Last night I babysat for a homeschooling family from my church. The kids were a girl just eight and a boy age six (kindergarten age). Their parents were out to dinner for the evening. As I played with the kids and put them to bed, I couldn't help noticing all the things around the house that made it really obvious just how intensely the kids' parents were bringing them up as Christians.
I approve, of course, but there was one thing that concerned me.
I heard on the radio a few months ago that there was a ten-year-old girl, Amanda, out in California I think, who was given an order to move from homeschool to the public schools to "be exposed to other points of view" after expressing firm Christian convictions in a court of law. It looked to me that if the government got a wind of this, the kids (who, by the way, are reading and writing tremendously better than they would if they were in the public schools) would be in danger of being sent to the public schools. SO. Let me address a few issues here.
- The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child: It gives parental authority to the government. Why is this a mistake? Because the parents care about the children far more than the government was. Also, one of the points in the Convention of the Rights of the Child is free association with whomever the child wants. The child is allowed to hang out with gang members and the parents can't stop him or her, yet...the children "need to be exposed to other points of view" if they profess what I have been assured is a very mainstream, accepted position?
- Homeschool education: As far as I've seen, homeschoolers are rocking the academic world with their academic excellence. (Not to sound vain, but I'm living proof. My English Comp professor thinks I'm brilliant and he doesn't even know I'm not even sixteen.
- Homeschool socialization: I've been a part of homeschool groups before, and seen others. Here are some examples. When I was in karate, our instructor taught an afternoon class for homeschoolers only. As a group, we were very diverse, politically, religiously and more. We were comfortable with and good at interacting with all age groups (age four through teenage), not to mention fine with at interacting with adults also. Furthermore, we were also very accepting of outsiders. Then there's the homeschool group at church. Excepting the religious diversity of course, everything I just said applies. Then, there's the theater group my younger brothers belong to. After their play, everyone had a potluck and all of us kids played cops and robbers. This is a homeschool group grades K through 12, and my older brother and I didn't know these kids. Still, we were accepted freely by everyone. There were no cliques or in-groups like those that originate in public school. Older kids helped the younger ones, and the younger ones helped the older ones. There was no discrimination.
- Lumping homeschoolers into one group: When I talked to the kids' mom last night on the way home, she said that she had seen a comment on a newspaper article that morning that read (paraphrased, though the "freakish and bigoted" are the exact words): "Homeschoolers are just freakish, bigoted people who are sheltering their children from the real world to pass on their freakish, bigoted ideas." Hello? You're calling us freakish and bigoted? The deal is, more and more people are turning to homeschooling. Christians and conservatives, but also liberal Democrats, Muslims, atheists, and so forth. Why? Because frankly, people are realizing that the public schools often don't cut it. Kids don't get to work at their own pace, because they are lumped together with kids faster or slower than they are. Kids are slipping through the cracks - an accusation often made of homeschooling.
I'm expecting commentary on this post. Please, people, share your opinions. Get a dialogue going. Let's see whether we can come to any other conclusions.
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