Emerod's Weblog

An opinion column in the Evansville Courier-Press tried to demonize homeschooling by highlighting the reasons why local people need to be more suspicious of local homeschoolers by focusing on out-of-county and out-of-state criminals, in order to implement out-of-state regulatory models on a statewide basis.

The author, Kelley Coures, proposed the following topics for school board candidates to consider:

- Should we amend Indiana law to require home-schooled students to take and pass objective, grade-specific exams each semester, and require proficiency in all curricula required of public school students at each grade level?

- Should a home-schooled child who does not meet the minimum required level of ability be required to re-enroll in an Indiana public school until that child can pass such objective tests?

- Should home educators be required to have minimum requirements and follow specific curricula outlines, as do the public schools, in order to adequately prepare the student for a comprehensive exam to obtain a high school diploma?

- Should home-schooled children’s physical exams be made part of the school corporation’s records, and should the children be visited by social service representatives throughout the year to evaluate their condition?

Students’ exam scores, performance improvement, teacher qualifications, and physical health are issues that all school boards grapple with. However, I would question whether it is wise to burden public school corporations with the care of homeschooled children, considering what they are already failing to manage under current state laws.I must dispense with the question of physical health screenings immediately, since the state already provides for a disproportionate number of public schooled children’s healthcare, and the FSSA already is unable to cope with the number of public schooled children who have suffered abuse and neglect at the hands of their parents and teachers. Unless the healthcare and social welfare systems are vastly expanded, they cannot be expected to handle homeschooled children as well.

As to performance improvement, I will simply note that public schooled children who repeatedly fail to learn are not returned to normal public school classrooms…they are removed from normal public school classes and enrolled in special programs or they are tutored individually. Ironically, they virtually become…homeschooled.

As to objective testing and teacher qualifications, we can recall the recent uproar over the No Child Left Behind Act provisions.

The debate over NCLB made it clear how hypocritical some people are with regard to education. The NEA demands that homeschoolers must all be „highly qualified,“ but balks at certifying all its members. Whenever a public school superintendent is asked for an opinion about homeschoolers, their first response is a concern about whether the child is being tested and monitored, but they are outraged at anyone presuming to test and monitor their students. The same public school teachers who claim that homeschooling parents are neglecting their children constantly whine about the parents who dutifully leave all the teaching to the „professionals.“

You would think, from such responses to this issue, that public schools are little more than country clubs for all these bright, happy children and their caring babysitters. That would explain why public school advocates drone on and on about the „lack of socialization“ for homeschoolers, but then go on to moan and complain about strict requirements for public school teachers and students.

From the hopelessly inane third paragraph of the article:

Many education professionals believe that if the home educator is not well qualified or fails to include a child in group activities outside the home, it can produce young adults who have insufficient social skills and, in the extreme, borderline xenophobia. Lack of socialization and life experiences can stifle a child’s maturation and his ability to mentally process disappointments and life changes.

On the other hand, many parents believe that if a public school system is not qualified to educate their children or fails to teach them a minimum amount of academic skill, it can produce young adults who have extensive social experience and yet read at an third-grade level. In the extreme, they may develop borderline schizophrenia, as expressed by delusions about the need for the government to microscopically direct every aspect of the lives of its citizens. Lack of socialization outside of stifling institutions with lime-green concrete walls, or lack of life experiences with people who expect you to think for yourself instead of getting a gold star for parroting the guy in the suit, can stifle a child’s maturation and his ability to mentally process disappointments and life changes, like when he finds out that The Real World is not like public high school in any sense, socially, intellectually, or vocationally. In The Real World you even have to pick out your own food, and it isn’t always covered by brown sauce, white sauce, or red sauce.