I was shocked to find strong opposition to home schooling on the left, but maybe every movement has an illiberal side, no matter what it says on the label.
Homeschooling is opposed on the left in the US for a variety of reasons. One is simple influence in the Democratic party by the teachers unions. But there are also good arguments to oppose homeschooling. First, It is very difficult to tell whether kids being homeschooled are actually getting good educations. Some parents simply don’t teach well even if they try to cover all the standard material. Second, many people who homeschool use it as an opportunity to push all sorts of religious and social agendas often to the detriment of science. For example, Christian homeschooling is very common and often includes a lot of creationism. Indeed, in some parts of the country it is difficult to find science textbooks that are geared to homeschooling that are not creationist.
Part of the issue with attitudes towards homeschooling is the tension between the concern we have for children as opposed to the general value of letting parents raise their children as they see fit. These values often come into conflict.
I agree that there are reasons to oppose home schooling—one that I haven’t seen discussed is that it means children with abusive parents could be trapped full-time with them.
What shocks me is not that I’ve seen left-wingers opposed to home-schooling not because it can go bad, through either parental abusiveness or incompetence, but that they are opposed to it by stereotype (assuming that all home schooling is done by religious loonies, and refusing to hear that there are a number of reasons for and styles of home schooling) or in ill-thought out principle (believing that conventional, coerced schooling is the only way to make children actual members of the society).
Homeschooling is opposed on the left in the US for a variety of reasons. One is simple influence in the Democratic party by the teachers unions. But there are also good arguments to oppose homeschooling. First, It is very difficult to tell whether kids being homeschooled are actually getting good educations. Some parents simply don’t teach well even if they try to cover all the standard material. Second, many people who homeschool use it as an opportunity to push all sorts of religious and social agendas often to the detriment of science. For example, Christian homeschooling is very common and often includes a lot of creationism. Indeed, in some parts of the country it is difficult to find science textbooks that are geared to homeschooling that are not creationist.
Part of the issue with attitudes towards homeschooling is the tension between the concern we have for children as opposed to the general value of letting parents raise their children as they see fit. These values often come into conflict.
I agree that there are reasons to oppose home schooling—one that I haven’t seen discussed is that it means children with abusive parents could be trapped full-time with them.
What shocks me is not that I’ve seen left-wingers opposed to home-schooling not because it can go bad, through either parental abusiveness or incompetence, but that they are opposed to it by stereotype (assuming that all home schooling is done by religious loonies, and refusing to hear that there are a number of reasons for and styles of home schooling) or in ill-thought out principle (believing that conventional, coerced schooling is the only way to make children actual members of the society).