"These are terrible reasons"

I recently ran across this article from a blog called  ChildrensMD titled "18 Reasons Why Doctors and Lawyers Homeschool Their Children." The article was a coming out by Kathleen Berchelmann, M.D. about how she was going to homeschool her children. She goes through the first part of the article explaining how unhappy she is with the status quo in her life with regards to her kids education. When I read this article I was immediately taken back by some of the 18 reasons that she listed for homeschooling her kids.

http://childrensmd.org/uncategorized/why-doctors-and-lawyers-homeschool-their-children-18-reasons-why-we-have-joined-americas-fastest-growing-educational-trend/

Before I begin my rebuttal, remember what place in life I am at right now. I am a school teacher, an elementary school teacher at that. My bread and butter is in public education and I see the ramifications of proper and improper education on a day to day basis. My view point is skewed, so is yours. Also my viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

My green highlights are the lines that spoke to me, and the yellow highlights are my comments/sarcasm/criticism.

1)      We spend less time homeschooling each day than we used to spend driving.  With four kids in four locations last year (including a newborn at home), school drop-off and pick-up took four hours, on a good day.  We’d get home at about 4:30 and still have homework, music practice, sports, chores, dinner and bath to fit into the 4 hours before bed.  Now we spend about four hours per day homeschooling, instead of four hours in the car. (That's comforting, because those schools over in Japan are spending 10-12 hours a day teaching and learning. Last time I checked we were 17th, they were 3rd.)

2)      We can’t afford private education.  Even on a doctor’s salary, private education has become unaffordable, especially for larger families.  Which choice would you make: save for college, save for retirement, or pay private school tuition?  Few families can afford for all three, and most can only afford one.  As educational debts loom larger for each successive generation, this financial crunch will only get worse. (I agree that as you get more kids, the cost of life increases...no one is going to debate you on that. However generally if you run the numbers, the amount of money that you spend on a quality daycare for a working family is comparable per month to how much you would pay for monthly tuition. And the private school that I researched in this situation offers financial aid.)

3)      Our kids are excelling academically as homeschoolers.  Homeschooling allows us to enrich our children’s strengths and supplement their weaknesses. The kids’ education moves as fast or as slow as required for that particular subject area.  They are not pigeon-holed and tracked as gifted, average, or special needs. (By your standards, there are professionals who have spent most of their career accurately diagnosing strengths and weaknesses. I don't claim to be a doctor, nor do I try to play one at home.)

4)      Homeschooling is not hard, and it’s fun!  We bought a “box curriculum” from a major homeschool vendor, and all the books and the day-by-day curriculum checklist came in the mail.  We have a lot of fun supplementing material through YouTube and online educational sites like Dreambox, Khan Academy, and others.  Our kids do about half of their math online.(Enough said.)

5)      Use whatever public school services you like.  Need speech therapy, the gifted program, or remedial academics?  Homeschooled kids are still eligible for all these services.  Some homeschoolers come into public school daily for “specials” like art, music, PE, or the school play.  Your kids can even join high school sports teams once they are old enough.  Our kids are still in sports and scouts sponsored by their old schools. (This a vague generalization in my opinion.)

 6)      I like parenting more, by far.  As a mom of school-aged kids, I felt like my role as parent had been diminished to mini-van driver, schedule-keeper, cook and disciplinarian.  And there was no mercy from the schools– six minutes late for pickup and they’d be calling my husband at work, unpaid 5 cent library fine and they’d withhold my child’s report card.  Every day I’d unpack a pile of crinkled notice papers from three backpacks and hope that I didn’t miss the next permission slip.  I was not born, raised and educated to spend my days like this.  Now, I love being a mom.( I understand this bullet point and do sympathize, but it reads more like whining because you don't like to adhere to authority other than your own.)

7)      Our family spends our best hours of each day together.  We were giving away our kids during their best hours, when they were rested and happy, and getting them back when they were tired, grumpy and hungry.  I dreaded each evening, when the fighting and screaming never seemed to end, and my job was to push them through homework, extracurriculars, and music practice.  Now, our kids have happy time together each day.  At recess time, the kids are actually excited about playing with each other! (We have quality time each evening, and we make sure that that time is precious and protected.)

8)      We yell at our kids less.  Homeschooling forces us as parents to maintain a loving authority in the household.  We stopped spanking our kids.  You can’t get your kids to write essays or complete a large set of math problems if you don’t have their respect and obedience.  Spanking and corporal punishment establish fear, not effective, loving obedience. (I believe I have a loving authority in my household.)

9)      Our kids have time for creative play and unique interests.  Once my kids entered school, they seemed to stop making up their owncreative play together.  They didn’t have time for creative play during their busy evenings.  Now they build forts and crazy contraptions, play dance parties, and pursue their own unique interests.  My eight-year-old has taken up computer programming and taught himself how to play the organ.  My six-year-old is learning to cook. (Okay but will she be able to write about cooking in APA sytle for her college essay?)

10)   We are able to work on the kids’ behavior and work ethic throughout the day.  My son’s poor work effort at school was nearly impossible to address.  The teachers didn’t have time to make my son repeat work they felt was average quality.  We wouldn’t see the work until days after it was completed.  Finally, we’ve been able to push him to his full potential. (Trust me, the teachers want to help him realize his full potential, he has too want it too.)

-john