It was interesting that Carolyn C. Gelder's article on home schooling fallacies appeared right next to Marianne Burton's letter ("Teacher forbade mention of deity") on Dec. 6. Burton's letter points out one of the problems with our system of public education which cannot be fixed by "transferring . . . from one public school to another."
My children have been fortunate to have some good teachers in public schools, many of them dear friends and neighbors. I trust my children in their homes and their classrooms.However, as one of them pointed out to me, sometimes the children in his class will respond to a question in a way which reflects a belief in God, and teachers must try to discourage that type of discussion in the classroom or fear for their jobs. They are good people trapped in a failing system.
Gelder argued that we should supplement rather than supplant public education. My husband and I tried and were frustrated for years with this idealistic attitude. The truth is that the school district chooses the best hours out of the day to instruct our children. We have time with them in the evening when they and we are physically and emotionally exhausted.
The school sends home homework that parents are supposed to "supervise." If we schedule family activities during our time with our children and it interferes with their homework, we are carefully admonished about homework's importance and that we should allow time for it to be done.
There are school activities and school meetings that further cut into the precious little time we have left with our children to teach them the things which cannot be taught in our schools.
Home schooling is not about the fallacies that Gelder mentioned. It is about freedom. It is about being able teach your child in a way that he is able to learn best without trying to please 29 other students at the same time.
It is about the freedom to tutor your child one on one without having them labeled as a "Chapter One" or "Special Ed" kid. It is being free to choose what does work best for your family and not letting family life become a victim of the system.
It is being free to surround your child with positive influences that can help him develop healthy relationship skills which can be carried over into his social contacts. (Don't confuse social contact with learning social skills.)
It is overly idealistic to believe that that is always an alternative. Private schools are not available to everyone. Home schooling is the best alternative for some families.
Christie Bigham
Delta