Misconceptions on both sides of the fence

This is in response to a comment left here by Theresa. Apparently many people have felt it appropriate to fill-in-the-blank regarding my educational beliefs.

First of all, I did not initiate the issue of homeschooling and socialization. I only acknowledged another's comment when I said, "Socialization is a huge developmental piece, especially for adolescents." I've been left with the impression that most homeschooling parents have that under control.

Second, I never said that homeschooling is wrong.

Third, the only comparison that I have made between public schooling and homeschooling pertains to accountability and ensuring that students are ready to pursue whichever career they so desire.

Fourth, I never called homeschooled kids "weird".

From my point-of-view, this crazy debate has gotten out of hand. It all began with a simple and relevent question that I asked at EdWonks about unschooling and accountability that turned into a post at Atypical Homeschool, which now I think I should have ignored. As for the widespread debate in your corner of the world, you probably know more about it than I do, for the debate seems to be mostly raging within the homeschooling community.

What most inflames the debate for me is that the term "unschool" comes across as anti-public school, which despite the clarification of so many experts still tastes somewhat patronizing. (Sorry Melissa, but the opposite of "unfettered, unchained and uninhibited" are not delightful terms that I would categorize with school). That said, I already have wholeheartedly acknowledged that homeschooling / unschooling works well for many people. Heck, my next-door neighbor homeschools and she has three lovely, well-socialized, intelligent kids. She is also careful to monitor that the education her children are receiving is aligned with grade-level state expectations. I am not completely ignorant of what homeschooling might look like.

It was never my intention to create such controversy in the blogsphere, which from my perspective is beginning to feel like a movement from enlightening one lone public school teacher about an off-shoot of mainstream homeschooling to a mass attempt at derriding her for asking questions (Is this America we are living in?). I give the homeschooling community credit for being so tightly knit. Understand that while I have been trying to be open-minded about a novel concept, I was never looking to be converted nor to engage in a smackdown. That came from the other side of the fence.

It is clear that my curiosity has gotten the better of me, and I suppose it was poor judgment on my part to even bring up the issue of accountability and unschooling.

Theresa, thank you for not being anti-public school. I apologize if you are feeling a little singled out right about now. Welcome to the club.



Mending Wall
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it
And spills the upper boulder in the sun,
And make gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there,
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbors."
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
"Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there,
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."
--Robert Frost