07 January 2008

You know that commercial with that guy...

The famous guy where you can't see his face but he does all that cool stuff that... well just watch this and then tell me my kid will turn out some kind of dysfunctional antisocial idiot.

Did you watch it? Cool, huh?

We want to home-school our daughter. People react to that in different ways. Some say she won't be socialized, some say I should leave teaching to the professionals because they can teach things way better than I can, and very VERY few people think it's a good idea.

I have a lot of my own opinions on the various schooling options out there. And I also have opinions on the schooling options where I live. Someone asked me yesterday when they found out where I live "So will she be in a private school then?" In other words, either he thinks that there are no public schools for my district or that the schools in my district are so deplorable that no parent would ever send their child to one unless forced by servile poverty. We said that no, we'll be teaching her at home. And he was one of the social respondents.

It becomes exhausting to be forced to defend one's decisions constantly. No parent is ever questioned for doing anything mainstream even though that parent has not given a second thought to their choice. I on the other hand, have researched and thought and questioned and rethought many times over, yet I am asked to justify myself to perfect strangers.

There are many reasons that I want to teach my child at home instead of turning her over to someone who may not care so much about her learning experience as about the Bell Curve. But mainly it's because I want the experience of raising my child myself. I want to be involved in what kind of person she turns out to be. That's why we have children. To raise them. To make people who can think and do things for themselves and take over our place in the world when we die or become too feeble. Our children should learn how to live and love and participate in life and creativity, how to thrive in this world. No standardized test can measure that. Only a parent can teach it. Only a parent can care enough to impart these values. This is my choice, and it's a harder one than picking the most expensive school around and working 50 hours a week to pay for it.

1 comment:

Muddy said...

I've homeschooled my two children (ages 17 and 15) since kindergarten. It was one of the best decisions we ever made. God has blessed our choice again and again. Feel free to email me about homeschooling if you need to talk about it.