Home Scholing

I suppose I can see the impetus for it in the U.S., where there's an unfortunately justified perception of public schooling as sub-par (particularly in cities). But certainly it's possible to send your kids to an actual school and expand on that in their spare time?

But when a child *can't* be fitted into the school system, as was the case with me, then it probably is the best way.

Weirdly, in the U.S., the indoctrination element seems to be the opposite, politically. A good portion of home-schooling families seem to belong to fundamentalist religious sects. Or, I should say, fundamentalist religious sects too fringe-y to have their own private school systems. Plus people with ideological leanings, though not social ones, toward the deeply conservative, ultra-libertarian, survivalists-in-shacks culture.

All of which is to say: people who think that culture at large is somehow depraved or immoral or that the government is engaged in massively-successful brainwashing, except in the opposite political direction than you're talking about.

Sounds like a friend of mine. We were living off-campus together - he smoked up whenever possible (though making sure to exhale through the window screen, so the apartment wouldn't stink). He was against taxation, the Social Security system, and overall government influence in our daily lives. He tried calling the IRS once, and bitched out this phone operator. He wanted to avoid all governmental systems involving a SSN - loans, credit cards, banks. The farthest he actually got was to sign up for a Frequent Shoppers card under the name Lysander Spooner WITHOUT giving out his home address. ("Why do you need my address? Why do you need my phone-number? I'm not giving you my name.") And, by the way, he wanted to home-school his kinds. The fact that he mispronounced Nietzsche (as Nitch) and was arguementative to the point of ingnorant beligerence ("I know you are, but what am I?"), I didn't hold out much hope for his progeny.

However, since then, he's had a kid, and seems to have mellowed out considerably (or come under the thumb of The Man, if you want to view his struggle as something worth fighting for).

If one has the time & resources to do it up right, home schooling is hella cool. However, if one is going to submit to the public (or private) schooling arena, taking a serious interest in your kid's progress (instead of having swinger's parties and selling bagels at Ratdog shows) would be most prudent. Personally, my knowledge would be best suited as a supplement to a proper education. "No, Cornelius - John Byrne's last issue of Uncanny X-Men was #143, NOT #144. Now, go get Daddy's Velvet Underground box-set."

Obviously there are special circumstances such as Robin's that you need to be home schooled. But the religious fundamentalists or the hippie weirdos who refuse to send their kids on idealogical purposes? Morons, they should have their children taken away in my opinion. Even my flaky mom gave up on the idea that she should home school her kids, she saw why it was wrong and if she can give up stubbornness so can hippies and born agains.

It's absurd to homeschool children for religious or political reasons unless you expect them to spend their entire lives in your commune. Otherwise they will grow up, go out into the world, and start thinking that the reason they were never exposed was that their parents wanted to hide something. It's much better to be with your kids when they are questioning their beliefs at a young age because you won't be there to guide them later.

If parents are very well-educated, homeschooling could be all right. The reason my mother never homeschooled us (and she's wanted to) is that she can't teach advanced sciences or Latin, and it's so much better to send kids to public school than to never let them learn.

Putting it this way, our personality and social abilities are pretty much developed by the time we are 8 and 1/3 developed when we are 5. If a child has strict and overbearing parents that strive to shelter him in everyway, the kid will have the character that just demands abuse for most of his childhood and well into his teens. At that point, school will just surve as a psychological insane torture and home will continue to benefit this.

We need to look at parents, not at the various educational choices. With good resources and a healthy brain, everyone will learn.

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I read this thread title as "Home Schlong"

if i could choose for one ancient era ilx poster to return it would probably be carmody