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In Home Education:
Currently, there is a new movement in education which I consider to be very dangerous. Some people have got the notion that they can solve the problems in our educational system with, so called, home education. There are an ever increasing number of people who are taking their children out of the public schools and attempting to teach them at home.
There are also a number of shabby politicians who are supporting this movement. It shifts the focus off of them and off of their greed and failures. The most dangerous thing I see in this political dishonesty is the danger of the theft of public funds. Many of these political mountebanks want to steal moneys from the public system and give it to these fools.
The most important thing the in-home education advocates overlook is the fact that the public education system is more than that. At its best, it is a rich mix of intellectual and social interaction. This kind of thing cannot be duplicated in the home. It cannot even be duplicated in the snob type, so called, charter schools. It's not just about learning the three R's. It's about family, community and social structure. This is important to the development of the student and the community.
Home education is going to undo a lot of kids. We have too many, perhaps well meaning, but really selfish, egomaniacal parents. They seem to think that they can single handedly supplant the entire educational and social structure of our public education system. That is nonsense and egotism of the highest degree.
The truth is, most of these people are not equipped to educate at all. Most of them cannot even teach the basic skills because they don't know them and don't know how to learn them. They simply do not have the knowledge or the background. They cannot even supplant all of the educational structure, let alone the very important social structure of the school and the community.
What parents can do best is to supplement public education by paying attention to their kids. The fact that most parents do not take the time to do this is a very large part of the problem. Let's not blame it all on the educators and the system. Education must begin in the home. This must supplement and be coordinated with the formal, public education.
I believe in public education. I do not advocate home education at all. The potential for disaster is enormous. Home education cannot supplant public education because the home does not have the necessary tools. First, they don't have the intellectual tools or education. They do not have the basic training which is essential to teaching.
In addition, they don't have the physical tools, like books and reference material. I went to a bookstore and I went online to check out the home education movement. In both cases, I found the same thing. Real garbage! I found great numbers of documents and books with no educational value whatever. I found mostly lesson plans with no lessons or examples. I found a lot of hyperbole about love and crap like that. I found no real educational text. I found a lot of "How To Teach" but no material. I fully expected to find, at least a poor man's "Schaum's Outline" or two, but I found no basic tools for teaching anything. None at all.
So, I have a suggestion. Let's spend our time and money fixing the system, not supplanting it. Just because the car came off of the track, don't trash the car. That's stupid. Figure out how to put it back on the track and get it working again. Begin by knowing what your individual kids are doing. Then get involved in the school. If there is a clique at the PTA meeting, don't accept it. Interrupt it. Interfere with it. Make the system work. Don't abandon it.
There is another segment of this home education movement which is beyond contempt. These are the religious fanatics who pretend that they can equip their children to function in the world simply by infusing some fundamentalist concepts into an inadequate basic education. Religious concepts are very, very important. They are much too important to be confused with basic education.
Religion is about our core values and beliefs. Basic education is about intellectual competence. You cannot build intellectual competence by shouting about God. I seriously doubt that you can instill faith that way either. You can support intellectual competence by working to supplement the educational system. You can build faith and decency by talking softly about God, with your kids. It is properly done, in the home, as a supplement to a full educational program. Not as a substitute for the public system.
The fundamentalists who are perpetrating this nonsense on their children are intellectual swindlers. They are swindling their own youngsters. Their children will end up intellectually and emotionally unequipped to cope in the larger community. They will be just as ignorant as their parents and will be a continuing burden on the entire community. Isolating your children from the larger community is stupid. That's all!
Next week, I'll talk about alternative schools and real solutions.
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