By Selwyn Duke
Well, another school year is upon us and it's time for parents to once again buy school supplies and ready their youngsters for opening day. But not everyone will be going back to school . . . some won't be going back because they never left. These are the approximately 1.5 million American children who benefit from natural schooling – usually known as homeschooling. Natural schooling is all the rage nowadays; in America, there are more children schooled in this fashion now than ever before in the modern era, and their ranks are growing at the rate of 7 to 15 percent per annum. And, those ranks, once populated almost exclusively by white religious folks who wanted to retain control over their children's spiritual and moral development, now represent virtually every cross-section of society: Whites, blacks, Hispanics, those of Asian descent – religious and secular both.
It's easy for anyone who has kept abreast of societal degeneration to understand why the natural schooling movement is growing in leaps and bounds. American schools are in a state of disarray because of the permissive, liberal philosophy that has taken hold in modern times – a philosophy that pervades the educational establishment. Consequently, there is little discipline within schools, especially government schools, and the absence of this prerequisite for learning ensures that modern schools will provide the worst possible learning environment. It's an environment in which violence is rampant and respect for teachers is nil; where students learn less then they did fifty years ago and test scores are lower; and where, when they do occasionally spike up, it's only because the tests have been dumbed down. Worse yet is that the fact that some things aren't learned is often not as bad as the fact that some other things are, as schools have become liberal propaganda mills, places where social engineering has supplanted the feeding of young minds facts and Truth as the number one priority. Yes, sadly, the three r's now often refer to teaching about racism, revisionism and relativism.
The scene on the natural-schooling front is very different. Naturally-schooled children far surpass their government-schooled peers in academic achievement and even do better than those attending private schools. Take the National Geography Bee and the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee, for instance: Despite the fact that only about 2.75 percent of schoolchildren are naturally-schooled, such students accounted for 21 percent of the finalists in the former and three out of the last six winners of the latter. And, as far as children in general go, while conventionally-schooled children are in the 50th percentile in reading, language and math, naturally-schooled children score in the 87th, 80th and 82nd respectively*. It's not even close.
Despite the obvious resounding success of this superior way of learning, it's not without its detractors; teachers' unions like the NEA (National Education Association) despise natural schooling. In fact, so great is their antipathy towards natural schooling and so extreme their power that some years ago sleazy politicians in Washington – who do the NEA's bidding – launched an effort to make it very difficult for parents to naturally-school their children. Why do they loathe natural schooling so? It's easy to understand: This movement is a threat to their power and funding and impacts on their quasi-monopoly over the hearts and minds of America's next generation. Also, nobody likes being shown up, and the sterling results garnered by naturally-schooled kids reveal those who control the levers of education for the feckless fools they truly are. But, while they might be foolish with respect to the stewardship of nascent intellects, their propaganda skills are razor-sharp. They have attempted to marginalize and discredit natural schoolers by promulgating a ridiculous criticism of natural schooling, one I will lay out and then lay bare, for such lies mustn't be allowed to stand. This criticism is that "homeschooling is abnormal" and, therefore, breeds individuals with stunted "social skills," an assertion that is not only incorrect, but laughable.
Now, natural schooling certainly is abnormal if you view it through the prism of our age, this snapshot of time. But if you see the big picture and look at it within the context of all of human history, you'll see that it isn't natural schooling that's abnormal – conventional schooling is what's abnormal. After all, widespread schooling is a phenomenon of the last 150 years, prior to which virtually everyone was taught and socialized within the family unit. And this normalcy actually enhances social skills; this is because a family will usually comprise people of all ages – parents, siblings and sometimes even grandparents – and this provides children with many different types of interaction. This increases the chances that children will learn how to deal with people of all ages and causes them to mature faster, as they will be exposed to examples of maturity on a consistent basis. Just contrast this true normalcy with the abnormal act of sticking a child in a classroom five days a week with thirty agemates, where most tend to sink down to the level of the lowest common denominator – where the pack mentality sets in.
Then, what are social skills anyway? Academic pinheads like to attach fancy names to common things, as it makes them sound more intellectual. But if the phrase "social skills" means anything other than doing right by your fellow man, it means nothing. And, if you want your child to act rightly, you must inculcate him with a proper moral compass, a task that is more easily performed when he is kept within a controlled family setting and away from corrupting influences. If you don't believe me, eat dinner at the homes of a naturally-schooled nine-year-old and a mainstream one. Then, tell me to whose social skills you'd rather be exposed.
What all this boils down to is that natural schooling is in complete conformity with the norms of history and is far and away the best manner in which to educate the young; it's laughable to say otherwise. If you still don't understand why, I can only say that you just could be the victim of a government school education. Or, you could be an educator.
* For more information and statistics regarding natural-schooling log on to www.NHERI.org.
