So I was reading some blog comments extolling the virtues of homeschooling. Or more accurately, bashing the poor unsuspecting readers who dare have faith in compulsory education. Mostly, the logic went something like this:
Ooh, your poor pathetic Corralled Sheep Children are in that schoolhouse prison while my Free Range Chicken Children paint, and listen to music, and go to the zoo and the museum, and explore the outdoors, and enjoy books and games, and use their imaginations, and travel, and other have fabulous learning experiences without being tied down to a suffocating schedule.
Yes, because everyone knows that parents who choose to send their children to a traditional school *never* do any of those things. We depend completely on the public school system, have no desire or motivation to educate our children, and wish only to raise robotic entities who can’t think creatively.
Of course.
This is not meant to dis homeschoolers in any way. I have good friends who homeschool, or are planning to. As a military family subject to multiple moves, we have considered it ourselves. It’s just that sometimes extremists piss me off and I feel the need to blog about it.
I understand folks decide *not* to put their children in a K-12 school setting for myriad reasons. I know there are advantages, wonderful benefits, of educating at home. But please don’t insult the intelligence of parents (or children!) who DO enjoy the structure of public or private schooling. My kiddos happen to LOVE school. I happen to LOVE school. I also have an infant and we get to have fun Mommy and Baby time while the older ones are not around. I enjoy being able to putter, read, complete a thought, or blog (!) while he is napping. I also relish in the time I get to spend “teaching” my little ones and exposing them to all the opportunities some people erroneously believe only children educated outside the mainstream get to have.
Okay, rant over. Next up: Television.
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