This post "The Case Against Homeschooling" has been getting a lot of attention with the homeschooling bloggers. There are some thoughtful, well reasoned rebuttals. My friend S wrote one. I have been around this particular block a time or two, and S did a fine job, so I don't feel compelled to add more words to the argument.
I'll sum up the offending blog post. This teacher, Jesse Scaccia, wrote a flip, ten point list on why homeschooling doesn't serve students' best interests. His/her points are redundant. S/he uses straw man arguments and logical fallacies. It's readable--it's even kinda funny, but I'm jaded and I like dark humor. If the intent is(as I suspect) to be incendiary, s/he succeeds. The homeschoolers I know are fairly sick of battling the stereotypes and misconceptions.
For your reading pleasure, here's an oldie but a goodie: The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List graced our refrigerator for the better part of a year. I gave the copy to a friend who needed it--and I'm over that wave of bitterness, anyway.
This is not the first (or even the tenth) time I have seen teachers tearing down homeschoolers. What I don't understand is why highly qualified, highly educated professionals don't put their critical thinking skills to better use! Jesse Scaccia, like the others before him/her writes from the point of view that home education uses the same materials and methods as institutional education. It's a fundamental flaw. In our family, we have tried out several styles of homeschooling, but I have never tried to replicate a brick and mortar school (well, maybe Sudbury Valley) The homeschoolers I know do not and would not try to replicate institutional education. It's the methodology we take umbrage with--not the materials, the teachers, or heaven forbid, the other students!
Why is it so hard to conceptualize a different approach? Why is it so hard to see the student as intrinsically motivated, and the parent as a mere facilitator? Believe it or not, that's how it works at our house, and it works well.
Or is it just easier to take pot-shots at stereotypes?
Jesse's follow up post is titled "Homeschool teacher, meet public school teacher. Now hug." S/he persists with referring to the parent as "teacher."
Just so we are clear: I am not a teacher. I don't think of myself as such, I would never refer to myself as such. I find the notion offensive. I have a great deal of respect for teachers. I acknowledge that it requires education, training, dedication, and an innate proclivity to teach in a classroom. I have none of those things. While I am a person with aspirations, teacher is not one of them!
I can, however, facilitate the education of my own children. I don't use institutional materials, I don't use institutional methods. I outsource when it makes sense. It's just not the same thing, and if Jesse really doesn't get that, I have to question his/her critical thinking skills.
The author of this inflammatory piece, Jesse Scaccia, lists his/her credentials. They include two masters' degrees, a couple of bachelors' degrees, a metric ton of classroom experience...if Jesse truly represents the cream of the crop of highly qualified educators (as it appears s/he does,) but still writes a scathing, ill-researched article on a hot topic in contemporary education while failing to demonstrate decent critical thinking skills, and falls back on cheap persuasive tricks, and gets no where near the real meat of the argument (any homeschooler worth their salt can list far more compelling reasons not to homeschool,) why on earth would I want Mr./Ms. Scaccia to educate my child??
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