Why home-schooling?
Image generated with AI by author
This isn’t it if you are looking for a tirade against the school system. Armed with facts, statistics, surveys, etc., people much more intelligent than myself can deliver that for you. My reasons as a father are much different.
It was the early 2000s when I was in PE class. The PE teacher was a gruff, no-nonsense middle-aged woman who ruled our class with an iron fist. How else do you keep twenty elementary schoolers on task? If you had something to say, you raised your hand and waited for it to be acknowledged. I had to pee. My hand was in the air for what seemed like an eternity. The teacher made awkward eye contact with me and averted her gaze, focusing on finishing her speech on instruction for the next activity. I was scared of her. My parents told me I needed to respect adults, especially teachers. I didn’t want to interrupt her and get in trouble.
I peed my pants.
I was so scared to interrupt the authority figure and risk getting in trouble I had an accident. I don’t blame her. I was 1/20 of her responsibilities. In hindsight, she’s probably a really lovely lady who did what worked best to keep order. The terrible consequences I imagined for interrupting or running to the bathroom weren’t real, but my fear was. I was so afraid it led me to logicless compliance.
Whether on purpose or by accident, compliance is the number one subject taught in the school system — compliance with rules, schedules, dress codes, etc. Structure and discipline are excellent for children to learn. Blind or fear-based compliance, however, is not. I will leave it to the reader to draw historical parallels, but have these types of compliance ever led to anything good?
When you buy products, what do you view as higher quality, mass production, or customized items? We are taking beautiful, unique children and shaping them using mass production. None of this is a knock on school teachers. Many are excellent, but they get thirty minutes to one hour with their twenty to thirty students before they shuffle to the next class. It’s not possible to customize that time for each child. That would be an impossible request.
I’m by no means a genius. I don’t have to be. Impressive, intelligent people create free curricula daily on the internet, writing books and articles. There isn’t a teacher alive who holds that knowledge. I can pass that knowledge along and guide my children to it. Without all the wasted time of catering to dozens of other kids, I can teach them how to use tools, make meals, and other practical life skills that are being removed from schools or are gone entirely already. Usually, it is in less time than the standard school day.
Like I said, I’m no genius, but I was a good student. I left school with much knowledge and almost no practical life skills. The valuable life skills I possessed were picked up from my parents. I’ve learned through on-the-job training in every job I’ve worked. You aren’t getting any job-specific training in pre-k through twelfth grade. Children only hold on to things that excite them and energize them. This can be done with almost any subject with the correct level of customization. It goes in one ear and out the other in a mass-production format.
Homeschooling is a financial sacrifice. One parent cannot be generating income while also educating their kids. If you are a single parent who can’t work remotely, it’s impossible, so why do I advocate for it? Imagine a world where the school system only exists for kids who NEED it. The kids who have a single mom or dad, the kid who needs a safe place to go. Smaller class sizes mean more time and resources for the kids who need them. Wealthy and busy people can employ displaced teachers, and families can create cooperatives so kids can socialize. Sports leagues can be independently operated with vouchers for the kids who need them. The plan requires sacrifice from parents who are not currently homeschooling. Sacrifice is the name of the GOOD parenting game. I am not asserting that you are a terrible parent if you don’t home-school sacrifice looks many different ways. You can’t have it all when you homeschool your kids, but you can have healthy, well-loved kids, and I’d give anything away for that.
I know plans are easier said than done, but this topic’s absolute tribalism drives me up a wall. School teachers are excellent and valuable for the most part. Homeschoolers aren’t crazy antisocial doomsday planners for the most part. I don’t know the incentive for these groups to marginalize each other, but if they can knock it off, they might help out who they both care about most: the kids.
