Should homeschooling be illegal?

Question

http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2008/edition_06-01-2008/Intelligence_Report

The following is one person's comment from this link. I thought it was so good!

The California state constitution does not give an exclusive right to the state to educate its citizens. It gives the State an obligation to provide free education. Perhaps the question we should ask is who is behind the push to criminalize home schooling? Who is feeling threatened by the 7-12% annual increase in home schooling families. Let's all take a few moments also to look at how incompletely educating our children in an organized school system has created a society where employers must now look to foreign nationals to fill our higher end employment opportunities in technology, health care and the sciences.

Answer 1

Wow.  They want to regulate homeschooling, but idiocy is alive and well.

Cool.

cmow5 - We don't think that a person should be uneducated, nor do we think that teachers are useless.  However, you really should get some facts before spouting off like that.

What makes you think that a certification or teaching degree would help one bit in a homeschooling environment?  The classroom and a homeschool are at completely opposite ends of the spectrum - almost like two different worlds.  Classroom teachers need to be trained to present homogenous material to a heterogenous group - to figure out how to teach 30+ plus kids of differing maturity, skill, and developmental levels at the same time.  As much as many of them might want to tailor the info to specific kids, they simply don't have the time.

However, I don't have 30+ kids in my living room.  I have one.  I don't need crowd control tactics, I don't have to deal with an asinine bureaucracy in order to get anything done, and my child doesn't have to spend the year prepping for idiotic tests in order to see if I can keep my job.  I *am* able to tailor his curriculum to his needs, skills and weaknesses, interests, and learning style.  I don't have to structure every inch of his day in order to keep the peace.  And I don't have to make my lesson plans according to a schedule that the district sets in place for me - therefore, we can keep working on a concept or move on as needed.

Why should they have to "follow the same guidelines as everyone else"?  That conveyor-belt education mindset is precisely why our country is scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as test scores go.  Kids are not all wired the same, they don't all have the exact same abilities or goals, nor do they learn in the same way or on the same time table.  Why should they all receive the exact "same" education?

Yes, they should have a common basic body of knowledge, and they should have mastery of skills.  However, while my child might learn well with experiments and multi-media based curricula, another child might learn better from books or field trips.  My child might need a month to learn multiplication tables, while another child might need a week - or three months.  Why should they all follow the same instructional pattern at the same time?  All that that will achieve is a lot of uneducated kids...kind of like what we see today.

Yes, I know for a fact that I can teach my child individually better than many teachers could in a classroom.  He does not learn well in large group environments - way too many distractions - and learns at a different pace than many children do.  Having attained a college education myself and having the ability to teach and learn right along with him, yes - I do know that I can teach him, and I don't need a classroom certification to do so.

Answer 2

it's a choice

Answer 3

The answer is no!When our ten year old daughter was harrassed and physically harmed in a Cleveland public school classroom(sticking pencils in the legs counts as physical harm doesn't it?)and the so called principal says that they can't do a thing because there were no witnesses and when I as her father trained her how to defend herself and when she does, she's labeled a troublemaker!Even her homeroom teacher who just started teaching for the first time called us and advised us to get our daughter out of school because he saw that we were losing an unwinnable war.If we didn't have the option to start homeschooling then worse things could have happened or we would have been arrested for causing our daughter to deliberately miss school.The public school system's a mess and in many cases helps to destroy a young persons' life instead of enhancing it!!!

Answer 4

O NO some one actually wants to make sure some parents are qualified to teach. You do realize teaching is a profession that requires a degree. Let me guess you guys know how to teach better then all teachers. Seriously! Thats like saying hey I think I will be a lawyer without going to school because most lawyers suck. Or I know my child better then the doctor so I should operate on them. You want to home school no big deal some kids need that special one on one attention, but why do you feel you child does not have to follow guidelines as every one else. I cant believe only 6 states get in involved right now. Thats ridiculous.

Answer 5

No, some students need to learn in a smaller environment.  Plus certain people need help that the school can't provide them for some reason.

Answer 6

Certainly not. As far as I'm concerned, they both have advantages, of which homeschooling is better in the long run:

Homeschooling: better education

Public School: better socialization

Answer 7

With the way the public schools are today, they should make it legal.

Answer 8

No, home schooling should not be illegal. This brings up so many socio-political issues, that I will address only these two:

1) Why is it that home-schooled students consistently score higher on SATs than public-schooled students?

2) Home schooled students do not have to grapple with the pointless trappings of social acceptance, fashion, drugs, violence, state interference with parents' wishes, and peer pressure. They have only to concentrate on their studies.

Answer 9

No.  

I think the  expert quoted in the  blurb that is with the poll  should get an education.

Answer 10

I think public schools should be illegal!

People just don't KNOW the c**p that goes on in public schools and how NCLB is turing out kids to be future communists

Answer 11

Right on- Gypsy... I think its crazy to think that you should have a parent not be able to make choices for THEIR OWN CHILDREN. I homeschool and I think it is great, but will say that it is not right for everyone--But that's there choice-Isn't it...

Answer 12

Regarding the link: that is old, inaccurate news...not your fault.  Let us set the record straight, however.  The court abandoned that ruling and is rehearing the case.  It was brought to the attention of the court that its nonsensical ruling was based on old information.

Who is behind the push to harass homeschoolers?  Teacher's unions.  Every time an informed parent pulls their child out of public school, a teacher's job security becomes more precarious.

The fact that most parents would ignore any ruling making homeschooling "illegal," doesn't stop them.  Neither does the fact that the Superintendent of Public Instruction says he would not enforce such a ruling.

Answer 13

I think the poll should read "should homeschool parents be reimbursed for their costs", considering they pay school taxes and then pay again to educate their children.

Answer 14

From the article "He says the case “pits those who believe parental rights are paramount against those who place a premium on well-educated citizens.”"

What a load of hogwash! Well educated citizens? Schools don't produce well educated citizens, they produce drones!