I hate government interference in my life. I'm not like Ruby Ridge-crazy-anarchist, but I do feel like adults should be allowed to live our lives and not be told what to do beyond the laws that protect individual freedoms. I do think the government should exist to protect people from being murdered and robbed (hello, IRS!) and taken advantage of. It should provide for defense against hostile nations, support infrastructure such as roads and utilities, and improve the lives of its citizens. But it should not run every aspect of our lives.
When it comes to my children, I feel especially protective against outside influences. I don't think public school is necessarily a safe or welcoming place. In the Huntsville area alone, there is a shooting at least once a school year. A recent case involved the child of a prominent local pediatrician at a good school in a wealthy district - so it's not all drive-bys in the ghetto. Not that I'm saying we should lock ourselves in the house and never leave, so as to ensure personal safety. What I am saying is that when we send our children, especially the young ones, to school, we expect a certain level of care and safety that for most is a happy illusion.
Beyond personal safety, I have issues with the quality of education kids get. Schools have no ability or incentive to improve the quality of their teaching. There are many many awesome teachers out there - I am related to several - but their hands are so tied by paperwork and the necessity of teaching 30 kids at one time, that it's just impossible to reach every child. My school must have been, in retrospect, fairly decent, but I remember that the quality left a lot to be desired. For one, when an 11-year old has a better vocabulary and spelling skills than her 6th grade science teacher, who apparently does not own a dictionary of his own, that does not bode well for what the kids are learning. (Seriously, Mr Markham, did you ever learn the difference between emit and omit? I hope I managed to teach you something that school year.)
I don't even need to point out the convenience issue for a family who lives neither one place nor another. And we can still go on vacation any time we feel like it, not around the school system's calendar.
Overall we are going to homeschool because I really feel like we can do things better, and do better things, than the cookie-cutter public school approach. There are other issues - for one, Jax was born August 20, so our choices would be to send him to school at age 4, or wait a year and have him be not-quite a year older than most of the other kids. Waiting is a bad choice, since the research has shown no educational benefit to waiting a year, but many parents feel there is one and I'm not willing to let him be 4 in a classroom with kids who are 6, either.
(You thought I wasn't going to go here, didn't you?) About the socialization thing, no - homeschool kids are not undersocialized. Who still believes that, anyway? You might as well say he is undersocialized now since he is not in school at all, but then again he plays with his 7 cousins at least once a week, he hangs out with other kids every Sunday and Wednesday in bible class, and he occasionally gets to play with other kids as well. (Heather, are you reading this? When are we having another play date?) Since a kid's social needs don't magically change overnight on September 1st of the year they turn 5, I seriously don't see his being limited by home education any more than he is "limited" right now. Actually I think he will benefit from avoiding some of the general nastiness that kids get from other kids, and often, their teachers and administrators. Public school was traumatizing to me and I really don't see where my life actually benefited from the social torture in any way whatsoever.
Obviously the same benefits of home schooling will apply when Imri and this next baby are school age as well.
So that is the WHY for us. The HOW is easy - we just keep on doing what we have been doing since he was born. The WHEN is easy - he learns every minute of every day, only now it starts counting towards a very long-term goal. WHERE - anywhere and everywhere. I am really looking forward to "beginning" home schooling!
Posted by
Karen