Children are being given RIGHTS all of the sudden? AAAAHHHHHHHHHH!

Holy shit. I tried watching some more... only got to 17:30 or so. These fucking people. YES! Your children have a right to look for views beyond yours and form their own opinions. YES! Children have a right to have a say in an argument! NO! This doesn't mean that predators automatically have unlimited access to the minds.

My god, where does this stupidity end?!

Treat your child like a person. Offer to help them grow and learn and form their own ideas about their own existence. The more of this shit I watch, the more thankful I am to my parents letting me go to a public school, choosing not to attend church, and fostering my curiosity to learn how the world works. It's extremely sad seeing these people thinking that they have every right to do what they want with their offspring. They gave life to the child, protect it, nurture it, but don't hold it back!

Heh, you thought I was just going for laughs with the description. But here it is, 16 minutes into the video: The horrible treaty that is the "United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child".

The lady who talks there about how giving kids access to information is equivalent to allowing predators to abuse them is no newcomer to these sorts of statements. For example a few years ago she said that the people pushing for comprehensive sex education are doing it because they make money off of STD treatments and abortions.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2008/01/02/18576/fox-news-gu est-sex-ed-boosters-want-kids-to-get-stds/

NEDM?

So homeschooling worked for you and your brother, it's worked for millions of kids and is working for millions presently, but because some homeschooling parents indoctrinate their kids, it should be banned? I'm confused.

Ah. You're probably confused because of your misapplication of the quantities involved. You said that it works for "millions", but it doesn't work because of "some homeschooling parents". It would be more correct to say "it works for millions but it doesn't work for other millions". Or, it would be even better to not mention quantities (such as "millions") at all unless you have a citation to prove that that quantity is accurate.

I hope that clears it up for you a bit.

I agree that I shouldn't have used any numbers as it does muddle the point up. But, since I did, I should clarify that there are between 1.5 and 2 million kids homeschooling in the U.S. alone. But that doesn't really matter. Needless to say, lots and lots of kids have been and are being successfully homeschooled all over the world.

If someone uses an example (or even multiple examples) of public schools treating kids badly and failing to educate them as evidence that public schools should be banned, it's reasonable to point out the fact that public schools work great for millions of kids, and that bad behavior by a minority of schools is no reason to deny those kids the kind of education that works best for them.

In the case of public schools, a large impetus behind them is the very idea that we're all in it together; they create as level a playing field as possible so that our society can come as close to being a meritocracy as possible. Evidence that they're failing for some students should be taken as evidence that they should be improved rather than abolished.

But I think your larger point is valid. A system failing some of its members doesn't necessarily mean the system as a whole should be scrapped. But the argument against homeschooling isn't just that it fails some people. Rather, the argument is that it exposes children to unacceptable indoctrination & abuse. My wife was homeschooled, and her parents had no right to do that to her. She was taught that the Earth was created 6,000 years ago, and she didn't even know what the solar system was when she arrived at college. Also, car malfunctions were caused by demons, and cancer was caused by lack of faith. It was only by the grace of the SAT scholarship and her high natural intellect that she was able to integrate back into modern society.

Granted, the previous paragraph is not an airtight case against homeschooling at all; I've met people whose parents were actually *good* at homeschooling, and have done a great job. At the end of the day, I don't know where I stand on the issue, but just looking at the raw numbers of successes vs. failures doesn't really say very much about whether the practice should be allowed.

I think what says nearly everything about whether or not the practice of homeschooling should be allowed is the profoundly personal nature of how we choose to educate our kids. It's every bit as personal as the religion (or lack thereof) we choose for them or the food we give them. I think it's wrong to raise a child to believe they'll go to hell for defying the god of their parents' choosing. But I believe just as strongly that this terrible practice shouldn't be prohibited by the state, mostly because any attempt to do so can only devolve into totalitarianism.

I do think that if a parent wants to homeschool their child, but the child prefers public school, as long as there are no safety issues, the child's choice should win out.

Any time a kid is having negative experiences in their education, whether that happens at home or at school, something is wrong and needs to be addressed, but that rarely happens. Even if your wife was forced by the state to go to school, she would still have been inundated with the nonsense her parents were forcing on her. I went to public school, but because of my religious upbringing, I didn't believe that evolution was a fact until the year after I'd graduated.

Another thing which says a lot about whether or not homeschooling should be allowed is the objective fact that there are many, many kids who learn more and are much happier than they were at public school. I've argued with homeschooling advocates who make the claim that public school is a bad choice for all kids, which is as demonstrably untrue as the claim that it's good for all kids. Kids learn in different ways. Finding the way that works best for each kid and going with that is the only way to guarantee that real learning is going to occur.

Thank you for your patience.

I'm personally very convinced that the rise of Asperger's is due to homeschooling. The lack of socialization leads to this "disease".

I have a newsletter I'd like you to purchase.

Well thank God their parents noticed their psychopathic tendencies and decided to keep them out of our schools, then.