This utter nonsense
Liberals, Don’t Homeschool Your Kids makes me want to slap some sense into the author. Kiddos to the author for at least realizing that homeschoolers are a diverse bunch, it really gets annoying when you have to explain over and over again that your NOT a FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIAN just because you choose to homeschool your kids.
But then
Dana Goldstein ask
Could such a go-it-alone ideology ever be truly progressive—by which I
mean, does homeschooling serve the interests not just of those who are
doing it, but of society as a whole?
The answer in my opinion is a resounding YES! By giving my children the best education possible I have given them the opportunity to be productive members of society and to make a difference in their world. But according to Goldstein and her ilk we should leave our children in failing public schools for the sake of society. This attitude of course makes no sense. It would be like saying since everyone can't attend medical school no one should. Never mind that those who do attend medical school and go into the medical profession serve society by using their knowledge to heal the sick.
This overheated hostility toward public schools runs throughout the new
literature on liberal homeschooling, and reveals what is so
fundamentally illiberal about the trend: It is rooted in distrust of the
public sphere, in class privilege, and in the dated presumption that
children hail from two-parent families, in which at least one parent can
afford (and wants) to take significant time away from paid work in
order to manage a process—education—that most parents entrust to the
community at-large.
Not all liberal homeschoolers are hostile toward public schools I do think my local public school with it's emphasis on mandatory school uniforms wasn't the best place for MY CHILDREN to receive an education. But numerous other families in my school district are perfectly happy sending their children to this school and I have no problems with my tax money being used to support it as long as I have the RIGHT to educate my children in the way that best suits my family. In our case it was homeschooling. Goldstein also missed that memo that
SINGLE PARENTS can and do homeschool. Yes, it is more difficult for them but they can and do do it.
Goldstein states
What makes us so sure? Reality.
More than 70 percent of mothers with children under the age of 18 are in the workforce.
One-third of all children and
one-half of low-income children are being
raised by a single parent. Fewer than one-half of young children, and only about one-third of low-income kids, are
read to daily by an adult. Surely, this isn’t the picture of a nation ready to “self-educate” its kids.
Apparently she also missed the memo where two income families can and do homeschool. I know one homeschool family where the Mom works during the day and Dad works the night shift, so someone is always home with the kids. The family eats breakfast together Mom heads off to work and Dad teaches 3 subjects , fixes lunch and then heads off to bed while the kids do their assignments and enjoy some free time. Mom comes home from work prepares supper and while Dad heads off to work Mom teaches her 3 subjects before the family heads to bed. While this isn't the ideal homeschooling situation it works for them.
According to Goldstein
Low-income kids earn higher test scores when they attend school
alongside middle-class kids, while the test scores of privileged
children are impervious to the influence of less-privileged peers. So
when college-educated parents pull their kids out of public schools,
whether for private school or homeschooling, they make it harder for
less-advantaged children to thrive.
While the privileged children's test scores may not have been impacted I question if they were being allowed to LEARN all they could are if they were being held back in order to appease Goldstein's and others sense of fairness. I know my children were not being academically challenged in their public school.
Goldstein says
Lefty homeschoolers might be preaching sound social values to their
children, but they aren’t practicing them. If progressives want to
improve schools, we shouldn’t empty them out. We ought to flood them
with our kids, and then debate vociferously what they ought to be doing.
BS, leaving your child in a school that is failing them isn't the answer. Obviously Goldstein has never dealt with school boards by the time you are able to make any meaningful changes your children would have graduated. By all means homeschool your children if that is what is best for them. You can still work to make the public schools better while homeschooling your own children.
Not content to leave it there Golstein later posted
Further Thoughts on Homeschooling, Liberalism, and Special-Needs Kids.
To clarify my own position, I do not think homeschooling should
be illegal, and I acknowledge it may be the best option for a relatively
small population of disabled and special-needs kids. My own belief is
that when it comes to the typical child, however, homeschooling does not
comport with crucial social justice values related to investing in the
common good, and so I’d urge parents concerned with social
justice—both broadly and in terms of their own children’s development—to
think twice about making this choice.
OK, I thought twice and homschooling was the best choice for my family and at the end of the day doing what is BEST for my children is the most important thing. Apparently Goldstein doesn't even have kids if she does she doesn't mention them in her bio. Easy for someone who doesn't have kids to spout off about what is best. Kinda like the single guy without kids who always gives parenting advice.
In
"Progressive Homeschooling" is an Oxymoron Goldstein states.
Educating children--especially poor children--is ridiculously expensive.
We need government involved to help foot the bill, and to bring best
practices to scale.
Actually educating children isn't ridiculously expensive. Public schools spend a ridiculous amount of money and claim it is necessary but homeschoolers have achieved outstanding results at a fraction of the cost.
At the end of the day we owe society the best educated children we can provide. If that means homeschooling so be it.
