Probably you either have read an article written by someone intolerant of the home school movement, or you have had a personal encounter with one of those opinionated people. You are certainly aware that there are those who don’t support home schooling. You would think that home schoolers, facing intolerance from others, would develop at the least a tolerance for choices made by other home schoolers. If you think that, you are wrong. There are home schoolers who are just as opinionated as anti-home schoolers!
In home schooling circles, it’s common to find personal opinion heralded as absolute truth. Certain people declare that their choices are the right choices not only for themselves, but for the rest of us! They may even take action to exclude families who don’t listen and follow their example!
Nowhere is this intolerance more evident than in the arena of curriculum choice. We have a myriad of options to choose from! Isn’t it glorious? We can choose textbooks, computer programs, satellite programs, video programs, or any combination of those things that are geared to home schooling! We can purchase professionally-designed materials or piece together our own! We can opt for relaxed homeschooling or even unschooling in some states. This flexibility to choose is one of the great attractions of home schooling. Yet, there are those who have formed strong opinions about the "right" and "wrong" curriculum.
To such people, it’s a crime to choose an online public school to meet one’s children’s educational needs. Families making that choice are targeted for exclusion in some home school support groups. Why? Students enrolled in an online school are still learning at home. They are still working at their own pace and still have flexibility regarding study time and extracurricular activities. Detractors claim that it is NOT home schooling because "choice" has been turned over to the government. The parent no longer chooses what the student learns.
Isn’t it strange that this same argument isn’t used against enrollment in private online schools? A parent can enroll a child in a private online school – or any program that involves completing assignments and sending in paperwork and tests for grading – and leave the curriculum up to the school. It’s a choice – a choice to give responsibility for assignments and testing to another entity! There are just two differences that I can see between online public schools and online private schools: 1) one is free and the other requires tuition payments, and 2) one features non-religious training while the other often offers a Christian worldview.
Why is it that certain choices are acceptable, but not others? Isn’t enrolling in an online public school a CHOICE? Shouldn’t the decision be left to the parents as to what is best for the family and the student? Shouldn’t other home schoolers support such decisions as being carefully thought out?
I’ve been teaching my daughter for 11 years. This fall, she will try out our state’s new online charter public high school as a sophomore. Gasp if you must, but please give me the benefit of a doubt in my choice. I’m a single parent of limited time and income. My daughter has special needs that I haven’t been able to meet to my satisfaction at the high school level. I’m happy that she will now have a professional IEP and testing and guidance toward a valid diploma. I’m tickled that she will have her own school-issued laptop and printer and still be able to work on her assignments by my side. I’m excited at the thought of being able to lead a 4-H club for her and other students of the school who live in our area.
Enrollment was limited to 500 students statewide this year. More students are on the waiting list than were accepted. When I applied, I prayed and asked that the Lord’s will be done. If this school was right for my daughter, she would be accepted. If I needed to continue my own attempts to home school, then she would be turned down. I would have been at peace with either result. In fact, I had already purchased a few materials for the coming year! It’s clear to me that my daughter is right where God wants her to be. That she might be taught things contrary to our Christian worldview is not an issue. I’ll be right here if a question comes up. Besides, if after 11 years of home schooling, she could be swayed to believe something that goes against our beliefs, then I didn’t do my job very well.
I’ll say it again: my daughter is right where God wants her to be. If you have a problem with that, then the problem is yours; it’s certainly not mine. How about developing a little tolerance?
