Enjoy!
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Homeschooling is a Sin....
Over at Principled Discovery I found a link to this annoying mischaracterization of homeschooling. A few weeks ago it was dangerously prone to abuse, and now it's a sin, a rejection of community, and disobedience to God and state. He compares children to tax dollars, stopping just short of saying that we should send them to public schools because we are to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's (and while he does stop just short of saying that, I am not sure why, given his other arguments):
But things change too fast now for that kind of result-oriented education. Now we must learn how to learn so that we can adapt to our ever-changing environment (ever tried to teach your parent or grandparent to use a computer or an iPod?).
Similarly, formal education was formerly for the societal elite. But in a democracy, education is for all, with the understanding that the more educated we all become, the more humane we will be toward one another (this, of course, is open to debate).
So it seems to me that to withdraw our children from public education is to not play our (God-given) role as missional members of our society — like we can’t just choose to withhold our taxes. We give our children all those vaccinations when they’re young not necessarily to protect them from polio (since the chances of any one of my children getting it is exceedingly small) but because we live in a society, and part of the contract within the society is that we will never again let polio gain a foothold.
So I can’t think, “I’ll just pull my kids out of the public schools — what difference will one less follower of Jesus make in a school full of hundreds of kids?” I don’t, as a Christian, have the option to “opt out” of the societal contract.
Right. Because every five year old is a grounded, solid, influential follower of Jesus, and besides, it's a five year old's job to evangelize the public school. And all homeschoolers hide out in the basement and have zero involvement in the community. And the reason Tony's parents who were publicly schooled have trouble with iPods is, um, something to do with why you shouldn't homeschool. This is a man whose understanding of life before, oh, the last ten years, is as rooted as a daisy with a two inch stem. There are, of course, no options whatsoever for community involvement for families outside of public school. Childless couples, couples with grown children, single people with no children, clearly, if they are not working in the public schools they are not 'missional.' There are no opportunities for community service or involvement outside of the public school. No chances to volunteer at the library, the soup kitchen, the homeless shelter, the nursing home, the crisis pregnancy center, the animal shelter, or anywhere else. You couldn't possibly take your kids to the park to pick up litter, to take cookies to the neighbors, to deliver sandwiches and water bottles to the homeless guys on street corners, and you could not ever, ever hold so much as a conversation at the grocery store with members of your community during school hours. Missional opportunities also cease during summer break, because it's all about public school.
So when somebody traveling through town wants to tell your kids about life as a Polish Jew hiding from Nazis in France, you have to say no if you're a homeschooler.
None of the service activities here count if they are done during school hours.
None of these count unless they are done outside of school hours.
When the homeschooled daughter of friends of ours was able to sit with a dying neighbor during the day while the husband worked, allowing the woman to stay at home where she wanted to stay, I guess that was avoiding being part of the community, too.
When Jenny goes to clean widow ladies' apartments and visit them during school hours, she's violating her contract with society.
When you are available, because you are at home with your children, to care for your neighbors, for a woman with a new baby, for the neighbor who needs an emergency babysitter while she takes a child with a broken arm to the hospital, you had little idea that you were violating your contract with society, too- did you?
And when you are out with your children in the community during school hours and people stop you to ask questions about what you're doing and why, to compliment you on the children's behavior, to ask questions about what you believe, well, that is the direct result of you refusing to obey God's best will for you and put those kids in public school.
Some people do live in a bubble, and I don't know any homeschoolers in a bubble as hermetically sealed as the one wrapped around Tony Jones appears to be.
