Sweden Outlaws Homeschooling

[Crystal Shards]

http://www.onenewsno....aspx?id=648486

http://www.lifesiten...g/09081104.html

What do you think?

Personally, I can see where they're coming from. I have known quite a few homeschooled kids and most if not all of them were at least somewhat socially awkward and some of them held extremely weird/outdated religious beliefs, which further pushed them away from mainstream society. I'm all for religious freedom, but I don't think you should harm your child's chances of having a "normal" life because of your religion, nor should it comprise of their entire education. (I'm obviously not saying all homeschooled children are weird or anything, just that in my experience that's generally the case.)

An alternate solution might be to make parents pass a rigorous competency test for whatever age group the children are in. So, for example, someone with a Kindergartner should pass an elementary school competency test which shows not only that they know the material but are able to teach it, and when that child reaches 6th or 8th grade or whenever middle school starts in that country, they should have to pass a middle school competency test, etc. It'd probably be a good idea to make sure people take it every year or two as well, considering new information pops up and standards change.

But just because you know the information doesn't mean you'll teach your child that information (e.g. I know about alchemy but that doesn't mean I'll teach my child he or she can turn anything into gold), which is what worries me the most... And even if your child does become a genius because you're that awesome of a teacher or whatever, it doesn't ensure the child is going to be socially adept. Sure, parents can try to get their children involved with clubs and stuff, but if your community doesn't offer anything like Boy/Girl Scouts or club sports and the area schools don't work with you, your children are out of luck. And really, at least some of the parents are a bit off their rockers, so chances are the child won't get the chance to be involved. You can't really force people to get their children involved in something, so what do you do? Social interaction is key to being a working force in society, and at some point in your life you're going to run up against someone with differing viewpoints, so there's really no reason to hide that fact from your children.

There are some justified cases of homeschooling. A lot of people aren't impressed with the area schools for whatever reason, be it a poor social environment (e.g. gangs), failing educational standards, or forcing a particular religious viewpoint (I've known of people who homeschool their children because there's no opt-out for Religion class). I'm not sure that most cases fall under any of these kinds of reasons, though.

So is Sweden right or not? They're not just randomly pulling it out of their asses, but that doesn't mean that they're right or wrong.

Edited September 9, 2009 by Crystal Shards

[Fruitloop Multipuck]

Clear-cut tyranny. If you support this, you're a horrible person.

[Superbus]

Anything that curtails the freedom that parents have in educating their children is a bad thing. This is too much government involvement for my liking. Parents should have all the choices they deem necessary to raise their children.

[Aitherion]

I was personally homeschooled because I did really terribly in public school- being both gifted and hyperactive didn't help, but the teachers couldn't deal with me and I ended up getting punished more than taught.

Either way, I'm obviously against them banning it. The government shouldn't give a damn if the parents are teaching the kids or if the schools are doing it as long as the kid's learning somehow.

[Rodykitty]

Personally, I can see where they're coming from. I have known quite a few homeschooled kids and most if not all of them were at least somewhat socially awkward and some of them held extremely weird/outdated religious beliefs, which further pushed them away from mainstream society. I'm all for religious freedom, but I don't think you should harm your child's chances of having a "normal" life because of your religion, nor should it comprise of their entire education.

For one, to serve God means not living the same kind of secular life as anyone else in the first place. These kind of people are likely developing a social life at a Church. The most damage I see being done is not being in the know concerning pop culture or being shy around other people, but that's a silly thing to consider socially inept.

Outside a religious life, I have heard of home schooled kids having friends anyway. It honestly doesn't take an entire public school to make friends, it takes adaptation, something we as humans have on our own.

[Defeatist Elitist]

I don't support banning home schooling, but I also don't support "My child is a special flower who cannot be exposed to anyone elses viewpoint" reasoning. There are a lot of parents who do this, completely ignoring the fact that the majority of the child's life is spent with the parent, being told the parents view, only hearing about what the parent wants them to hear about. To an extent, I think it should be NECESSARY for children to hear things from other people, because I don't think it is a parents right to dictate what their child will know and believe, likely for most of their life (beliefs drilled into you when you are young can be very hard to shake off).

[Hero]

That sucks, especially for people in rural areas (which Sweden has a lot of if I remember correctly.) A parent has a right to control the values their children are being taught, at least before legal adulthood. And if you look at what important people in America at least are saying about public education these days, you'll see that it's more about teaching values than anything else. For example, if you didn't live in the right area you might not be able to have your kid live a religious lifestyle if you wanted.

This isn't even touching on the fact that in many places, such as where I live right now, most public schools are completely inept.

California also effectively made most homeschooling illegal about a year ago by requiring it to be done by a properly credentialed teacher. I remember a lot of people complained about that one, but not enough people really care about homeschooling around here to outweigh the advantages the government see in further standardizing education.