I found this article on the home page of my very own blog via Right Faith’s news blogroll. (see the sidebar near the bottom entitled Forward Operations in the Culture War)
Home schooling a “Form of Child Abuse” says South Surrey Liberal Candidate
By Hilary White
SURREY, January 10, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – B.C home schooling parents are dismayed after discovering harsh comments about home schooling made by Jim McMurtry, Liberal party candidate for South Surrey, B.C., in the September/October 2003 edition of Teacher Magazine.
McMurtry wrote that parents who educate their children at home are “condemning their children to an impoverished, friendless, and segregated learning environment.” Home schooling parents, he said, “participate in what can be perceived as a form of child abuse.”
Unfortunately this is the attitude of a lot of uninformed people as we found out during a recent ER visit where we were treated with suspicion and my daughter was interviewed outside of my presence to make sure she was not being abused. My daughter (15) is in her second year of home schooling. She loves it. For years, she had to put up with being in classrooms where one or two kids with behavior problems ruin the learning environment for everyone else. And in a class of 25-30, there were always at least one or two. Teachers are for the most part helpless to stop it, so they compensate by giving a lot of homework. By our estimation, about half of her total class time was wasted on “other than academics” which includes discipline, student’s requests for a bathroom pass, listening to other student’s excuses on why their work was late or insufficient (and sometimes making those excuses herself) and so on. Then she would come home and put in at least 2 or 3 hours of homework time. So the only time we got to spend with her she was exhausted and feeling burned out. She had very little time to spend with her friends outside of school. Average day: up at 6, get to school at 7:15 or so, get out of school at 3:30, by the time homework, chores and dinner is done it’s about 8pm. Time for a little TV or a book then off to bed. Weekends were frequently occupied by more homework.
Compare this to her homeschool schedule: Up at 8, start school about 8:30 or 9, work at her own pace taking breaks as needed and finish school no later than 3pm, including homework. She frequently socializes with other homeschool kids in the afternoons – because they’re finished too – and still has time to spend time with her parents and relax in the evenings. Her grades are dramatically better, as are her standardized test scores. She’s better rested and easier to get along with. Because she has no weekend homework, she has even more time to socialize, and she still keeps in touch with her “schooled” friends.
Homeschooling does not work for everyone. For one thing, it requires that a parent be at home. I am fortunate enough to be able to work at home, and since my daughter uses the Abeka DVD curriculum, I can be “on call” if she needs help but still get my own work done. A younger child would obviously need more supervision. In the case of older kids homeschooling, the child needs to be motivated. For my daughter, two extra hours of sleep AND she gets to spend more time with her friends? It’s a no-brainer. At some level she’s glad she’s getting a better education, but that’s not a 15 year old’s priority. If you have never considered homeschooling your teenager, give it some thought. There are benefits you may never have considered – including the fact that a teenager who gets enough rest is a great deal easier to get along with. Feel free to email me (laura@pursuingholiness.com) if you have questions.
And by the way, my daughter will have a diploma, not a GED, will be eligible for all the normal state scholarships and colleges welcome homeschoolers.
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