Another Plank in My School Board Platform

My cousin is a pastor whose wife home schooled their five children. Meeting them represented a turning point in my attitudes and beliefs about home schooling. Until then, I had always assumed that home-schoolers were nut cases or folks with an ax to grind with their local school officials. They were very patient with us when we asked whether there were issues with “socialization”, and they pointed out that their children were far more amiable and socially adept than most children of their age despite, or indeed because, they had not been institutionalized from an early age. We had to confess that this is so, and we came to respect and admire their courage in undertaking to home school.

The objections to home schooling that I had always taken for granted as valid (I have no children and never really gave the issue much thought) appear on closer examination to be unsupported.

1. Lack of socialization. If by “socialization”, one means regimentation, then home schooled children are not as “socialized”. There is no reason, however, to imagine that home schooled children will be deprived of meaningful social interaction, eg in the neighborhood or at church, just because they are not forced to attend school with other children. I recall having very little opportunity to socialize significantly at school, and my principal social interactions with other children were outside of school.
2. Poor quality of education. Children in schools actually get very little personal attention, sharing their teachers with a score or more of others, whereas home schooled children get more intensive instruction by someone who loves them and knows them intimately. I have seen no evidence that home schooled children are stupider than children who attend school.
3. Lack of government surveillance. It is certainly true that home schooled children are less often examined and interrogated by officials to determine whether they have been abused or neglected, but I have come to regard this as advantageous. It is a slanderous leap to correlate home schooling with abusive or neglectful parents, and I have seen no evidence that home schoolers are particularly abusive or neglectful.

Families that home school are less of a burden on their neighbors than families who send their offspring to government schools. Home schooling is cost effective and requires little, if any, coerced contribution from people outside the family.

Let me add to my platform as a school board candidate the encouragement of and support for home schooling within the district. Some things that the district might do in this regard:

1.Home schooled children should be permitted to engage in any extracurricular activities sponsored by the schools and to utilize school resources such as libraries and athletic facilities on an equal footing with matriculated students.
2. The option of home schooling should be publicized and promoted, and instructional support should be provided to parents on request. If they wish, parents should be provided with the same textbooks that matriculated students receive free of charge.

3. The district might facilitate or at least cooperate with the pooling of resources by home schooling parents where the need to work prevents some parents from staying at home full time.

4. Home schooled children might be permitted to participate in particular school programs and classes on an “a la carte” basis, eg physical education or foreign language courses or other courses requiring any special equipment or expertise.

I have no doubt that this plank in my platform will be anathema to educators who will accuse me of trying to undermine the public schools. However, in my view, working with home schoolers would improve the schools by decreasing costs and increasing flexibility and choice.