I'm not really talking about all the religious homeschoolers who tend to practice what we call "school at home" - little desks lined up in a room of the house called a schoolroom, taking attendance, using textbooks and prepackaged curriculum, grades and testing, mom is teacher , dad is principal with ultimate authority. My experience is the opposite aparently of JJV - the media love these kinds of homeschoolers - very non-controversial, except for their propensity to use scientific texts without the benefit of the discussion of evolution, sexuality and all those topics that religious folks don't like to talk about These "homeschools" turn out basically the same product as the public schools.
What I'm talking about is unschooling, which is very controversial, being assailed by all kinds of people, from the media (check out Dr. Phil's recent show on the subject), a big series in some midwestern newspaper, maybe the Plain Dealer, I can't really remember, education experts (the Columbia professor in the recent NYT article), legislators, PTA zealots, as well as teacher's unions, professional educational bureacrats, etc. There is no doubt this kind of homeschooling is controversial - and that is because it is so far out of the box that people are used to education being packaged in.
And, btw, the religious right folks at HSLDA would like to have you believe that homeschooling is their baby alone, but the people that I credit with the concept that I'm practicing are folks writing the in the 60's and 70's like John Holt, A. S. Neill, Patrick Farenga, Ivan Ilich, Raymond and Dorothy Moore, Mark and Helen Hegener, and people thinking about the ideas of free/alternative schools. Religious homeschooling actually started well after the original movement when the tax laws caused many small Christian schools to close. It is true that religious people had a lot to do with legislation making homeschooling legal, but they certainly weren't the only ones, and they tend toward overregulation which I disagree with.
I don't know what the numbers are for unschoolers - no one does, these people often don't report to the government on principal, and states don't keep track of the different kinds of homeschooling happening.
I have also tended to notice in the national media that in cases of child abuse, or a child committing crimes - if that family/child was homeschooled this fact is featured prominently. And in the majority of such cases, where they weren't homeschooled, the fact that they are public schools students is not mentioned or at least not mentioned as a reason why abuse /crime occurs.
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Sorry, what exactly is "unschooling"? I'm not up on the terminology but given the state of some DC schools I should probably get cracking.
Interesting observation on abuse/crime and home/public school. Child abuse is not primarily a result of homeschooling but I would bet that homeschooling exacerbates an existing abuse situation, in that there is one less "safe place" for the child to escape the abuse environment.
Nothing shocking with the media. Homeschooling and public school, as with any other subjects declared to be in Manichean opposition, are good/bad unless they are bad/good.
PS - Didn't Ivan Ilich die over the course of a Tolstoi novella?
I never heard of this "unschooling." Sounds like the homeschooling analog of Montosourii schools (pardon the Gelber-Tuttle spelling there). (Also reminds me of Disney's "very merry unbirthday to you."). Key point is that eventually the kids are going to have to take SAT's and the like. I bet dollars to donuts public school products will, as a general matter, have worse results. However, only homeschoolers are held to the "perfect" standard.
It seems to me your sons have an extra strong reason not to become axe murderers.
Jonah: "I think I'll axe murder those guys."
Jacob: "They sure deserve it but it will piss off Mom once the papers get hold of it."
Eli: "Yea, if we'd gone to public school we could axe murder without compunction but you know darn well what the first sentence is going to be in the newspapers.
Jonah:"Not only don't we get snow days in Ithaca but now I can't axe murder with impunity like the public school kids No fair!"
Although I hope to write extensively about unschooling in future posts, I'll give you a quick course. We reject the basic tenet of institutional schools that all people must learn the same things at the appropriate time. We reject the notion that kids have to be forced to learn things; that without compulsion children are not capable of learning. "School" in our house basically does not exist. There is no required work, no textbooks, no tests. The kids work on what they want to learn, when they want to learn it. I know this is a radical concept and I know JJV is jumping up and down with delight on how he gets to rag on lefty crazy me. Just remember, John, I know you like my kids - so, anecdotally, unschooling can't be all bad, right?
Of course the challenge is, as it is for anyone who chooses to live/work/think out of the "normal box", is how to integrate into society. This is a challenge we think about quite often, but one that we are hopeful we can handle. Fortunately, I see no homicidal tendencies in the boys, so we will probably avoid any "homeschoolers go wacko" headlines.
I have determined to forebear on any commentary on educating children until mine are toilet trained. I will say I am partial to more tuetonic methods but am not the primary guy on this task so will keep quiet for now.
I am trying to imagine what teutonic toilet training might look like...
1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 left right left right, Squat! Poop!
Thank you for the explanation. I also like the way you use JJV's main weapons - the primacy of anecdotal evidence and subtle logical leaps - against him. Perhaps all men are Socrates, after all.
Do not forget my 3d main weapon: Fanatical devotion to the Pope.
I mentioned that homeschooling is noted prominently in spelling bees victories as well. Of course we all remember all the famous self made heroes.Abe Lincoln schooling himself.. etc. Over the years of the progression of civilization , I believe no child left behind will not really be a milestone . I doubt it will even be remmebered by the time my kids reach adulthood.
JJV also has a nice red uniform. I imagine that Robin is reaching for her sons' axes as I write this.
At the risk of sounding flippant, I can imagine that homeschooling is (or at least could be) an ideal environment for the concentration required to memorize vast quantities of knowledge, as opposed to the sensory festival that is public school.
The example of Lincoln as a triumph of homeschooling is a bit misleading owing to the vastly different context of his upbringing. Plus he ended up getting shot so maybe homeschooling didn't work out so well for him.
No Child Left Behind is a milestone, but not in the way its creators intended.
Yes, in our case, the memorized knowledge consists of every Monty Python movie and skit ever produced, the D&D Dungeon Master's Guide, v. 3.5, and all the cheats to Starcraft.
Oh, well, in that case you have nothing to worry about and your kids will turn out Just Fine.
Jonahs not really the axe kind...
I think he would use a chainsaw.
its faster.
Me personally,
Id feed my dads rice and beans.
that would do the trick...would also give them gas so the last laugh is on them.
Eli would hit them with a fast ball.
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