If concerned parents want more input in their kids' education, why don't they opt for homeschooling?
Since January 2021, 42 states have introduced bills or taken other steps that would restrict teaching critical race theory or limit how teachers can discuss racism, gender and sexism, This, according to an Education Week analysis.
I have an idea: Instead of crowding legislative calendars and sabotaging school board meetings, why don't distressed parents simply snatch their children out of the public schools and tuck them safely in home schooling.
If parents were able to design their own curriculum for Dick and Jane, free of teachings they find abhorrent, Mom and Dad could find many benefits.
As example, their offspring would not be forced to absorb lessons that might cause the kids to wonder about their upbringing. White people enslaved Black people, who knew? A pair of parents could both be moms or dads! Why hasn't anyone told me that?
An additional bonus of home schooling is that the child -- unfastened from a classroom that might include mates of different races, religions, and backgrounds -- could remain intact throughout their formative years. No exposure to the real world would seep, like an infection, into the tender minds of vulnerable youth.
I wish I could cite another benefit of home schooling -- not having to pay school taxes -- but alas, homeschoolers who own their homes still have to pay school taxes. A substantial portion of funding for public school systems comes from local property taxes charged to homeowners.
Pre-COVID, the percentage of home-schooled children was 3.23% of all K-12 students, according to the Department of Education. Not surprisingly, that percentage increased to 6.04% when COVID-19 pandemic limited in-person schooling. Plenty of room to grow for parents who are banning books, firing librarians, and sending death threats to those in opposition.
Research reveals that the typical home-schooler profile is a white, suburban student from a family that lives above the federal poverty line. Thus privileged youngsters may have to wait until college to meet and possibly befriend someone who grew up in less cushy circumstances.
I recognize that some children -- those with disabilities or learning issues -- benefit from home school. And I also acknowledge that not all lessons learned out of a traditional classroom are below par.
And I concede that there are families, because of their deep-rooted belief, send their children to religious school, rather than public. But all faiths emphasize compassion; solidarity; respect for the human person; and the Golden Rule of “do as you would be done by.” So I'm going to assume that these parents, who concur with their religion's emphasize on empathy, would abhor the prejudices and ignorant rants of school board antagonists.
My simple solution for those parents who are incensed with curriculums and library books that might include race, gender, and sexuality, instead of all that rabble rousing at school board meetings, just bring the kids home.
And while you're at it, guard the door so that no child enters who doesn't mirror your own.If concerned parents want more input in their kids' education, why don't they opt for homeschooling?