Luke over at the Sonlight blog has a very interesting post that comments on another post and some comments from another blog about educational freedom. It is all a very interesting read on a topic of great interest to many of us homeschoolers. There are many fairly partisan factions within the homeschool community. Sometimes, about the only thing we have in common is our desire to have ownership of the way we raise and educate our children. Some people want to abdicate that responsibility and give it to the state or the church. Some, apparently want to abdicate that responsibility and let the child decide what they need to learn for themselves. The writer of the original post stated that “…It’s not real education freedom when church, state or even the parent-teacher controls what the child learns, knows and believes.” The writer later commented that such control actually offended her. The conversation started out as a discussion of the face the homeschool community shows to the world and the growing acceptance of homeschooling by the community at large.
Some want to fit their kids into a rigid classical (these seem to be the lawyerly and political types) or theistic (the fundamentalists) setting. Some are only doing it because their government school alternative is bad and they cannot afford to send their kids to a private school. Some are even doing it so their kids can concentrate more heavily on sports, spelling bees, art, music, horses, or some other such thing. Some want to give their child “educational freedom”. The reality is that there are many reasons homeschoolers do what they do. If there was only one reason when they started, there are probably many reasons after they have done it for a year. We all have our reasons, but on some level we are kind of on the same side in putting the best face forward for homeschooling as a whole.
I was disabused of that notion to a certain extent yesterday due to this very engaging conversation. After getting pretty exercised by the different comments flying back and forth I realized that there were at least two competing worldviews represented in the discussion and that there was really no common ground to be had. It seemed peculiar that the side that advocated for control and guidance of their children during their growing up years was the one that appeared to take the “live and let live” position. Meanwhile the side that was for what they called “educational freedom” was offended because of what she felt might be someone trying to exercise any control over the education of her charges even though they argued, quite thoughtfully, just the opposite. AND it might look bad to onlookers.
Ken, yeah, that whole thing had me a little down too… and I’m not even sure why. Partly it was the feeling of rejection that I don’t want anyone to feel on my blog, partly it was me feeling like I was coming down too hard or, even worse, not fully grasping what was happening, and partly it was a bunch of other things.
Good thoughts here, though I must admit that the start sounded a little like a buildup for a joke: A blog post about a comment on a post about a comment by a homeschooler… [smile].
I really love seeing conversations, but sometimes I’m just really sensitive. And I don’t want to lose that because I like having empathy, but I don’t want it to adversely affect what I say either… this blogging thing can be hard! [hesitant smile]
~Luke
Luke, you did a way better job than I would have done. The kids and I actually talked about that a little. I felt like you were being very gracious while essentially being called a neanderthal and misleading the children. Even worse, people like us are the reason enlightened people look down on homeschool. I work hard to be tolerant of other viewpoints, but there comes a point when acceptance rather than tolerance is demanded. This seems a little like the evolutionism/intelligent design/creationism debate. There are many people who know that you could not have thought about it as much as they AND, if you have and STILL come to those silly conclusions than you are, by definition a mindless, snake handler. On the other hand it is not impossible that there are thinking people who esteem unschooling and cognitive psychology out there whose opinion I would respect.
Their are (at least) two very different worldviews, which become especially apparent in discussions like these. It is difficult to communicate effectively when discussing from different foundations.
There are….
Sorry. That was bugging me. I really do know the difference.
I very much appreciate your comment Dana. I have gone back and read through all of this. I think the what has made the discussion fruitful for me is that it was one of those rare times when I it actually dawned on me that this was a worldview discussion more than a discussion of a specific issue. When I got my arms around that, I realized that, even though we might not agree on everything, we can at least understand each other.
P.S. I particularly empathize with your second comment!! Those kinds of things make me CRAZY and I do them all the time.
Thanks, Ken!
~Luke