Fellow Hagerstown blogger Steve Shives of Steve Likes To Curse wrote a blog post about home-schooling children. He pointed out that because these children are home-schooled by individuals — mainly their mothers — that lack a good background in science, these children shouldn’t be awarded a real high school diploma.
I thought Steve made some good points, but what do I know? I am the product of yucky government school.
Some of the mothers that home-school their children have responded to what Steve wrote. To say I enjoyed reading some of the replies is putting it mildly. Many of them were simply unintentional comedy gold.
One of these anonymous home-school mommies wrote the following:
The Germans, through their new educational system, turned the nation of Goethe and Beethoven into the nation of Bismarck and Hitler. Their students were thoroughly “socialized”; that is, they were indoctrinated to be loyal and obedient to state authority. This made them better soldiers and factory workers.
Hitler? I hereby declare Goodwin’s Law!
Hitler actually went to school in Austria, not Germany. He didn’t like school. In fact, he hated it. He never even graduated high school. He dropped out of high school when he was 16.
I think home-schooling is wrong. Not because home-schooled kids don’t learn enough science. To be honest, I could care less if a kid knows the entire periodic table of elements by heart. No, I’m against home-schooling because home-schooled kids miss out on the social aspects of school.
A big part of school is learning to get along with other people. People who you may not like and who may not like you. Not just other kids, but the teachers too.
Home-school proponents say their children get the needed socialization by interacting with other home-schooled children. Evidently many of them are members of home-school support groups and they schedule events for their kids to participate in.
In other words they get to interact with children just like themselves. Children who have been hand-selected by their mothers for the sole purpose of having someone to interact with.
What’s going to happen to these kids when they have to socialize and interact with people that aren’t just like them? People who haven’t been vetted first by their mothers?
In school you learn how to interact and hopefully get along with all sorts of people. It’s a skill children hopefully go on to utilize their entire lives. I don’t care what your career field is. If you don’t know how to deal with people, you are at a huge disadvantage.
I realize now that some home-school advocates think that if you send your child to a government school, there’s a chance they will grow up to be Adolf Hitler. I think maybe it’s worth taking that risk.
Jesse Jace
/ April 11, 2008Ever seen “Jesus Camp?” If most home-school teacherparents are like the mom they interviewed in that film, then the kids’ missing out on social training is the least of our worries.
Luke Lindon
/ April 12, 2008“No, I’m against home-schooling because home-schooled kids miss out on the social aspects of school”
hell yeah! i really loved this post. great job.
and jesus camp unfortunately closed this passed year. but it’s a great movie that also shows the dangers of home schooling as there was a high correlation between kids at those camps and home schooling… just check out the special features, that fact is mentioned in the making of part.
i hated high school. but it made me who i am. i’m actually happy and grateful for it as suffering builds character ;-). it’s like my buddy who owns a vineyard in california but lives in PA. when i asked him why he said that the weather for grapes in PA is too perfect. and perfect grapes make grape juice, not good wine. for good wine to be made the grapes must suffer a little. it gives the wine the nuance.
RonAndrewSchooly
/ April 12, 2008And have you ever met or seen a home-schooled kid in person? The few that I’ve seen are very,very weird. Like that weirdo kid who won the national spelling bee a few years back.
And the only thing weirder than the kids are the mothers. Why is it always the mothers that home-school the kids? Why not the dads?
Rick
/ April 12, 2008@Luke – Yeah, I pretty much hated high school too. Most of it at least. With that said, I can’t imagine going through life now without the experiences I had all through school. Not only with the other students, but with some of the teachers too.
@Schooly – Someone close to me is of the opinion that a good many mothers who home-school their kids only do so because they don’t want to have to leave the home and get a job.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that so many of those spelling bee kids are home-schooled. Who else has time to spend memorizing words? Being able to spell words most of us have never heard before doesn’t impress me. I have spellcheck. I firmly believe the two most important traits you can develop in a child is imagination and curiosity. It’s not knowing how to spell words other people thought up.