Could such a go-it-alone ideology ever be truly progressive—by which I mean, does homeschooling serve the interests not just of those who are doing it, but of society as a whole?
via Homeschooling and unschooling among liberals and progressives. – Slate Magazine.
WTF? In what universe are engaged, educated, independent kids not good for society as a whole? Even if the public schools were a bastion of love and peace with no hint of violence and high test scores all around; having every kid come out of the same mold is not good for society. Diversity is good. You don’t get diversity from warehousing kids in a room with their same-age peers all day, every day, for 12 years.
Also, I don’t know one single progressive homeschooler that is going-it-alone. Very few homeschoolers are loners. Like I’ve been saying for years, the interesting thing about homeschooling is that it is nothing like school, and we are rarely at home.
The author misses another key point too. Well actually, she misses pretty much everything about homeschooling, Homeschooled kids have time to be engaged in their communities. If you are in school 7 hours a day, then doing band / football practice, then doing 3 hours of homework, you have no time for anything except self-interest. HSers, who frequently are putting in a couple of hours a day tops, have all kinds of time to devote to the sort of socially progressive causes that would impress Dana Goldstein.
Really, this is the quality of journalism I expect when reading about homeschooling. But usually, it’s coming from HSLDA.
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The only good thing about this article was that it has gotten some liberal/progressive hsers to come out of the woodwork at places like DailyKos.