Homeschoolers have their own unique view of the world. There are a plethora of reasons that each family chooses to forge their own route. Someone sent me a “Bitter Homeschooler’s Wishlist” yesterday. It is a little harsh, but the message behind it is not so terribly wrong. Some of the best points:

1. Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is  and it is  it's  insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would  we admit it?

3. Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir  practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class,  4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets  to socialize.

7. We don't look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear  they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like  potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate  job of homeschooling.

16. Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't  mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some  sleep now and then.

18. If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're  allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you  can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a  worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.

This statement, from a homeschool mother who is at a conference in DC this week, made my morning:

I didn't give birth to a child just to have the state treat them as a  commodity in the planned economy.    My child's dreams will be determined  by God as they follow Him,  not the demands of the state as they follow  my child from cradle to career.

As is implied in the statement, the schools in this country are being changed and your students will be tracked from the time they enter school until they die to see how effective the state has been to keep them in a single career path.

This was intended to be a semi- light-hearted post, but I just can’t let it go without some documentation of the purposes of school. Sigh. I’ll try to post some links eventually to document the school-work link, even though it is not a hidden one.

One oft-quoted phrase comes from the 1947 UNESCO [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization] study (Volume V):

Before the child enters school his mind has already been profoundly marked, and often injuriously, by earlier influences; but the process of schooling may exercise a decisive effect, for it is through the experience of schooling that the child applies and develops the rudimentary sense of community he has first gained, however dimly, in the home.

A few pages later:

The kindergarten or infant school has a significant part to play in the child's education. Not only can it correct many of the errors of home training but it can also prepare the child for membership, at about age seven, in a group of his own age and habits -- the first of many such social identifications that he must achieve on his way to membership in the world society.

This is for every child they can influence in the world (and our country has adopted many of these practices). The kids are to be specifically schooled in how to get along with everyone, how not to make waves. Two pages further on (remember, in 1947):

In the schools of the United States, history, geography, and civics are grouped together under the heading of social studies, a fact which illustrates their bearing on our particular problem. [...]

In our view, history and geography should be taught at this stage as universal history and geography. Of the two, only geography lends itself well to study during the years prescribed by the present survey (3-13 years). The study of history, on the other hand, raises problems of value which are better postponed until the pupil is freed from the nationalist prejudices which at present surround the teaching of history.

I like the phrase “nationalist prejudices.” The outcome of this is that, in some textbooks, the D-Day forces of WWII are now said to be “United Nations soldiers” (even though D-Day was June 6th, 1944 and the United Nations became an entity in 1945, AFTER World War II). Maybe them homescoolers is smart.