Day: January 26, 2006

I just read an article by John Stossel on school choice (H.T. Olasky at WorldMagBlog). It seems that bureaucrats at many of the better performing government schools aggressively police their student bodies to assure that only the “right” kids be allowed to stay in those “good” schools to which they have been assigned. Stossel has some great points about the sorry state of our public education system when compared to places like Belgium. It turns out that the money set aside to educate children in Belgium does not go to a school assigned to them by the government. Rather, it goes to a school chosen for the children by their parents. His point is that, in America, it is often the case that petty bureaucrats assign the schools. Often, these bureaucrats take it upon themselves to enforce the assignments, too. My wife, Lorena and I had our children in one of those “good” government schools for several years. It was our experience that many of the parents bought into the authority of those petty bureaucrats. We chose to homeschool our children precisely because that mindset manifested itself not only in the actions of the administration, but in the actions of the teachers and even parents who were ostensibly at the school to help.

Parent involvement in government schools often appears to be a product, more of a parent’s desire for their own self acutalization, than a desire to raise productive and happy children. In “our” government school there were mothers who spent many hours per week, but were engaged in the system and totally disengaged with their children. It was not the main reason we left the system, but it definitely contributed to the decision. That is why it is distressing to see some homeschool parents with that same mindset. To our way of thinking, the purpose of a homeschool education is to prepare and edify children, not parents. It is not a mechanism by which parents can fulfill a desire for self actualization, a sense of community, or government school education without all the government and teacher union baggage. Self actualization and community often accrue to the homeschool parent, but homeschool is one of those cases where it truely should be about the children.

The point: Remember why we started to homeschool in the first place. It is not about duplicating government school. It is not an end unto itself. It is about raising our children up in the way they should go. It is about denying ourselves for the edification of our children. It is about giving them a base from which they can live fruitful lives. It is about modeling and practicing how to participate in the community at large and contribute to society. It is about teaching our children by example that life is not about them, it is about others. We do this by making homeschool be about them, not us. When we keep that mindset, then all that stuff we think we are missing will accrue to us anyway.