An Attack Against Home Schooling

An attack against the Noisykids!

And this on the day Histor the Wise matriculates!

And the day after we went to First Friday Mass and had to sing GATHER US IN by Marty Haugen. Almost as bad as the Finger Snap Alleluia(click on the contents tab)....

Thanks to PAUL at his website:

Reasons Home Schooling is bad:

1. Homeschooling Rejects Communion: How can kids be in communion with one another when they're at home? Answer: They can't!
Homeschoolers are Neocaths, RadTrads, and Cathlofascists: Have you ever talked to one of those Homeschooling parents? talk about Phariseeism - man!

Respondio:

Considering that my family of 12 has to get along together in our house, I would say that they learn to get along rather well. I am not sure what the author of this meant by 'communion(sic)' but our children do come together with other children for various events. The most significant event we share is that of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, where we receive Our Lord in Holy Communion.

I cannot begin to imagine how much my existence must offend some people, but I was not put on this earth to be pleasing to the eye, ear, or conscience. I have been given the responsibility to serve my wife and children in my role as husband and father. If my rejecting of most of what society has to offer offends, that is tough. Deal with it.

2. Homeschooling is a Negative Value Judgement Against Public Education: Face it - the French Revolution and the Public Education System here in America are the greatest events that the world has ever seen, at least since Plato was forced to drink the poison by the fascists in Greece.

Respondio:

I have consistently stated that all parents are responsible for the education of their children. There are several means for educating children, but in the end, the parents will have to answer for their children's formative years. We have chosen to educate our children at home. We make value judgements all the time - I am making one as I select words for this composition - and I am surprised that the author of this list would care what other people think.

3. When you Homeschool, you are basically saying "I can teach my kids better than a licensed teacher." Come on, people!

Respondio:

You are correct on this point. I have a couple of letters after my name, and my wife does not, but she exhibits more wisdom and patience than I do when teaching the children. She also LOVES her students!

4. Homeschooled kids are Overpriviledged: They are the winners of life's lottery already, since all Homeschooling Parents are rich. Why should Homeschooled kids get all that attention?

Respondio:

Most home schoolers are rich beyond one's imagination, but not with money. Most of the ones we know are living on one income and are doing all right. The comment about 'attention' I assume has to do with the blessing of having one's children at home with mom and/or dad for more time than school children get. That is the greatest privilege and blessing. Why would one be jealous?

5. Homeschooling oppresses Womyn: Who do you think is staying home and doing the homeschooling? The man? No way! Over 99.6% of all homeschooling parents are womyn. This is just another way to keep them locked up in the house and not pursuing happiness through a career.

Respondio:

You got me there. My role is not as 'hands-on' as that of my wife. However, those children who do not respond to the loving and gentle way of Wifeofdadwithnoisykids do end up having me as their private tutor - meaning that they get to do school work when dadwithnoisykids is home(weekends, post-call days while everyone else is on a field trip). I am assuming that 'womyn' is a typographical error for the word women. AS for the happiness of a career, I have this to say: I love my job, but it does not give me happiness. Happiness comes from God, not from what is more often than not a very discouraging line of work.

6. Homeschooled kids are 67% more likely to become exploitive white males: Look it up. Statistics don't lie.

Respondio:

Based on the previous argument, the author implies that home schooled children will home school their own children. What does not make sense is that one will end up with a larger number of males compared to females, not to mention the ethnic majority being skewed. In our home school group, the majority of children appear to be female. Is the author implying a later change of gender in this population which will increase the number of males in the group. I know that there are people with genetic anomalies(not to be discussed here) where a child appears to be female until adolescence, but this is rare and to find this population represented mainly in homeschooling groups would be worth reporting.

Regarding statistics, the author appears to have omitted the reference that is cited to support his argument. I would question the study, since the number of people who were homeschooled and now are raising children would still be too small to make such an argument. I would think that another 20 years would increase the size of the study population so that one could have enough data points to propose some trend. This is similar to children with congenital heart diseases, where new types of surgeries are increasing the survival rate of these children, and now they are facing diseases seen in adults. Heaven help the cardiac surgeon who has to perform coronary bypass on an adult with a single ventricle and Fontan physiology.

But I digress....

7. Public Education was Good Enough for Me!: Case closed. I am a product of Public Education, and when you Homeschool, you're not only making a Value Judgement about the Public Education System, you're making a Value Judgement about everyone educated in the Public Education System

Respondio: I think this demonstrates the logical error where one cites a specific example and from that makes a generalization. A simple example might be:

Our dog has a brown nose,

therefore all dogs have brown noses.

In this case, the author argues that since he turned out well(let us assume this for the sake of the argument), that all who receive a public education turn out well. Since I do not know the author, I have no way of validating his argument that public education worked well for him.

This brings up another final point: Divine Providence, gifts from the hand of God, are far more important to our spiritual growth than how we were educated. In my own life, I recall that one of the greatest reasons for learning more about my Faith was a series of discussions I had with a lab partner who was an atheist. My inability to discuss my Faith with him led me to learn more about it.

Having said that, I still consider Home schooling the best way to prepare the soul for God to come along and plant the seed of the Faith.