Balancing Perspectives: A Reflection on Public Schooling and Homeschooling

Anyone who has read my second book, A Better Place, might get the impression that, like some homeschool advocates, I am anti-public school. In fact, a former colleague recently expressed polite and well-meaning concern that I had written a book condemning public schools. 

But as is often the case when such an objection (on almost any subject) is raised, my former colleague had not yet read A Better Place, she had just heard that my book was a criticism of public schools.

To be honest, not many people have read A Better Place so far, a sad fact we are working hard to rectify. To her credit, my former colleague has promised to read it.

In A Better Place, the most vocal advocate for the family’s decision to keep their precocious 12-year-old daughter at home is a member of the local school board who recognizes that the child’s extraordinary intellect and her mother’s determined desire to shelter the child from what she sees as the dangers of the world away from their isolated ranch, homeschooling is the best, indeed the only option.

The family’s adversary in all this is an agent of the state’s educational bureaucracy who not only believes that every child must go to school but also that the family’s off-grid lifestyle is a threat to the child’s health and well-being that cannot be allowed to stand. 

Two things that appear at odds can both be true at the same time, and the previous two paragraphs contain the gist of my argument in favor of BOTH public schools and homeschooling: “a member of the local school board” and “an agent of the state’s educational bureaucracy”.  

I have been employed in one capacity or another by public schools for more than 30 years since the early 1990s, and here is what I know about public school teachers: 

• In all that time, I have encountered teachers I would not want my own kids exposed to. Maybe a half dozen. No more than that. My point is that the overwhelming majority of educators in the public schools are dedicated, competent, caring, effective.

• Politically, teachers who are the most liberal or conservative cannot be accurately characterized as activists. 

• Most teachers spend significant unpaid time grading papers and preparing lessons outside the school day. Many spend a significant amount of their own money on classroom materials. I’ve known teachers and coaches to buy food and clothing for kids in need.

• When it comes to what I think is wrong with public schools, teachers are generally not the problem.

Are there exceptions to the above? Yes. Are the exceptions common? No. Not even a little bit. In fact, I think it is teachers (in concert with parents) who are in the best position to make meaningful reforms to the system. The decision-makers are removed from the object of their decisions (in this case, students), and the least likely they are to come up with solutions that work. 

The flip side of all this is that public schools do not work well for some kids. Nor is there any single criteria that makes a particular kid a good candidate for homeschooling. Health is often an issue, as are a kid’s learning style, interests, talents, abilities, and inclinations. Family philosophy, religion or church affiliation, and living situation can all be factors.

In June's case in A Better Place, her extraordinary intellect, coupled with her mother’s determination that she advance faster than the other kids in their small, rural school, sets her apart. That and the fact that her parents have little regard for what might be necessary for June to live in the outside world.

The family has made a decision about June’s education, and the local school board member is determined to help the family live by that decision. The bureaucrat believes the family is incompetent to make such a decision. That conflict drives the story.

My own belief (which certainly diverges from that of many of my friends in the public schools) is that once a family has made that decision, the state has no more role to play, and the conversation is over.

Buy my books at bruceblizard.com or on Amazon.