I am a lifelong proponent of public education. I believe
that school is a much a social institution as an academic one. For much of my
academic career I have frowned upon the home schooling of school age children.
I have championed of the value of groupthink, of developing peer relationships
and of working together. I had felt that home schooling was isolationist and
that children were missing out on an important part of the education
process. Back in the colonial era, Dr. Benjamin
Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, wrote a treatise stating
that he believed that in order for the fledgling United States of America to
survive, it needed a strong public education program. Back in my days as a
middle school guidance counselor, I remember a parent coming to me to request
home schooling for her daughter. She petitioned the board of education, requested
a copy of the curriculum as well as copies of then textbooks used. The board
approved her request. A few weeks later, the same parent approached the school board
requesting that her daughter be allowed to play on the middle school girl’s
basketball team. Again the board granted approval. I was annoyed. I felt that
you had to be either all in or all out and should not be able to pick and
choose what you liked and disliked about public education.
That all changed on Valentine’s Day, 2018 with the carnage
that occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. If
everything about the need for home schooling centered on the safety and
security of children, I get it now. It’s more than academic. There is a place
for home schooling on education continuum. Home schooling students have gained admission
to some of America’s top universities. Others have won national spelling and geography
competitions.
Still other home-schooled children have made it to Broadway
or Hollywood.
So where does that leave the rest of us? The gun debate will
go on and on. The mental heath debate will go on and on. What will happen to the
future of “ a place called school?”
C.2018 J Margolis
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