getting schooled

Children for me are a long way off. But I've been giving some thought recently concerning how I would educate my brood. I grew up in stereotypical white suburbia and received a public school education. I went on to attend a private religious university in another state and am now enrolled at an independent private graduate school. I grew up thinking that anyone who didn't go to school with me was strange somehow, like a few kids from church who were home-schooled. I equated private schools and homeschooling with bible class, like my friend who attended enigmatic P.S.R. classes at her Catholic church.

Now that I've had a chance to meet people from differing educational backgrounds, I'm not so sure that I would want my children to be victims of public education. Across the country, schools, even public schools, have varying curricula. Though there are standardized tests, some schools, especially in rural and urban areas, lack consistency and thoroughness in some subjects.

When considering public education, parents have to think about myriad decisions: Will my child be bored because he has to work at the same pace as others, though he is more advanced? Will my child be lured into a gang and killed in senseless street violence? Will my child learn about sex at the age of 10 and be given free condoms at the age of 14? I would say that a good percentage of American parents assume that a public school education is "good enough." Some don't have the money for private schooling, or the patience for home-schooling. I'm not sure I would have the patience, either, but anything but public schooling is looking attractive right now.

From all of my friends who are pursuing an education in education, the biggest complaint I hear is Public Law 107-110, popularly known as No Child Left Behind. Apparently, the No Child Left Behind Act leaves everyone behind, but at least they’re all together. The NCLB Act requires public schools in a given state to conduct standardized testing at appointed years during a child’s education, provides federal funding as an incentive to raise expectations for students, and purports to be succeeding at achieving a level field for all students, regardless of socioeconomic status or ethnicity.

Surprisingly, the Act was supported and signed by President Bush. (I say surprisingly because he is a Republican, but given the liberties he’s infringed on American citizens in other areas of life, it really shouldn’t be so much of a shock.) Though states are free to set their own standards and methods of testing, the money is still coming from the federal government, and there is a very real threat of a movement toward standardized federal schools.

Meanwhile, children who are home-schooled seem to be doing better than their standardized compatriots. In a study of more than 7,000 adults who had been home-schooled, the National Home Education Research Institute found that the majority were content, intelligent, active citizens. About 60% of home-schooled adults claimed to be “very happy,” and 70% found life to be “exciting,” compared to non-home-schooled adults answered 30% and 50%, respectively.

The question wants for further analysis, and I certainly have time for it. But as the federal government sneaks in the back door to control our lives, who knows what will have happened by the time I’m ready to send kids to school.

The public school system: "Usually a twelve year sentence of mind control. Crushing creativity, smashing individualism, encouraging collectivism and compromise, destroying the exercise of intellectual inquiry, twisting it instead into meek subservience to authority." – Walter Karp, Editor Harper's Magazine