Costco Connection Debate Response Response

No, I didn’t double-type the word response in the title–this is a response to a response I just read to last month’s Costco Connection debate. Rarely do I get this worked up this quickly. Really.

The debate last month was this question: Should parents be certified to home-school their children? The response came from a Tom Karasek of Seattle. (Interestingly enough, this gentleman appear to be a serial writer to the Costco Connection, with other letters written in March 2006, April 2008, and this month’s…). But back to his response:

Yes. It might reduce the number of parents who home-school, not because they could do better, but because they want their children isolated from mainstream issues and conflicts essential to growing up as a well-prepared person.

First, studies show time and time again that homeschoolers regularly outperform public school students, and normally handily. The issue is no longer about whether we as parents think we can do better–we know that we can. And we do. Of course, public schools don’t exactly set the bar high…

Secondly, his argument assumes that public school students are well-prepared: and if by that he means experiencing violence, experimenting with alcohol, drugs, and sex, and learning far less than they should, he’d be absolutely right. But I do not believe many of us believe that these things, however generalized, make a person well-prepared for much of anything, and certainly nothing successful.

Thirdly, let’s get past the misleading belief that homeschoolers are somehow less socialized than public school kids, who spend the majority of their day with kids their own age, and who otherwise socialize with kids their own age. Homeschool kids participate in activities that incorporate all ages, making them, if nothing else, more socialized and better socialized than public school kids.

Lastly, let’s get to the heart of the matter, which feels like it may lead me to write a series of posts about this subject: the opponents of homeschool would have you believe that homeschoolers are isolated, ignorant, and socially incapable for one singular purpose: for control over our kids. If they can get our kids in public schools, they control what’s taught, and your personal beliefs will be undermined if you disagree. In other words, indoctrination…

No, I didn’t double-type the word response in the title–this is a response to a response I just read to last month’s Costco Connection debate. Rarely do I get this worked up this quickly. Really. The debate last month was this question: Should parents be certified to home-school their children? The response came from a…