Home schooling. Is it a good idea or a bad idea? In Britain’s Spectator they are duelling it out.
Last week James Bartholomew, author of the welfare state critique The Welfare State We're In, wrote that he had had enough.
For during this term at least, I am going to home-educate her.
Oh please, responds Ron Liddle. Let’s leave education to the professionals.
It is a colossal arrogance — and a self-indulgence — on the part of those 180,000 parents [who home-school in Britain] that a) their knowledge of such diverse disciplines as, say, fine art and pure maths should exceed that possessed by the specialists[.]
He is right, of course, at least in theory. And it sounds like his kids go to a pretty good school.
My kids go to a state school; I am in awe of their teachers’ ability to convey knowledge and get them enthused about such a vast array of subjects.
The thing is this. Modern science tells us that the two biggest influences on our children is 1) their parents’ genes and 2) their peer culture. Parenting doesn’t come close.
So if you want to influence your children what matters is the milieu in which they grow up: the friends in the neigborhood and the culture at school.
In Britain, the culture in school is pretty bad. Read the blog of Frank Chalk author of It's Your Time You're Wasting and a teacher at a “bog-standard” comprehensive school in Britain.
Irrespective of what your kids are actually learning in school, would you want your kid influenced by the culture that obtains in so many government schools?
James Bartholomew says that he is taking his 9-year-old daughter to France and expects that she will learn to speak French, a skill she presently lacks despite years of classes.
Could she be doing anything more important at age 9 than learning a new language? Anything that couldn’t wait a year?
No comments:
Post a Comment