Home Schooling

[Amy Z]

David wrote:
 
> People here are often mildly hostile to home schooling on the 
grounds 
> that it removes children from important social contact.  In a UK 
> context the fact that wizarding folks avoid contact as much as 
> possible with Muggles would make them seem pretty much 
home-schooling 
> types, i.e. afraid to expose their children to the 'real world'.

Wild neighing and stamping is heard as Amy's hobbyhorse rears up . . . 
whoa, down, boy!  Steady, there.

I'm a strong believer in hs-ing and plan to do it just as soon as I 
have some school-aged children around here (under the usual 
procedures, this takes several years to accomplish).  In my case, one 
of my reasons for wanting to hs my theoretical children is for them to 
have =more= contact with the 'real world.'  IMO, spending 6 hours a 
day with one's own age cohort and almost no adults or older and 
younger children, while very rewarding in its own way, lacks many of 
the benefits that come from spending those same hours engaging with 
members of the community of all ages, one's family, etc.  Also, while 
there isn't a lot of data on the subject, studies indicate that the 
socialization of hs-ed children is on a par with public- and 
private-schooled kids; in many ways hs-ed kids are more mature, 
well-adjusted, etc. etc.  The most common objection to hs-ing I have 
heard here is the one you raise, but I have my own thoughts on the 
socialization children receive in school and they are not generally 
complimentary.  There are lots of opportunities to learn to interact 
with others besides the schools.

The U.S. movement is very varied and makes for strange bedfellows.  A 
lot of hs-ers here are fundamentalist Christians who dislike the 
implicit (and sometimes explicit) secular teachings of the public 
schools.  Many people turn to hs-ing because their local schools are 
not up to their standard, or don't meet their kids' special needs 
(U.S. schools have to provide for kids with learning disabilities and 
such, but special education, as it's called here, varies drastically 
in quality from school to school, even from year to year).  Many have 
disagreements with the basic educational approach of the available 
schools, or simply find that it doesn't work well for the child in 
question.  Some hs for only a couple of years.  Some live far from 
the nearest school--e.g. my home state is very rural and many kids 
have to ride the bus for over an hour each way.  Some parents are 
indeed trying to keep tight control on their children's social 
interactions, and in some cases this control is downright abusive.  
But the hs-ing picture is much more complex than that.

All of that said, yes, hs-ing would be a natural option for a 
community that lives in secret from most of its neighbors.

Amy
who is hoping to offer broomstick-flying lessons to her children