Re: Homeschooling
It seems that homeschool is often the last resort of the deeply religious to keep their children from learning anything about the world around them, either in terms of science, politics, economics, sexuality, medicine, or human behavior, so that they can never make an informed decision as to whether to adhere to the religious precepts of their parents or not.
Or, you know, "avoid Liberal/socialist brainwashing of the public schools". Basically the same thing.
We have one home-schooled member on this forum that's (mostly) the exception to everything I'm about to say.
Homeschooling is mostly for the benefit of preventing children from learning things like evolution or any associated "liberal" ideas. The only way to achieve this is, sadly, to permanently dismantle any ability to demonstrate critical thinking, one of the results of which is that logical fallacies are not only to be expected but celebrated. While such home schooled kids tend to be superior in reading, writing and arithmetic, their lack of critical thinking and hostility to science (particularly, scientific concepts deemed to be threatening to their faith) results in something that is a heartbeat away from child abuse, in my opinion. Their permanently misshapen brains make them unsuited to interacting with the world outside of their tiny, religious communities.
Oh, ask a home schooled person their thoughts on history, and you'll get all sorts of crap like, "Christians invented law" or "The gays brought down the Roman Empire." It's a hoot.
I'm both worried and in agreement with this seeming idea/trend.
On the one hand, i agree that some people use homeschooling to avoid the "brainwashing".
But on the other hand, as someone who was homeschooled through high school (and the negatives and positives therein) I worry that people consider ALL homeschooled persons to be...also brainwashed...except into religion.
And I know for damn sure that, even though my parents ARE very religious, they DIDN'T indoctrinate me into a religion.
But I fear that they were either a good or at least acceptable example of homeschooling gone right.
They encouraged me to think for myself.
That was probably the key.
Their worry (and reason for homeschooling) was based in concern about the culture and dangers of public school (mainly drugs, several of my mother's siblings have/had issues in that department).
Despite avoiding indoctrination into religion, they DID provide unwitting (I think) indoctrination into conservatism. I have slowly been realizing that some of my "known" positions were not based in reality. Or only partially so. I can recall traveling to a music class or some even while listening to the local talk radio station. Specifically Rush Limbaugh.
But they still taught me to think for myself. And after realizing lack of supporting evidence for some of my positions, that has helped me form new positions.
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But
I don't think it's really homeschooling or public schooling (barring extremes) that determines the result.
Rather, it is parental involvement. Even if a child is sent to public school, an involved parent could easily indoctrinate their child if they so desired.
Conversely, a non-involved parent could easily allow their child to be indoctrinated by whatever educational method they are working in, whether they agree with it or not.
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I should note that I do consider public schools to have a vague liberal/left lean. And I would bet that there ARE some individual examples of actual attempts to indoctrinate a class, by teachers. Perhaps even entire schools.
Those are, however, the exceptions that prove the rule (that doesn't really make sense, though, stupid statement...meh)
I stop now.