Tom’s Big Picture

Someone recently asked for reasons why people are homeschooling.

I should first note that the following is my opinion in the abstract and not a criticism of any particular individual.

So why homeschool? I would only answer this question with a view to maximizing the probability that someone “on the fence” about homeschooling would choose it. There are so many practical benefits (time, efficiency, cost, moral/spiritual development, superior academics = higher SAT score = better college/career and higher lifetime earnings) that I see no need to spiritualize the argument. Homeschooling is basically a long-term investment with a very attractive return. Helping people see the returns is more effective than brow-beating them with one’s personal convictions.

One of my primary reasons is one of heritage, of giving my children a sense of continuity with the past and the future of their family and civilization.

The sad reality is that almost all otherwise academically rigorous schools, public or private, will teach a version of history that will demean the ancestors of my children and the civilization they created (for example, due to the presence in our schools of Mexican loyalists who object to the very idea of Texas as “racist”, many schools no longer glorify the heroes of San Jacinto who defeated the tyrant Santa Anna).

Orwell said that he who controls the past controls the future, and he who controls the present controls the past. I want to control the “present” for my children and especially their perception of who they are and where they came from. Much of the weakness of Christendom today (as compared to the passionate faith of Muslims) is related to our perception that our ancestors were somehow morally lacking as they conquered, civilized and Christianized much of the world. Homeschooling provides an opportunity to help your kids escape the oppressive guilt that our society seeks to instill in them simply because of who they are. I believe only a generation raised with moral confidence in their heritage can do the heavy lifting required to restore our once great civilization.

My second reason would be allowing my children to skip the entirely unnecessary “teenager” culture and phase of life (which now starts younger and younger as advertisers seek to sexualize children), which is artificial and has no historical basis. I want to spare them the awkwardness and stupidness of a culture that promotes wasteful and self-destructive behavior. Throughout history, teenagers were capable of many great deeds- like being mother and father to God Himself. If children are able to start their adult life at 14 or 15 instead of spending ten years in a “second toddlerhood” then they will be far ahead of their peers in maturity and experience throughout life. All we really have is our life, and what a blessing to allow our children to experience REAL life (outside of the teenage ghetto, no pun intended) ten years ahead of time. Imagine having the wisdom of 40 at the age of 30- their youth will not be as wasted while they are still young.

That’s the positive side- but avoiding evil is just as important as positive good. I don’t think many parents have any idea what the teen culture today is really like. I grew up in kind of a backwater, so my teenage experience ten years ago is probably fifteen to twenty years behind the current norm- and we’ve been compounding moral decline for fifty years now. So the other night on the way back from a fishing trip I decided to turn on a top 40 radio station, 94.1 for those in the area. I felt like I was literally in a foreign country- who are these people that listen to such obscenity? These people are the students at your local elementary, middle, and high schools who consume this cultural trash and the parents who provide the funds for them to do so. We are not living in the 50’s anymore, or even the 60’s, or even the 90’s for that matter. When the top ten “songs” are all amusical rhythmic variations on some 80-IQ felon’s idea of a good time sexually, in explicit detail, we are dealing with cultural botulism. Just as we would not eat food from a dented can (it’s probably ok after all, right?), I see no alternative but complete secession from the popular culture in the schools. It wants your son and your daughter. It wants them to be self-absorbed sex-crazed losers that exist only to consume their filthy entertainment. I think minimizing my children’s exposure to that culture through homeschooling is the only acceptable strategy for my family. Twenty years ago it might have been different, but not today.

Finally, a comment about socialization. I’m not sure where this universal concern started, but I have an idea. When you start researching homeschooling, you can’t help but notice that some of the folks who do it (and their kids) are a bit strange. Naturally, we assume this is because they homeschool. But if you look more closely, you’ll notice that the parents are weird even though the parents didn’t themselves necessarily homeschool. In other words, they and their kids aren’t weird because they homeschool, they are weird people with weird kids who happen to homeschool (weirdness, like so many other things, is probably genetic in origin). They don’t represent the majority of homeschoolers, but often through their behavior they make themselves more noticeable.

If you look at a fair sample instead of just the weirdos, I think you’ll find that homeschooled kids as a group are better-adjusted and better-socialized than their schooled counterparts. I can almost instantly pick out a homeschooled teen because of their ability to confidently and intelligently communicate with adults. Since they’ve had limited exposure to the loser culture of mainstream teens, they’ve never learned that being smart, positive and articulate is uncool. They’re budding well-adjusted adults, not sullen emotional train wrecks with a sense of entitlement.

Homeschooling has many benefits, and not homeschooling has many risks. I think if we would focus on these deliverables when talking with concerned parents, we will be more successful growing the total number of homeschoolers than if we use homeschooling as a prop to make ourselves feel morally superior.

I also think homeschooling is only practical for parents who have a certain minimum of intelligence, but this is a moot point for anyone taking the time to think about it carefully or who can read and comprehend this post. We are all high-investment parents with the ability to handle it academically.

And a final word for those thinking about it: the worst thing that could happen is that your child gets a second-rate education and has to work really hard in college to catch up. And that’s what they’ll get in most public schools anyway. I can’t count how many things I had to unlearn in my freshman year of college.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 1st, 2006 at 5:02 pm and is filed under Heritage & Culture, Homeschooling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.