Public school is not a protective, educational twelve year womb that spits out well rounded, capable individuals in a graduation cap at the end of its gestational period. - Sandy Walker

I am proud of myself for summing up my thoughts and responding to an astoundingly offensive anti-homeschooling article. Here is the link if you have the stomach for it. I can't even quote the most ridiculous or offensive parts but I did respond to the author of this drivel. I might not be as educated or grammatically correct as the writer is but I could not not respond.

If you homeschool you should read it. Inaccurate, ridiculous and condescending as it is I think that it might just be a case of ''BETTER THE DEVIL YOU KNOW THAN THE DEVIL YOU DON'T.''

Court Removes Girl From Homeschool

This article from Foxnews.com frightened me as it should every homeschooler. An academically promising ten year old girl has been ordered to public school by a New Hampshire court. Her divorced parents do not agree on the homeschooling issue and so her father took it to the court as he is concerned about her ''socialization''.
Socializing is what garners success isn't it? High ACT/SAT scores, academic prowess, long term goals that is what is discussed at the lunch room tables while dining on over processed, nutritionally sparse lunches right?
I have never been to New Hampshire but unless they produce different kinds of kids there the socialization will include bullying, cussing, sexual innuendo, introduction to drugs and alcohol, peer pressure and cliques.
Well, isn't that great that her father is looking out for her? I am sure the first time she is excluded for being different, not wearing the 'in' clothes or whatever other reasons kids exclude each other I am sure that she will be thrilled with her father's concern of her socialization. It isn't just boys that bully. There is a huge problem in public schools with girl bullying.
I can tell you that the first time I had a cigarette I got it from a fellow public school student. Same goes with beer and a few other things. You get the idea.
The news is all about headlines and rarely is there follow up but I would sure love to know the depth of this father's interest in his daughter's level of socialization once he gets his way and she is in public school.
If her grades start to fall maybe she can buy better ones like the kids in this article did. Hopefully she won't be one of the many unfortunate students involved in a teacher sex scandal. They are so commonplace that they don't all make headlines anymore but you can find many of them here.
Maybe the father thinks things like that don't happen in New Hampshire. Perhaps he should read this story about a cheating scandal in his state. Those kids socialized with each other and came up with a cheating plan.
Here is a pretty yellow graph of serious violent crimes in U.S. public schools. Don't let the cheery color fool you these are kids getting hurt and killed in school. Maybe the father should ask some of those victims how they feel about socialization.

Waste of Money? Si!

Lemon Grove Middle School located near San Diego California is shelling out ten thousand dollars per year to teach thirty five students Advanced Placement Spanish.

This sounds a bit frivolous considering the current economic situation in our country and especially in California. That is quite a bit of money for middle school but what makes it more ridiculous is that thirty four of the thirty five students is already fluent in Spanish. Yes. Fluent. Lemon Grove Middle School is taking the stance that this enhances the students natural assets and increases these students feelings of accomplishments and self worth.

Advanced Placement classes carry more weight, enough weight that can make a grade of B worth as much as an A. This can be valuable when trying to get the attention of college admissions offices .

This can also pad the GPA's of these students which in turn makes Lemon Grove Middle School appear to be perhaps something that it is not.

Spending tax payer dollars to teach students something they already know does not make them smarter or enhance their self esteem. There is a huge difference between working for grades and having them handed to you. If those kids don't know the difference now, they will. When the classes stop being handed to them on a silver platter and they have to actually work for the weighted grades of Advance Placement classes then what they will have learned is not at all what Lemon Grove intended to teach them.

Socialization

To any homeschooler the term ''socialization'' is like fingernails screeching down a chalkboard. People who make assumptions about what social needs homeschooled children might have are of the same ilk of those who don't have children themselves but know all about parenting. They don't have the personal experience to back up what they are talking about. After having my son in the public school system until the beginning of ninth grade I saw first hand the type of ''socializing '' he had access to in school.

This past week we went on a ''Homeschoolers Field Trip'' hosted by the Durham Museum in Omaha. We have gone on these field trips before and have always had an enjoyable time meeting other homeschoolers from the area and learning more about history. This week though a public school group (for reasons unbeknownst to me) joined our homeschool group. There were six children and three chaperons. The very patient Durham employee who led the field trip repeatedly had to keep those kids in check. Constant reminders to not climb on exhibits, to not crowd in front of the other children, let other children look at the display case, take turns to touch the hands on display, keep quiet while she was talking, not touch the displays that were labeled ''do not touch '' , stay with the group and I seriously could go on and on. Meanwhile the three chaperons rarely corrected their children and mostly talked amongst themselves. They were such a distraction that after the field trip three of the homeschool families (including myself) went back through the exhibits so our children could see what they had missed out on.

I wish I had a video tape of this field trip. I would show it to anyone who ever misused the word ''socialization'' with me again.