Humor Me: The Case Against Homeschooling
By Milehimama on Jun 4, 2009 in Schooling
Kat at No Fighting No Biting recently linked to a teacher’s blog. This particular teacher just really hates homeschooling, and wrote his Top Ten Reasons Why Homeschooling Parents Are Doing the Wrong Thing.
Man, I needed a laugh and this post did not disappoint. Then, slowly, I realized this wasn’t a filler for the satirical paper The Onion or even a post over at McSweeney’s. Jesse Scaccia, the author, was serious!
My thoughts on his post:
#10. Mr. Scaccia says that parents should not homeschool their children, because college students use the word “homeschooled” as an insult.
Really, that was one of his top ten objections. That’s a fine bunch of adults you’ve turned out there, Mr. Scaccia. I must admit, I have never, ever taken the opinion of college freshman who mock others into account when planning my children’s education. I didn’t know that was part of curriculum planning.
#9. He also claims that children cannot be focused or learn in an environment where eating takes place or television was watched. Unfortunately, every public school classroom I have ever stepped foot in over the last 20 years contains a television – and snacks, birthday goodies, and candy are handed out.
At least there’s not a pop machine in my school.
#8. Mr. Scaccia, in a stunning show of absurdity, claims that homeschoolers are selfish. Why? USA Today (now there’s an intellectual source) claims that more homeschoolers are wealthy and have more education. Because rich kids are good influences, he claims, by homeschooling parents are depriving the poor of quality peers.
Of course, he does not back up his assertion that wealthier students are beneficial, or that less affluent parents are necessarily less literate. I could point out the shenanigans of the wealthiest children and teens in America, but I won’t because unlike Mr. Scaccia, I am reluctant to paint all “rich people” in too-broad strokes.
Wealthy – and less affluent – homeschoolers still pay the same amount as everyone else for the public school system; donating to the local school when you don’t even use it is selfish, how?
This also ignores the fact that children play with other children in environments outside of the local school, and also conveniently forgets that students aren’t supposed to be socializing during classtime (no talking, no note passing.)
#7. Mr. Scaccia admits he’s agnostic, but puts his #7 reason HS parents are wrong into religious terms. God hates homeschooling, he claims. A God he doesn’t believe exists, but has no problem using to make a point. Coming from someone who doesn’t believe in God, Mr. Scaccia might as well have said “Unicorns hate homeschooling”. His argument would have just as much weight.
He goes on to say that homeschoolers, by keeping their underage children at home, are not spreading the Gospel properly (as though that is even allowed in public schools. Laughable.)
(BTW, Mr. Scaccia, God did say to make disciples of all nations. He also said {to paraphrase} “Listen to your Mama!”)
#6. He claims homeschooling parents are arrogant to the point of lunacy, then details all of his own educational and professional accomplishments. Who’s the one with the ego? I’m guessing that the “arrogant” part comes from parents thinking they can direct their children’s education, and teach from a textbook, without a degree (of course, this contradicts his reason #8, that wealthy parents are highly educated.)
Mr. Scaccia writes, “So, first of all, homeschooling parent, you think you can teach English as well as me?“ Oh, the irony! I’m fairly certain I can. I’m not convinced that a guidance counselor can help my child decide on a college any better than I could, either; my personal experience with guidance counselors was more or less an exercise in futility and often ended with the phrase, “Well, talk to your parents.”
Interestingly, many rural school systems require a mere high school diploma as a qualification for substitute teachers.
#5. Homeschoolers are wrong for homeschooling because it makes Mr. Scaccia experience negative emotions. We should all base our plans, hopes, and dreams for our children’s future on his emotional reactions, apparently.
#4. Mr. Scaccia says homeschooling could breed intolerance and racism. (Note #10, the college students who are intolerant of alternate educational methods.) He bases this on a stereotype, ironically. In Mr. Scaccia’s world, homeschools are homogenous places where everyone is the same and children are never exposed to anyone else who might be different.
In the real world, everyone is exposed to people of different cultures and backgrounds every single day. Where I live, we are the only family with our particular color of skin in the whole cul-de-sac; my immediate family (siblings and their children) embraces three distinct races including people from other countries who have permanently settled in the US.
And since when is the purpose of education to expose children to people of different sexual backgrounds? I suppose I could always tune the TV that is in my school to Bravo to accomplish that goal.
#3. Homeschoolers are unsocialized. I guess that’s why we don’t lock our children in a closet and let them have friends. That might be why we participate in groups that include people of all ages (children, teens, adults, seniors). The last time I was in a room full of people simply because we were the same age and lived in the same geographical area was – guess what – during high school.
One reason I do homeschool is because my children do not do the same thing, the same way, in the same room, with the same people, everyday simply because they are the same age.
#2. Homeschool parents are arrogant. Yes, he already used that one, but this time arrogance takes the form of wealthy people gambling with their children’s future. I’m certainly glad this man teaches English, and not critical thinking or science.
#1. Mr. Scaccia, who decried the fact that homeschoolers could be intolerant or racist, shows his true colors. His #1, Top Reason homeschooling parents are wrong is the fact that their children tend to be “geeky”.
Then again, I suppose I didn’t even need to post this, as yesterday’s article on Mr. Scaccia’s site (it’s a group blog) makes my point for me. It recounts how a student was protected by a school security guard from 4 gang members, one of whom is now wanted for murder. Later, the student repaid the security guard by taunting him with the F-word until the guard snapped and physically restrained him. Oh, it’s a middle school, and we’re talking about preteens.
Do I really need any other reason to teach my kids multiplication at our kitchen table, meatloaf be darned? I’ll take “geeky” over the need for professional security and protection in the learning environment any day. I really don’t understand how Fruit Loops are more distracting than bodily threats from gang members.
(And hasn’t he watched any of the shows aimed at his student’s demographic? Geek to Chic/Ugly Duckling/Popular Kids are Mean are prominent themes in tween entertainment, taking place in a public school environment.)
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Amen and amen!! This guy needs an ‘education’.
Kim | Jun 4, 2009 | Reply
Wow. I couldn’t be any less underwhelmed by Mr. Scaccia’s ideas about homeschooling. You did an excellent job of refuting his (rather lame) arguments. Keep up the good work!
Birdie | Jun 4, 2009 | Reply
Well, I knew I was in for a real treat on the finer points of HSing when the first thing I saw on the site was kid throwing gang signs as a header. So, after that (and some grammar issues put forth by an English teacher), I made sure to remind myself that this person has no education on the facts of homeschooling, has no real information, and is just spouting off lies, stereotypes, and personal opinion based on… well… nothing.
Ourfamilyishis | Jun 4, 2009 | Reply
I think there *can* be legitimate reasons why homeschooling is the wrong choice for a particular family – but not because of any reasons on this list!
Milehimama | Jun 4, 2009 | Reply
I agree that not everyone will be right for home school, but as a whole-home schooling is better than public school!
But then again he is a public school teacher, and I guess he feels that home school threatens his career?!
Perhaps he should open his eyes and talk to people who do home school and kids who have been home schooled before he makes up his mind.
Sarah | Jun 4, 2009 | Reply
Okay, as an hs grad, I just have to comment on this. First of all, I have found in my college career that college is an environment far more akin to the “real world” than the ps can ever be, meaning that people really don’t care how you were educated so long as you pull your own weight. On a related note, in my various years in ps (k, 1, 3, 6, 7), I was consistantly ahead of my peers academically, a trend that has continued through college (I am now a senior, there. As an example, what passes as college level English was, in my experience, 5th grade English. Furthermore, hsing allowed me to graduate high school at 16.
While my parents were upper middle class, part of the decision to pull me from public school was the fact that they could not afford the local private schools. In my experience, most rich people do the private school thing, and hsing is a much more middle class trend. I also had plenty of lower income friends, who had chosen a single income lifestyle over the extra income made possible by the public school.
Having lived in a very liberal area as a child, the hs community was far more diverse than the public environment. While the later was mostly WASP, where I was included people ranging from Wiccan “unschoolers” to couples wanting to provide their children a Christian upbringing and everything inbetween. They also included far more ethnic diversity than was actually representative of the population. As I’ve learned since through my husband’s work, districts seem more likely to think they can walk over minority parents than over WASP parents.
Finally, my parents took me out of ps because the lack of academic challenge had thrown me into a serious depression at the age of six. Show me a happy 6 year old who does not want to color and begs for beatings! I had actually been put in time out in school for knowing how to read and reading during “free” time. Since I was ahead of my peers, my mother suggested I be put in a gifted class. The teacher refused, even though I was reading in first grade at the sixth grade level, but put a boy in that class who was reading at the third grade level. She explained that boys need special encouragement that girls don’t. I was also frequently punished for complaining of bullying.
I’m not saying that all public schools are like this, but my husband works as a spec ed advocate (IEPs and such) and has yet to see a school that is significantly different. Maybe it’s just California.
Mr. Scaccia’s arguments are just further proof that too many teachers have no idea of what goes on under their own noses.
Harper | Jun 4, 2009 | Reply
And they want parents to work these types of teachers?
My children go to Catholic, never really considered HS, expect actually in high school. I actually use to be against HS because I thought children should socialize with their own peers, but actually that’s the big problem. Children who are HS get more opportunity to be around adults in the adult world.
Think of one’s typical suburban high school campus, it looks like a prison! Teenagers never get to see adults doing adults things, 60 years ago high schools could be placed in the middle of town/city centers and young adults would look out the window and not see a subdivision or a highway, but rather city hall, businesses, and shops.
I idea of high school and living on college campus came around with the book from two years ago,
The Case Against Adolescence: Rediscovering the Adult in Every Teen, By Dr. Robert Epstein
from the website.
““A revolutionary proposal for raising responsible and happy teenagers, this groundbreaking book argues that adolescence is an unnecessary period of life that we’re better off without. Epstein shows that teen turmoil is caused by outmoded systems put in place a century ago which destroyed the continuum between childhood and adulthood. Where this continuum still exists in other countries, there is no adolescence. Isolated from adults, American teens learn everything they know from their media-dominated peers—“the last people on earth they should be learning from,” says Epstein. He shows that our teens are highly capable—in some ways more capable than adults—and argues strongly against “infantilizing” young people. We must rediscover “the adult in every teen,” he says, by giving young people adult authority and responsibility as soon as they can demonstrate readiness. This landmark book will change our thinking about teens for decades to come.”
I guess my only gripe with HS is when I see then on the National Spelling Bee.
Renee | Jun 4, 2009 | Reply
Harper! Good to see you! I didn’t know you still read here!
Milehimama | Jun 4, 2009 | Reply
I sense a great disturbance in the Force. The disturbance is the existential dissonance created when a man of education—both giving and receiving—with great pomp and seriousness, publishes an ignorant, clownish screed like that one.
ginkgo100 | Jun 4, 2009 | Reply
I just read the ‘About’ page on the blog. Now I realize the blog serves a specific purpose for teachers, a place to deal with being a teacher. Yet I wanted to speak up on my personal experience, that the best teachers at teaching were not simply the most well-liked, who loved children and wanted to make a difference in their lives. Rather it was the teacher who was passionate about the subject matter. A teacher who was crazy about math,, who loved to read, or fascinated by science; they wanted to share it knowledge not influence not convey how important they are because they shaped the future.
No doubt that high-risk students may need social support, and a teacher may be a collaborative force but their priority should be knowledge. My father-in-law, who is now retired, taught Humanities at the local university. People liked him, but the LOVED what he was teaching. My mother-in-law, a public middle school teacher also, dealt with the burn out especially for students with a high percentage with unstable high-risk factors in their home life. You give them all the pep-talk ‘you just got to believe in yourself’ inspiration mantra, but her obligation ultimately was getting these students the basic skills reading/math and appreciate the knowledge, and that is what she focused on.
Renee | Jun 4, 2009 | Reply
Of course I’m still reading here. I’ve just been lurking rather than commenting.
Harper | Jun 5, 2009 | Reply
I’ve been ranting a bit myself on this one . . .
The Case Against Public Schooling
http://52churches.garriber.org/?p=1357
The Case Against Local, Safe, Organic Food: A Parody
http://52churches.garriber.org/?p=1372
and
It’s True, I Only Homeschool to Piss Off Other People, Parts I-III
http://52churches.garriber.org
–Jen
Jen | Jun 5, 2009 | Reply
Reading this article by a so-called “teacher” has just completely reaffirmed our decision to homeschool.
I am still in shock that this man was serious.
Lerin | Jun 5, 2009 | Reply
How dare you generalize unicorns in such an unflattering way! I thought it was only ogres who hated homeschool….
Rosy | Jun 5, 2009 | Reply
I couldn’t help myself. I took a page from my husband’s book and I fisked it.
Heather Price | Jun 5, 2009 | Reply