>> of which there are many.
If there is evidence of "many" then it would be great to see it presented in a reasonable form. I could be convinced, if there were data to support it. But a list of a few anecdotes is not evidence of "many."
I can imagine there are irresponsible, perhaps drug addicted, parents, who "use" homeschooling as a way of explaining away their kids not being in class when they should. Or just lunatics who cover for abusing their children with it. That is not an indictment of homeschooling.
But hard statistics are difficult to come by, particularly in light of the teacher's unions who, unfortunately, are part teacher and part teamster, and are not above doing what is necessary to support the union cause. Unions are dirty business, whether it is teamsters, PATCO, or teachers.
Unfortunately, I can't get the LATimes article due to the paywall so I can't read the article. But I do think I get your point.
I would say that to the extent there are problems with homeschooling, and there surely are some, they ought to be fixed with reasonable regulation (perhaps surprise inspections like those done by health inspectors at restaurants) or something of that nature. I know that day care centers are inspected in that way in some areas.
But there is no question that homeschooled kids outperform publicly educated kids on average. Things have changed a lot, but I think I'd have done better after 9th grade by just being allowed to do what I wanted to do; I'd have been less bored than I was with school. |
