I am having a mini crisis over schooling my kids. My oldest two daughters participate in a state run school at home program. They are loaned laptop computers which run a fairly inane curriculum with click the bubble questions after each reading. A teacher comes to our home every few weeks to chat with us—she monitors their progress remotely the rest of the time, much more loosely than I do myself.
The problem is that I have begun reading The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto. It is a scathing indictment of the American compulsory school phenomenon, holding that public schools took a population that was nearly completely literate and dumbed them down to the point where average spelling is at the level of text messaging abbreviations. Gatto’s opinion appears to be that this was no accident: a large number of dumb, minimum wage workers are required to make the U.S. economy go, so the schools produce them in quantity. The thought makes my stomach turn. It makes me want to avoid every trace of participation in “school” as the government conceives it.
I have believed all along that I could easily fulfill the government’s goals along with my own. But if the goal of state schooling is to sap passion for learning from my kid’s brains and take away their time for real life, then that is a conflict of interest I can’t ignore.
My 12 year old gets up before everyone else in the family because she likes the quiet morning hours for doing her schoolwork. I require her to do her math work before she logs on to the online textbooks, and she is often done with all of it by 8:30 in the morning when the rest of the house gets up and begins breakfast and chores. She spends the rest of her day doing as she pleases: doing crafts, reading, making butter and cheese, cooking things, reading to her brother, sewing, etc.
My 10 year old is a sleepy head and is often last up. She milks the cow, and mosies through breakfast and is often just starting school at noon. Her math takes her forever, and she zooms through her computer school. She reads plenty. She is reading the Lord of the Rings Trilogy for about the fourth time in two years, and grabs other quicker reads as I bring them from the library. She spends her spare time making clay pots, frolicking with her pet goat, playing songs with her sister on her guitar, and most recently, working with a hide she is tanning.
All that to say, I don’t think the inane curriculum time has caused their brains to leak out of their ears yet. I am afraid if I read the rest of this book, however, I may be utterly unwilling to participate with the system at all. In any case, I think it is time to revisit my goals for these children again.
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4 comments:
I homeschool too, and this is an interesting debate. Lots of people I know think school is evil. While I agree there is evil in the schools and that some people involved have evil intentions, not every in the school system does, and all of these opinions are human. We should think about what they are saying, be informed, not be blind, but ultimately, God is the authority, who we should listen to, you know? Your kids...well from hearing you describe them, they are home all day and thriving, so what does it really matter if they use the computer-based "school" curriculum? YOU are the influence in their lives, and unless the schools are teaching them to worship Satan, YOU are the main influence and the main importance in their lives. I think you were wise to say you might not read more of that book. I have to stop reading things sometimes that make me really internally upset.
I'm with you about the individuals having mixed plans and motives. I suppose the real threat is the idea that there is a Grand Plan that no one person is privy to or controlling.
Our society is a complex organism. Has the school system design been manipulated by powerful people who benefit from the dumbing down of America? Very likely. However, the real responsibility still remains with the individual. It is MY job to take care of MY kids, and I can participate in programs that have other purposes and use them for my own. Isn't this the very thing that God does?
It's hard to believe that they are intentionally dumbing down our society. But then again, it's hard to believe it's an accident too. Sounds like your kids are way better off either way. I was lucky enough to have a great school system and wonderful teachers when I was in school. But even as I was graduating, it seemed as though they were doing their best to dismantle everything good and fun and inspiring.
I had a pretty good public school experience too. My desire to homeschool my kids was originally a running to rather than a running from. But I continue to be thankful for the things they are "missing!"
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