Wednesday, June 3, 2009

A (Not Very Convincing) Case Against Homeschooling

I've read a few of the "Top Ten Reasons Not to Homeschool" type of things before and none has ever made me think, Oh my gosh, they're RIGHT! I shouldn't be homeschooling! This one, written by Jesse Scaccia at Teacher, Revised, is no exception.

Some of his arguments include "God hates homeschooling" and "As a teacher, homeschooling kind of pisses me off." Hm.

Anyway, I considered writing my own point-by-point responses, but two other homeschool moms have already done such a great job that I'll just pass their posts on to you!

Anne at Our Homeschool
has some great points, including: "
I'm not homeschooling to thumb my nose at hardworking teachers, but because I love teaching my kids and think they're thriving in a homeschooling environment."

Spunky at Spunky Homeschool not only refutes each argument with a healthy dose of wit, but gets a crack in at Joe Biden to boot! Awesome. I love this, in response to the argument that "learning" and things like eating and playing shouldn't happen in the same place:
I'm sure this is hard to understand for a teacher confined to teach in an institution all day, but the world is truly both a child's playground and their classroom. It provides both a focused place of study and the ability to roam freely. It's time to think globally and liberate yourself and your students from a classroom-centric world.

While homeschooling isn't the easiest thing I've ever done, I am convinced that it is great for my kids and that I'm not a "self-aggrandizing, society-phobic mother" because I homeschool!

1 comment:

grandmaonthefarm said...

Having two masters degrees in English apparently exempts a person from having to use critical thinking or reasoning skills. His poor attempt to 'reason' against homeschooling were laughable and pitiable. When the percentages of homeschooled students committing suicide, engaging in criminal behaviors or failing to meet low benchmarks for education begin to match public schooled students, I think there will be a case to examine practice of educating children at home. Once again, feelings were extolled as a valid reason - 'homeschooling just pisses me off". Wow. And the inability to see how poorly constructed his arguments really are shows more arrogance and self-induced blindness than any 'society-phobic' homeschooling parent I've ever met. Thanks for the post! Grandma