I have been homeschooling for fifteen years, and have had homeschooling friends for over twenty. I live in a very homeschool-friendly region of a homeschool-friendly state. And so, I have had for nearly half my life heard the many popular homeschooling anecdotes and mantras that still pop up on blogs, in articles and conversations throughout the home school community. These lines, ideas, talking points – however you’d like to refer to them – represent diverse points of view but have some commonality to them nonetheless. They all contain a bit of sophistry that I believe derives from a combination of passion and insufficient analysis.
Love him or hate him, the conservative talk radio host, Rush Limbaugh, has wisely said on many occasions, “thinking is hard work”. I know of many considerable intellects who would agree, G.K. Chesterton for one. I just happen to have my skeptic’s antennae raised as a matter of habit, and so I often hear or read things that just don’t sound right. I am forced to spend time considering them and find myself disagreeing with folks a lot. This tendency of mine has its advantages and disadvantages. Some people unfortunately describe me as “argumentative”, a quality I do not desire. I do not want to be contrary, I just don’t want to mislead anyone. Before I assent to a particular idea I have to know that it is true. When the red flags go off in my brain, I have to challenge the concept that set them off. Consequently, I am confident that I am being as objective as possible.
For example, I read in a homeschooling blog the other day that the educational drop out rate in America is 50% - one out of every two teens you know, see on the street or friend on Facebook is a high school drop out. On its face it just seems like an exaggeration, doesn’t it? It is such an astonishing figure I wonder if I misread or misinterpreted it. Well, I am not going to disagree simply on the basis of my astonishment, so I looked it up at the National Center for Education Statistics. The drop out rate has been on the decline since the 1980s for all demographic groups. It was 14% then and is 8% now. So, learning that and giving the article’s author the benefit of doubt, I thought that perhaps he was including homeschoolers in his definition of “drop out” in some poetic sense. After all, a homeschooler has “dropped out” of the public system. So I looked at the Census data.
In 2010, children under the age of 18 comprised approximately a quarter of the U.S. population, or a little over 77 million. The most recent home school population we have on record is 2.3 million or 2% of children in the United States. Adding that to the NCES statistic of 8%, we are not even close to 50%. Thankfully. Perhaps he was referring to his state...or his town?
It seems to me that taking responsibility for teaching our own children requires us to practice what we expect our children to learn. I am sure we all want our children to think critically, evaluate objectively and communicate accurately. And yet, I continually see statements and arguments within the homeschooling community that seem more emotional and subjective than logical and objective, or that are simply incorrect. We’re all human, of course – we all react emotionally from time to time. But in the context of promoting homeschooling and influencing each other with our experiences, thoughts and ideas, we should hold ourselves to a high standard.
Statements such as “I don’t want my home school environment to be nothing more than a classroom at home”, “Homeschooling parents shouldn’t teach their kids, they should allow their kids to learn”, and “government has no business setting educational standards”, sound wise and revolutionary. But are they? My objective is not to contradict, but to encourage us all to take a more reasonable approach to promoting what I think is truly revolutionary: homeschooling.
The next several articles I release will address some of the overstatements that I have repeatedly come across over the years. I invite your respectful and civil dialog.
No comments:
Post a Comment