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Wednesday, March 18, 2009

This is what I get for being transparent

A few weeks ago, I posted an entry about my frustrations of late. Some of it had to do with homeschooling, but mostly? It was about heart and character issues - mainly mine.

Here is a response I received from a family member (who I'll not name, because I love this person dearly and appreciate the honesty which was displayed).

I have a solution for your dilemma, it's called PUBLIC SCHOOL. That's where children learn to cope with the stresses of everyday activities, such as getting up early, having a structured environment with other children of all socioeconomic levels, learning respect for themselves, their peers and their parents, and all the other ups and downs of going to school and being in a daily routine of the realities of life. Parents need to stop protecting their children and let them be faced with the real world. What happens when they are ready to go out in the world and they are afraid to cope? Or, what happens if their parents should befall a horrific early death? Who will homeschool them then? Don't get mad, just give a good long thought to what I am conveying...


This is the reason I typically do not discuss publicly or talk about homeschooling. Instead of finding ways to be supportive, my family looks for every possible way to get me to place my kids in PUBLIC SCHOOL where they are going to magically be transformed into children who "learn to cope with the everyday stresses" of life.

To this I say: I am protecting my children because I love them. I'm not keeping anything of the reality of the world from them, but I am measuring it out in small doses instead of letting them be overwhelmed. The world should not be defining life for my kids. Psalm 127 says that we are to prepare our children - they are like arrows in a quiver - I am preparing them to speak with the enemy at the gates and not be ashamed. They will be equipped to face reality without letting men overrun them or tell them what they should be thinking.

I do not believe that public school is a magic pill that a child can take in order to be better able to cope with the everyday stresses of life. This is a fallacy long purported by those who tout public school and I'd like to formally call it out right now.

If public school is so wonderful, why are more more children than ever taking prescription drugs? Surely it's not because they aren't capable of dealing with the everyday stresses of life that come with getting up early, interacting with children from every socioeconomic level, or being in the daily routines of life?

I have waited almost 4 weeks to post this because I didn't want to come across as "the angry homeschooler". I'm not angry at this person any longer, honestly. But I am passionate about my children and my choice to homeschool. I love my children and want only what I believe is the best for them.

And I'm even crazy enough to believe that most parents want the same for their own children, whether home-schooled or schooled publicly. In parenting, I think the end result we all desire for our kids is that they grow up to be happy, healthy and productive adults.

And that's all I'm going to say about that. Other than to leave y'all with a list of famous people who homeschooled -- many of you homeschoolers may have seen this, but for any of you that haven't, it's quite an eye-opener.


Famous People Who Homeschooled

Educators


Frank Vandiver (President - Texas A&M)
Fred Terman (President - Stanford)
William Samuel Johnson (President Columbia)
John Witherspoon (President of Princeton)

Generals

Stonewall Jackson
Robert E. Lee
Douglas MacArthur
George Patton

Inventors

Alexander Graham Bell
Thomas Edison
Cyrus McCormick
Orville Wright & Wilbur Wright

Artists

Claude Monet
Leonardo da Vinci
Jamie Wyeth
Andrew Wyeth
John Singleton Copley

President
s

George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
John Quincy Adams
James Madison
William Henry Harrison
John Tyler
Abraham Lincoln
Theordore Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Scientists


George Washington Carver
Pierre Curie
Albert Einstein
Booker T. Washington
Blaise Pascal

Statesmen


Konrad Adenauer
Winston Churchill
Benjamin Franklin
Patrick Henry
William Penn
Henry Clay

United States Supreme Court Judges


John Jay
John Marshall
John Rutledge

Composers

Irving Berlin
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Anton Bruckner
Felix Mendelssohn
Francis Poulenc

Writers


Hans Christian Anderson
Charles Dickens
Brett Harte
Mark Twain
Sean O'Casey
Phillis Wheatley
Mercy Warren
Pearl S. Buck
Agatha Christie
C.S. Lewis
George Bernard Shaw

Religious leaders


Joan of Arc
Brigham Young
John & Charles Wesley
Jonathan Edwards
John Owen
William Cary
Dwight L. Moody
John Newton

I wonder what my children will grow up to be?



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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

this is in response to the response! stop protecting our children? is that not why we are parents? i want my children to be just that-children. i do not think that will make them ill equipped to handle the real world! the "real world" by whose definition? i cant stand to see children that have been dressed in clothes to make them "look" like little adults. they are not! they need the time to be kids get muddy, play on the dirt pile, baby dolls! i love that my daughter wants to be nothing more then a mommy when she gets "big" im am sure that she will change her mind a million times along the way but for now that is her dream. people put all of these everyday stresses on kids and then wonder why they are depressed and withdrawn as teens! watching the nightly news scares me! I was home schooled from 2nd thru 6th grade by necessity and in that little bit of time i was able to learn enough about myself and learn self respect, so when the time came and i went to public school i had no interest in the whole "peer pressure follow the leader, clique" type of mentality. and no i was not an outcast or "weird home schooled loner", exactly the opposite. nothing wrong with being nice to everyone. oh and i love school uniforms!!

Flea said...

Having homeschooled for 9 years, and now having my kids in public schools, I've been on both sides. I really do think that this is a personal issue for families. I think families on both sides make the wrong decision or do it poorly. And I know that people on both sides of the fence can be rabid and defensive. It's not usually about right or wrong. It's about what's right or wrong for your family. Both can be done well. Both are.

Flea said...

This is the link which comes up when I click on your site from my blogfeed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/simplyamusingblog/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

And C.S. Lewis spent years in private schools.

Becky said...

I am homeschooled and have been my entire life. I am now a sophmore in highschool. I have the option of graduation a year early because at the end of this year, I will have enough credits to graduate with the minumum required by the state of Indiana. I do 4H, dance, Toastmasters (last year), church youth group, volunteering at a local elementary school and much more. And you tell me that I am not being socialized properly and do not know how to interact with other kids my age? Whatever.
I have enough friends in public or private schools to know that I would hate it, and that in 99% of my friend's cases, I am getting a better education. I know that there are smart public school kids who are amazing, well-rounded, intellegint and non-conformist to the whole clique thing. My cousin is in public school and scored a 2300 on a PRACTICE SAT test. So I understand that homeschooling is not for everyone, and that people can exceed in public school. I just think that the majority of people can't simply because of all the social problems.