The latest Chris Hayes "Why Is This Happening?" Podcast is an interview with Laura Meckler about home schooling. Apparently home schooling has exploded since the pandemic, and many industries have sprouted up supporting home schooling.
It used to be, when I was a kid, that home schooling was the domain of evangelical xtians who didn't want their kids exposed to reason and logic. It was fairly harmless because as soon as the kids left home they soon realized the gaps in their education and tended to self correct.
More recently, parents have been home schooling for political reasons. Right wing conservatives didn't want their kids exposed to reason and logic. The "woke agenda" of public schools taught racial equality and cultural diversity, which made it hard to hold onto ignorant bigotry. This motivation is a bit more pernicious since self-segregation (and a vibrant support media) mean many of these people never are exposed to alternate viewpoints.
The podcast also mentioned school shootings are a motivating factor for 62% of home schoolers. While understandable, the risk is way overblown and the reaction is the wrong solution to the problem.
During the pandemic, when schools were closed, many parents found themselves home schooling against their will. Some enjoyed the experience and continued after school re-opened. Many more couldn't wait for schools to re-open. Some parents worried that masking and social distancing weren't enforced enough to protect their kids, others worried that such "woke" policies were hurting their kids' education.
Still other parents have kids with special needs or developmental difficulties, which public schools are increasingly underfunded to deal with.... because, well, the homeschooling advocates have gotten laws passed in every state giving homeschoolers a portion of the tax revenue that formerly went to public schools. The public funding of religious and other ignorance-based schooling is at an all-time high.
We once asked our daughter if she was thinking of home schooling our grandson. She looked at us sideways and said "Home schooled kids are weird."
I tend to think that the curriculum a student is taught is the LEAST important aspect of public school. Much more important is the socialization, the exposure to other viewpoints and cultures and learning to respect them. Learning humility in the face of competition, and self-control in the face of frustration. I worry that since 2019 we're raising a generation of prima donna bigots.
Having a shared knowledge base of science and history and language skills is valuable, but these days the internet is probably 100 times more impactful than school.
Tools like calculators and spell-check have changed the rules too.
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