The Truth About Homeschoolers and Why Government Schooling is For the Birds

One topic that is sure to stimulate passionate discussion is education, particularly when it comes to the education of our children. Lately, I have been following a couple of hubs that have presented opposing viewpoints on homeschooling versus government schooling. Needless to say, they have prompted a landslide of comments. I’ve contributed a few of my own, but I’ve found that the points I am compelled to make go beyond the limitations of the comment box.

Some writers have expressed the opinion that the homeschooling hub’s author, Rose West, is “unqualified” to write on the issue as she never went to public school herself. Well, perhaps I can remove that distraction from this debate altogether. You see, I am a product of the public school system who taught in a secular private school for a time, and I have homeschooled my kids for over ten years (and counting).

Of course, if we continue to follow the same line of reasoning, then any judgment offered by those who have not been directly involved in homeschooling should be null and void as well. But, such thinking only serves to deter any dialogue and discount a person’s credibility, regardless of their background, education (all forms), life experience, and their ability to think.

This, in turn, reveals an unfortunate byproduct of the schooling process - a lack of confidence in ourselves coupled with a dependency on “experts” as the only qualified voice on any matter.

But, before I expand on that thought, I need to comment on the composition of us homeschooling parents. After all, some of you have disregarded my position before I’ve even made it once I identified myself as a homeschooling mom. We are often dismissed as anti-social control freaks too concerned (really?) with the lives of our children, living on the fringes of society. At the same time, we are painted as well-meaning, but delusional if we think we could possibly teach our own children. With approximately 2 million families homeschooling nationwide, that’s a lot of functional idiots!

But, contrary to how we’re depicted, the homeschooling community is teeming with reasonable people of sound mind. One thing is for certain - the decision to homeschool is not made lightly and involves hours invested in research, thought, and prayer. Deliberately choosing to walk a different path than the one that has been anointed by our society is rarely, if ever, done on a whim. It can feel like making the decision to jump off a cliff! And, we receive no salary, health benefits, or compensation from the government for doing so.

Besides, homeschooling comes complete with its very own “fish bowl” around which gather a host of critical friends and family, perfect strangers slinging unsolicited comments, and a chorus line of wagging fingers. I can tell you that anyone who enters into this mission without a basic understanding of what is involved does not stick with it for very long.

In my pre-homeschooling research, I was surprised to discover that there is a mountain of information available supporting this approach to education. You can find anything from simplified “Common Myths” articles on the internet to a multitude of published books on homeschooling and comprehensive histories of education. There are detailed research studies of homeschooled children and their parents with statistics on academics and socialization. Who knew?

Therefore, what I find puzzling, well to a certain degree anyway, is why I continue to hear the same arguments over…and over…and over…and over…you get the picture.

But, I guess it really isn’t a surprise at all. Support for homeschooling is nowhere to be found in any of our government institutions, and it's given little favorable attention in the media. And, unless you’re considering homeschooling your own kids, or you’re writing a paper about it, then you probably aren’t motivated in the course of your busy day to pursue this information, no matter how easily accessible it is. Still, in spite of a lack of self education on the subject, you are likely to have a definite opinion. And, it‘s probably one that leans in favor of government schooling.

When my first-born was still a toddler and I was teaching fine arts at a private school, I would shake my head in disgust at the very thought of homeschoolers selfishly “ruining” their children. I had never read anything on the subject, nor had I ever met any real homeschoolers. Yet, I felt certain that the parents were overbearing militia members and the children were meek, skittish little creatures who jumped at the sight of their own shadows.

Where did that image come from?

No mystery, really. After all, like most Americans, I was brought up by a public school, as were my parents and my grandparents (although their experience would have been different than my own - but that's another hub). It is understood, without question, that this compulsory schooling - relatively new to our nation’s history - is absolutely necessary if learning is going to occur at all (and most private schools are set up along the same model). We are several generations embedded in an institution that sends a clear, yet unspoken, message: to venture outside of its borders is a “disservice” to children and to the good of the country.

When I was teaching, I knew that homeschooling was “bad.” What was my source of information? Other teachers in the lounge, mainly, parroting the dismissals presented in teaching magazines and journals. The National Education Association does not support homeschooling…but then, what would you expect?

However, in just a couple of years, before my oldest had even reached school-age, I managed a complete U-turn in thought. How in the world did that happen? Well, I befriended some actual homeschoolers and discovered that they were regular people - gasp. Their kids were…well…kids. They laughed, they played, they got into mischief, they bickered with each other, and many were even rather outgoing. Hmmmmm…curious!

This journey demanded that I take a long, hard look at my views on education and modern schooling - they are not the same thing. I was forced to step outside of the familiar walls of formal instruction and look at it from a completely different angle. The world that unfolded before me was exciting and full of potential - for teaching as well as for learning.

But, I also discovered some troubling concerns about our widely accepted belief in - or worship of - the government school model.

Take a moment to imagine the ideal American classroom in Anwhere, USA - children sit in rows or clusters of desks with eyes on the teacher, awaiting their next set of instructions. The teacher dutifully tends to his pupils much as an adult bird brings food to its young. This is daily life for the American student.

The image is a sweet one, really. But, there are many problems with this picture.

In nature, baby birds practically climb over each other, hungrily straining their necks to get every possible morsel that they can. But, our formally schooled little birds respond with indifference, boredom, to what is brought to them. They have no sense of need or desire for what they are being fed. But they go to school day after day, year after year - because they have to - getting through it, waiting for it to be over. One day, they will join the real world (workforce) and life will begin.

Another problem is that the government school model reduces learning to a passive activity on the part of the student. Just as the Mama Bird brings the worm and places it in its offspring’s mouth, the teacher brings a steady supply of facts - comparable to a highlight reel in terms of knowledge - to deposit into the developing young brains. But, this approach makes the assumption that those minds are empty to begin with; as if we would all be quivering blobs of gelatin if it wasn’t for the system set in place to insert data. How, then, did we establish a new nation with a unique form of government at a time without formal schooling? How on earth did we ever function without it?

“Only here in America were the common folk of the Old World given a chance to show what they could do on their own, without a master to push and order them about. History contrived an earth-shaking joke when it lifted by the nape of the neck lowly peasants, shopkeepers, laborers, paupers, jailbirds, and drunks from the midst of Europe, dumped them on a vast continent and said: Go to it, it is yours.” - Eric Hoffer, The Ordeal of Change

Of course, learning does occur in government classrooms, but on a minimal read and regurgitate sort of level. And, depending on the student, the cultural background, the teacher, and the family, there are varying degrees within this scenario. Still, as students in the government system, our primary lesson is how to play the “game of school,” studying what we are told, when to we are told, and how we are told to do it. Success is determined by how well we jump through a series of hoops.

Sure, some discussion may happen in group activities, or when questions are posed and answers are pried out of students (“Anyone?…Anyone?). But, it is clear that our school system is based on a current that flows “one way” - from teacher to student. Yet, we are continually told that schools provide the best environment for the exchange of ideas. Anyone who is willing to be honest with themselves for a minute would have a difficult time swallowing that line.

“In short, they have learned to play the academic game well, but they are uneducated.” - Oliver Van DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education

Now, I want to assure you that although I highlight the teacher/student relationship here, I do not blame the teachers for the shortcomings of our school system. They seem to be the convenient scapegoat these days, but that would be like “shooting the messenger.” In reality, my heart goes out to them because I do believe that the majority enter the profession to do good by these children, expanding their minds by being that Mama/Papa Bird who brings nourishment. But, unfortunately, they are a small part of a gigantic machine that derives its power from outside of the classroom. They are told what to teach, when to teach, and how to teach it (although I would agree that, as in everything, some do it better than others).

So, what does all of this have to do with homeschooling? Well, in order to take an honest look at homeschooling, then we need to be willing to take an honest look at the system that raised us, that molded the young minds of several generations now. We need to be able to discern fact from fiction on both sides of the argument.

Why do we defend so vehemently a system that is clearly NOT doing what it claims to be doing?

Government schooling is wrought with fallacies, yet it presents itself as “THE WAY” to truth and any gainful employment. Having spent our very impressionable, formative years under its influence, we follow in docile acceptance - no, reverence - of this system. It is a process that does NOT create independent thinkers but group thinkers; it is not designed to mass produce well-educated citizens, but a manageable workforce. A far cry from the stock that founded a new nation.

Homeschooling offers an amazing alternative. It is a door to true education and understanding, bypassing a domineering step-parent whose motives are rooted in self-preservation. Homeschooling buzzes around the government system like a pesky gnat, and a population of compliant devotees do their best to swat it, perpetuating the same falsehoods again and again - no matter how much evidence exists to the contrary.

The truth is that homeschooling provides a focused, comfortable learning environment in which the students take a more active role.  It incorporates the building of family relationships, and very competent, loving parents manage to train up their children in academics and character quite well, regardless of their own educational background. All the while the established system that raised us insists that we do not have the capacity to do such a task…does that mean that they failed?

Of course, I wonder if anyone happened to notice that RoseWest‘s hub was well written and her point of view clearly presented. She has shown, at least through her writing, that she is quite capable of critical analysis and meaningful, organized thought. Any parent would be proud if their own children grew up able to express themselves on such a level...and she is the product of a homeschool education.

“…great teaching inspires students to educate themselves.” - Oliver Van DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education

I do not want to rewrite what has already been written on the subject, so I encourage you to read for yourselves. Instead, my desire has been to share my observations - to give my testimony - on a situation that I have seen from all sides. I find the willingness to blindly follow and defend a system that is obviously not living up to its claims to be unsettling. And, the vacant misrepresentations of homeschooling have grown tedious, to say the least.

This essay, has only scratched the surface of the matter. I hope it will not only encourage people to ask the tough questions, but to genuinely seek out the answers…and, that’s a good thing!

“The effect of the forced schooling institution’s strange accomplishment has been monumental. No wonder history has been outlawed.” - John Taylor Gatto, The Underground History of American Education