Monday, October 20, 2008

Top 10 Reasons to Criminalize Homeschooling

Memo:

by Scott Ott for ScrappleFace · No Comments

(2002-08-26) — In an effort to increase the public drumbeat for criminalizing homeschooling, California Deputy Superintendent Joanne Mendoza has distributed a memo containing the top 10 reasons why public schooling is better than homeschooling. Here is an excerpt from that memo:
Why Public Schooling Is Better Than Homeschooling

  • Most parents were educated in the underfunded public school system, and so are not smart enough to homeschool their own children.
  • Children who receive one-on-one homeschooling will learn more than others, giving them an unfair advantage in the marketplace. This is undemocratic.
  • How can children learn to defend themselves unless they have to fight off bullies on a daily basis?
  • Ridicule from other children is important to the socialization process.
  • Children in public schools can get more practice “Just Saying No” to drugs, cigarettes and alcohol.
  • Fluorescent lighting may have significant health benefits.
  • Publicly asking permission to go to the bathroom teaches young people their place in society.
  • The fashion industry depends upon the peer pressure that only public schools can generate.
  • Public schools foster cultural literacy, passing on important traditions like the singing of “Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg…”
  • Homeschooled children may not learn important office career skills, like how to sit still for six hours straight.

6 comments:

Deanne said...

The title of your post, and the intro. startled me! Thanks for the laugh. ;)

Anonymous said...

This one definitely made me do a double-take...gotta pass it on to all my anti-homeschooling friends!

Heather's Moving Castle said...

I got you all, didn't I!!! I knew I would... It got me too when I first saw it on-line. I was helping Cliff do a school paper about homeschooling.

~Heather ;)

Stephanie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rugbie said...

Hehehe - I am actually guilty of teaching my kids the "Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid and egg" song...

Elizabeth (My Reading World) said...

Very funny!!! Unfortunately here in the UK they are threatening parents that it will be a criminal offence if we do not register our children and subject them to inspections!! So criminalizing it isn't all that unreal--as it is illegal in Germany!

Thanks for reminding everyone of all the negatives of schooling! :)