I shouldn't bother to link to the idiot because he doesn't need the readers. Some people should just save their blogs to their hard drive and not bother actually posting this shit. Chris O'Donnell introduces us here to several bloggers' Idiot of the Day.
Are homeschooled children social retards? Are they so sheltered that, at 18 years old, when they are released, they have no concept of how to interact with the real world? Of course, if you listen to the idiots that are all "knowledge" and no experience, then we are damning our kids to a life of social retardation.
Well, we don't really keep our kids in the house sitting around the Bible. We don't release our kids into a world they haven't dealt with their whole lives. We also don't warehouse them in an age segregated school setting that has no bearing on "real world" reality.
I'm not christian and am not homeschooling my kids for religious reasons. I know full well that, as an involved and loving parent, I could easily teach my children what I consider to be my morals if they were in gschools. But my and my wife's morals, such as they are, are part of why we chose to homeschool. We model appropriate behaviour so that our kids know they are more like other people than more different, and that, to me, is a most highly desirable trait. Even if the education didn't suck, the other things they learn are contrary to our beliefs. We are raising our kids to be open, loving, caring, accepting, understanding, things that are belittled in the competitive and cliquish culture of gschools.
Do I know enough to be able to teach my kids all that they will need to know? I'm just as able to do so as probably 90% of the teachers they would face in gschools. But what about math and science? This is a big "DUH" in my opinion. The math and science they would get in school is laughable at best and in my opinion actually damaging more often than helpful.
The things kids are supposed to learn in school, academically speaking, are things that anyone can pick up, given the ability to learn as they are interested. The math and science they will use is all around them, so how better to learn than through use and desire?
I'm happy with my kids being "social retards." I have long felt, as has my wife, like a social retard. I grew up, as did my wife, attending schools. We have taught ourselves more than all the teachers we ever had combined. We've also, sometime after reaching adulthood, come to a place where we feel welcome socially, and it's called not giving a crap what people think. Schooled children have more trouble learning that, if they ever learn that, because school is all about forcing all the pegs to fit in the same shape hole. Homeschooling is about finding the hole that is the same shape as you and deciding whether it's right for you.
School is not real. School does not present life in a way that can be considered realistic. School is a damaging and unpleasant place that doesn't prepare people to interact with other people in sensible socially relevant ways. Homeschool kids are different socially as are all people, but they have the added benefit of knowing that their difference, much like everyone else, is part of their uniqueness and is a desirable quality.
And finally, if your "proof" about anything is anecdotal evidence, then it really isn't truth. Opinion is not a valid arguement, and saying homeschooling is or isn't something doesn't make it true.
