The Myths of Home Schooling and the Inferiority of State Education

by Dain Fitzgerald

It’s unfortunate that home schooling is considered by so many to be a radical, abnormal and even “kooky” way to educate someone. Being compelled to attend a local, state-approved teaching facility is considered sane and acceptable, however. The latter is now the status quo, and what would have been considered a terrible invasion of privacy and freedom of association not so long ago is completely taken for granted in the 21^st Century.  

From the origins of the modern government-enforced school monopoly in Prussia , to the “progressive” era rationalizing of John Dewey, the excuse for state education has been thorough: the creation of loyal citizens, the welfare of the young working on farms, the molding of perfect workers for an advanced industrial society, etc. And of course, considering that a well functioning democracy relies upon an informed and civic duty-minded populace, state schooling is often thought mandatory for that reason alone. Rather than calling into question the legitimacy of their reasoning, the apologists for public education assume a Rousseauian “general will,” and demand that all children be brought under the umbrella of a paternalistic state.  

Home schooling is an alternative with few supporters among the influential, opinion forming elite. It is derided as something only extreme malcontents and Christian fundamentalists could possibly engage in. While there are plenty of those of that description who home school – and I for one defend them nonetheless – there are others who practice it for entirely different reasons. William Upski Wimsatt, in his book No More Prisons, documents the black home schooling movement as an alternative to failing inner city public schools that seem more like minimum security prisons than a place to become a scholar. He cites men like Jawanza Kunjufu, an education specialist, who notice the downward trend of so many black children as they progress through the public school system, a huge bureaucracy that classifies and tabulates, not recognizing the potential of individual students. It’s also no secret that black children, especially boys, are disproportionately thrown into “special education” classrooms and more or less treated like future dropouts. The reasons for this are often as simple and as crude as economics: the more children classified as disabled in one form or another, the more money the state can throw the way of the school district.  

Secular supporters of home schooling are more likely to be disgruntled with the low quality of education, period. There need not be a disappointment with the slow erosion of Christian symbolism or the standardization of sex education to be fed up with the failings of public schools. Low math and science scores in international comparisons of educational achievement could upset an irreligious rationalist with high hopes of his or her child becoming the next Richard Dawkins. There are online networks dedicated to linking up people of this persuasion from around the country. Many of them have devised teaching methods that are experimental and individualized, not a one-size-fits-all form that is thrown over a class of 30 or more like a wet blanket.  

People often worry about the socialization of children who forgo the public school system in favor of schooling inside their own home, and by their own parents. While it’s true that they are not immersed in a classroom full of kids, they are also not experiencing the self-segregation that goes on in the cafeteria. (Jocks sit here, nerds sit there, etc.) Parents who care enough to teach their children the lessons and formulas that the school is neglecting will also take the initiative to socialize their children. In any case, there is always the beloved after school time in which kids get together to do what they will. Dr. Brian Ray, the founder of the National Home Education Research Institute and former professor of education and science, has found that home schooled children have a greater degree of community involvement than their state-educated peers. This is in large part due to the rural and small town settings of many home schooled children, with community ties, neighbor familiarity and civic organizations like the 4-H club providing outlets and support.  

A 1997 Public Agenda Survey found that 79% of professors of teacher training (the “teachers of teachers”) believed the public had outmoded beliefs about what good teaching means. This elitism, coming from a group that trains tax-funded indoctrinators, is at least an honest expression of the smug superiority that many parents have felt coming from the likes of the National Education Association for years. The ideological and organized government teacher has looked down upon any dissenters of the mandatory public school system since its inception. A school in Michigan recently went through some drills meant to prepare it for a Columbine-style incident in which some terrorists or what have you invaded the campus. Who was decided to be the fictional group that took the school hostage? “Wackos Against Schools and Education,” that’s who – a radical group that believed all children should be home schooled. Not only does this fly in the face of the reality that home schoolers only want the opportunity to release themselves from the public school apparatus, but it attempts to equate a truly coercive and mandatory system that believes that all children should be schooled alike with a voluntary one.  

Spelling bee champions are increasingly home schoolers. “Spellbound,” the Academy Award-nominated documentary that followed a group of kids competing in the national spelling bee competition, gives more evidence of the superiority of home schooling. Nupur Lala, one of the contestants (and eventually the winner), was home schooled.  Nupur’s parents are an example of the many recent immigrants who find an otherwise (relatively) free and prosperous country sorely lacking in its ability to supply a decent academic setting for their children. So, they take matters into their own hands, unlike so many descendents of immigrants now thoroughly entrenched in the public school mythology.  

In December of 2004, a man and his daughter were found living in the Portland, Oregon woods. They had been there for the last four years, getting by day after day with only meager resources. However, among these resources were educational materials with which the father helped his daughter achieve a 12^th grade level education while being of the age where one would typically attend 7^th grade. This is an astonishing feat, considering that the average public school spends approximately $6,000 per student and routinely graduates teenagers that can read at only the level of . . . a 7^th grader.  

There are abundant reasons for opting out of the public school system. From dissatisfied immigrants, to secular discontents, to homeless families living in the woods, all have found something unsettling and sub-par in the school system offered to them. It’s high time we all stop patronizing the system, offering modifications to an inherently inefficient and indecent status quo. Home schools, the ultimate in private schools, offer the ultimate solution.