewRockwell.com
Karen De Coster Archives
Back to LewRockwell.com Home Page
http://www.lewrockwell.com/decoster/decoster43.html
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