JOSH F. writes:

I’ve come to reject the “homeschooling” label. When people ask where my kids go to school, I simply tell them that they don’t go to “school.” They are educated, I say in a matter of fact manner, by myself and their mother. The idea behind rejecting this label is self-evident.  First, it’s entirely normal to be miffed by those that believe they are making a great sacrifice by “schooling” their kids with teacher experts. The time/money benefit alone provided by “school” is enough to put the “sacrifice” of “schooling” one’s children into serious perspective. I also have no desire to bring the isolated nature of  “school” into the home nor am I seeking to be part of a collective of  “homeschoolers.” What we see in “school” is the desire to isolate a  child’s radical autonomy (his immature lack of restraint) and have it  molded by a teacher expert. “Schools” are places where children are  taught how to be properly “free.” Like a well-oiled machine, the  individual autonomist becomes conforming (induced through isolation)  thereby providing a radical autonomy to the collective interest (the  school). The individual autonomists are persuaded to conform to this  idea of “freedom” with the idea that their collective effort may enjoy  a greater autonomy. This is “school” and this is where “homeschooling”  is headed. We ought to be concerned about teaching our children about an  increasingly autonomized society where we are taught conformity to the  collective is the way to gain a sense of “freedom.”

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Hurricane Betsy writes:

It sounds as if Josh is so against the homeschooling label that he has placed himself within the collective of radical nonschoolers. Well, mine didn’t go to school at all, either, but I don’t see anything wrong with associating with homeschooling groups, a “collective” Josh finds unsuitable. But there are benefits: if homeschoolers in North America had not banded together a long time ago to deal with departments of education, these children would have been rounded up, seized by the State, put into foster homes and enrolled in government schools, as is happening in Germany (and maybe other countries, too, for all I know). I am grateful for the Home School Legal Defence Association. And my family has “belonged” to homeschooling groups (for real; not internet) and they put no pressure on anyone to be anything in particular. They are loose associations with respect for all outlooks.

It is all right to mould a child; it’s all in how it’s done. There’s normal childish “lack of restraint” that we need to respect, and there’s serious, pathological lack of restraint and this latter is found also among radically nonschooled in our countries. Let us not pretend that we are living in some pre-civilized Amazon River tribe such as that described in The Continuum Concept, where children did what they wanted at any given moment and it was safe and correct because of the nature of their society. We are not them.

It’s like people cavilling about “organized religion”, not noticing that, through organization and infrastructure, religious people are able to do so much good, both for their own members and the society they are part of (at least where Christians are concerned.) 

If I have misunderstood Josh’s ideas, I offer him my sincere apologies.

Josh writes:

I would definitely say Hurricane Betsy perceived an attack on “homeschoolers” that wasn’t there. I refuse to use the label because it smells of defense and not assertion. Educating one’s small child is normal. Sending your child to be taught how to be “free” (nondiscriminatory and tolerant) by teacher experts is the radical concept.

I also think in a way Hurricane Betsy has shown us the ultimate pull in a “homeschooling” collective. Ultimately, if it stays in defensive mode it will be forced to choose between “good” homeschoolers and “radical” homeschoolers. Did she become a “homeschooler” in order to make these judgements? I didn’t.

Needless to say, compulsory schooling for children ages 5-16 is radically overrated. Just think about what you do day to day as an adult and ask yourself whether your teacher expert taught you all that?

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