Reply #67: I've talked with some liberal homeschoolers [View All]

and while I don't agree with them 100%, I can see where they might have a point in some areas--there really is only so much a school can do with teachers having 30+ students at a time, and the necessity to reach them all. I personally would like to supplement a child, if I had one, with a wide variety of interests, instruction and lessons after school to pique their interest in many areas.

On the other hand, I don't like what the RRR has done to homeschooling, and when I read articles in different magazines not known for a liberal bias, all I have to do is look at a picture to reinforce my rather terrible opinion of parents who homeschool for none other than religious reasons. They either look like the ultimate rednecks, or they look like the ultimate in evangelical baptist prim and proper duds, or they look like something the cat dragged in. Sorry I'm generalizing here, and I admit that, but there really is a common theme with many, if not all, ranting and raving RRR homeschooling parents.

One thing which never fails to irk me in particular is how homeschooled children not only never learn to properly interact with other kids in a social setting, but problem children can not and are not dealt with in a clinical environment. There is no social worker or psychiatrist to followup with children who show clear signs of abnormal behavior which can and eventually will likely manifest itself as a major psychosis, sociopathic disorder, or even borderline personality disorder. Trends in mental dysfunction are created in childhood, from how a child is raised. If a child is not screened by the public school system for placement when and where necessary, these children literally escape through the loophole of isolation, and will likely be and create problems well into adulthood--not only that, but they can wreak terror and horror while they continue to live in a mainstream environment. Left to their own devices, such children will make abberant behavior their normal behavior, and thus end up with a tenuous hold on both sanity and reality. An example of this is how it has been established that children who abuse animals have been likely abused themselves, and many animal abusers grown up with significant problems to be a menace to society at large. Nipping this behavior at the child abuse stage can and will likely help many of these children break an unhealthy cycle earlier in life, and could place them back in a far more nurturing situation.

But the most important thing about many homeschooled children of the RRR type is that they suffer from the lack of knowledge that children in public schools will get. There are so many incidental topics which the homeschooler will never be aware of, and their education will be lacking in such a wide variety of topics that they will be stunted for the rest of their lives. I have no facts to back me up on this, but my presumption is that RRR homeschooled children will likely not be finding jobs as physicists, doctors, or other highly technical positions, and if they manage to get such positions, they will likely be among the most anti-social people ever raised.

I am of the mind that parents should be involved with their children's educations to the extent that they know what their children are learning, and try to supplement that education through some form of additional educational resources. Most cities have night and weekend classes in a wide variety of avocations and hobbies, and many children would enjoy those topics. Parents could take time to teach their children about whatever hobbies that they themselves enjoy as well, and try to foster a sense of enjoyment at things which have been missing from most of our lives in the past 40 years or so. I recall in my own youth that learning to cook, knit, crochet, clean fish, plant a garden, and other such things was still taught to families, but nowadays, I see less and less domestic crafting being relayed to children. I think a child who knows how to cook, for example, male or female, deserves kudos for having interest in something so necessary to enjoyment of life.

Children need to be apart from their parents for times growing up. They need to recognize their own individuality and independence. And until they can realize that homeschooling only delays that separation, they are almost always going to deal with the issues that arise a little later in their lives.