President Obama is pushing for so-called national standards. I worry that if the Education Establishment has its way, we’ll have one type of government school–all mediocre, all overflowing with social engineering and indoctrination. I think everyone should resist Obama’s plans. States should have their separate standards; and every citizen should support as much diversity as possible. Support vouchers. Support charter schools. Support private schools. And support homeschooling.
The following is one of several attempts I’ve made to defend and justify homeschooling on broad strategic grounds:
“It seems to me,” says education writer Bruce Price, “that ever since the first time I heard about homeschooling, I also heard that the government was bringing lawsuits and, by one device or another, trying to make life difficult.”
This is sad news, Price feels. In his view, we need homeschooling because we need as much diversity and competition as we can get — private schools, charter schools, vouchers, homeschooling, whatever. Homeschooling is the biggest departure from the ordinary public school, and can thus serve as a laboratory for discovering the best methods.
“The government,” Price believes, “should protect and nurture homeschooling, not intrude upon it. Making the decision to homeschool can involve a lot of extra work and expense. The last thing parents need is harrassment from their own government.”
Many people probably wonder: why do parents turn to homeschooling in the first place? What motivates more than one million Americans to make this difficult choice?
“Sometimes there’s a religious dimension,” Price points out, “but the usual reason is much more basic. Sadly, many Americans worry their children might not be safe or they will receive a shoddy education. Indeed, education statistics in the USA are scary. Illiteracy increases; but SAT scores go down.”
Price notes that he has never been personally involved in homeschooling, nor even known anyone who was. “But” he says, “I was always keenly aware that this unexpected phenomenon was taking place. My attitude was that the public schools should be improved, or we should expect that some parents would want to escape. This response was legalistic: parents, I thought, have the right, so go for it. But now my support is more philosophical and strategic. Public schools are simply not good enough to justify a government monopoly in education. We desperately need choice and diversity in education.”
Price has been writing about education for more than 25 years. His main conclusion is that our elite educators have been sidetracked by social engineering schemes, with the result that they often seem more skillful at dumbing kids down than at smartening them up.
Price points at just one of many possible examples that illustrate this point. The USA has 50 million functional illiterates. The schools created these people by using a defective pedagogy known as Whole Word, Sight Words, etc. If the public really understood how great this damage was, and how completely unnecessary, he suspects that the Education Establishment would not have the standing to harass homeschoolers. But ask yourself this question: have you ever met even a very educated person who could explain to you why Whole Word doesn’t work? Obviously, it would be very helpful if everyone understood this issue. That’s what Price tries to do.
He has many articles on the internet, and recently collected his favorite excerpts into a book called “The Education Enigma–What Happpened to American Education.” It’s not about homeschooling, Price is quick to point out. “But as I was finishing this project, I had an unexpected thought: if this book is widely read, the main beneficiary might be homeschoolers (along with vouchers, charter schools, etc.). That’s because ‘The Education Enigma’ is a critical look at what the elite educators are doing wrong. Their track record suggests they should be humble about giving advice on education. I hope I can provide a little protection from the whims of government. I might also add: the local media do a terrible job of explaining mediocrity in the schools. I’ll be frank: if they would do their job, I could retire from crusading. But to a pathetic degree, Big Media is in bed with Big Ed.”
“The Education Enigma” is a fast, lively book with 50 short sections that cover most of the major topics: phonics, John Dewey, constructivism, sophistry, Dolch Words, dyslexia, Latin, the art of teaching, robots, birds, Montessori, critical thinking, Taoism, etc. Available on Amazon. Or ask your nearby library to carry it.
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