Allright, I have sat on this for a week now, so if any of you do any serious blog surfing, you may have already read this as it appears to be linked everywhere. But I thought I'd share it here for two reasons...1) a lot of you do have a life and don't spend so much time on the computer and this really is worth some thought and reflection. 2) It deals directly with a concept central to why I home educate. Here is the original post in its entirity (reposted here with Carrie's permission). The subsequent discussion via email is also interesting, and I may draw on that later for some additional material. My responses are in italics:
Homeschoolers say they have many reasons for what they do, but it all boils down to one simple thing: Treason.
Although they say otherwise, it isn't because of "better academics" (which they tout through flawed research) or fear of violence (which is just as likely to occur at home as it is at school - and if they ever DO let their children out into the real world, they are exposing their children to other threats - just like the rest of us). Homeschoolers, quite simply put their own selfish biased agendas above the well being of the society and community that supports them.
I agree absolutely. The majority of homeschoolers do not homeschool for the improved academics. The fact that they tend to score somewhere in the 85th percentile on those standardized tests as compared to the public school's placement in the 50th percentile is nothing but a nice perk. The fact that Universities seek out homeschooled students is also a recent phenomenon that has nothing to do with the choice for most to homeschool. Face it...if we wanted the academics, we'd hire a tutor. Less stress for us and probably a lot cheaper in the long run.
It isn't about fear of violence. I actually have never heard that as an actual reason....sometimes as an "oh I'm glad my kids aren't in that school in Ohio where that girl was raped in front of a bunch of students and it was video taped." But those kinds of things are only said by people who already homeschool.
To really understand this, you need to know what goes on in a public school. It isn't all reading and math and rote memorization - really in today's society all of that is less important than the SOCIAL IDENTITY of the children that pass through the halls of public school. Almost since their inception, public schools have been a means of molding the children into adults with a social conscience that benefits the society they live in. Children are taught about the equality of the races and sexes, of the rights of others with different viewpoints, of the need for providing for the welfare of those less fortunate than ourselves and even their duties to their country (such as with the selective service). And the benefits are obvious and easy to see. It is NOT by accident that just as public schools became the norm, our life expectancies have grown. It was through PUBLIC education of such things as proper sanitation (Cleanliness is next to Godliness is a GOVERNMENT sponsored slogan of the early twentieth century) and immunizations (ever notice how the anti immunization crowd is always heavy on homeschoolers?)
You are absolutely correct that public schooling is not about reading and math. It is about socialization. The process whereby we become good little socialists and think how the state wants us to think and do what the state wants us to do. Stalin socialized food production. Canada socialized health care. The public schools socialize children...it is the process whereby the children are made property of the state.
Public schooling allows the parents to be more useful to society as well. The process for this is called SPECIALIZATION. The idea is basically that a person who dedicates himself to doing one thing well produces more than the same person who divides his time among two or more things. The reason is simple. It takes time, investment, training and focus to do something well. You lose time switching between stuff, you waste investments by not specializing (this is because of the economy of size). You waste your training if you divide it among two or more things because while you are doing one, you aren't doing all the other stuff you are trained in. And finally you lose focus if you are dividing your attention amongst different things. Specialization is why Henry Ford's assembly line put him leaps and bounds ahead of his competition. It is what brought about the industrial revolution and it is what made this country into the superpower it is today.
Homeschooling is antithetical to specialization. While you are homeschooling, you lose your ability to be productive in other areas. Hence you suffer, the people who would have benefitted from your services or goods suffer, and society in general suffers.
You are also correct on specialization. When parents specialize in their careers, they have no energy, focus, usefulness left over for child-rearing duties. Good thing the benevolent state is so ready to step in here. Unfortunately, the teacher only specializes in education. So the children are kind of left without anyone actually specialized in parenting. That's kinda sad, I think.
As to the net benefit of man, however, I have to strongly disagree. Hitler went on about something similar. The final solution did have something to do with improving the overall genetic makeup and net benefit to the German people. That's taking the idea to the extreme, obviously, but the worth of man is not reduced to the sum of his economic activity. If you are concerned about homeschoolers in this (and homeschooling does not even fit as an example in your paradigm anyway), why don't we eliminate all those leeches in our society that take but do not give....prisoners, welfare recipients, the retired...
Homeschool
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Jan. 27, 2006 - Is she serious?!?
This writer is so obviously taken by the whole idea of a man being only worth what monetary value he returns to society that I wouldn't be surprised if she agrees that we should rid ourselves of the "leeches." Sounds like the good ole days in Germany.