I’ll respond in more detail tonight when I have time, but Stephen Downes responds to the criticism of his stance equating homeschooling with child abuse. Response is made difficult since his presentation is in video format, but since he presents all of the main public criticisms of homeschooling in one session, I’ll try to condense his video into some basic notes and take a closer look at them.
Unfortunately, he begins with fears of what might happen in a homeschool and uses that as the basis for why it is an inadequate system. While certainly better than claiming it is, by its nature, abusive, I think he fails to realize that homeschooling of itself is not a system, but a part of a diversified system. It also is not an attempt to mimic the public school in our garage, but an attempt to make learning more natural, more contextualized, and more community-based.
And while children certainly are not the property of their parents, they are also not the property of the state (nor the community if we want to put it in less inflammatory terms.) Until they are old enough, someone will be making decisions for them and, by the nature of their relationship, the parent is the best qualified to do so until proven otherwise.
Anyway, enjoy the video, discuss freely and I’ll offer my thoughts after I finish outlining his.
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The Carnival of Homeschooling is up over at Janice Campbell’s blog with a delightfully Seussian theme.
Also, I have a new feature in my sidebar where I’ll share a post or two from my surfing. Not necessarily daily, but whenever I find something that I just have to share. Which is almost daily…Anyway, that can be found in the gray box under “Notable.”
Ooh…and a new homeschooling carnival! For cool homeschoolers like me, er I mean you.
Principled Discovery is a place to stop and discuss news and information related to faith, family and particularly education. Pour yourself a cup of tea and join the conversation! 
I am not going to watch the video only because I can’t watch videos at this time and place but may I say one thing–the idea that Homeschooling is a system that opens children up to abuse is equivalent to saying that parenting is a system that opens children up to abuse. In our house they are one and the same as, I would say, in many homeschooling households. Just because some parents will abuse their children does not mean all parents should be regulated and checked on by the state. We live in a country where we are innocent until proven guilty–this should apply to homeschoolers as much as to anything else.
Imagine my surprise to glance over at “Notable” and see my post! Thank you very much.
Also, does anyone know whether Mr. Downes has any children? I remember thinking that parents were terribly unhealthy for growing children before I had any of my own!
Dana, I watched the video this morning ~ as soon as I saw the comment. Mr. Downes has a far too narrow of a view of what homeschooling is. He has keyed into the word “schooling” and thinks we are all reproducing a system that is identical to the public school at home. I don’t suspect he has met many homeschool families. Most homeschoolers do what he puts forth as the ideal.
But, I have stumbled upon the word homeschool too. Oh, I use it because then everyone knows what I am talking about and it is the agreed upon word to describe Marissa’s school experience, but it is far too narrow to describe what I see as my role.I know it is silly, but I would even prefer that we all wrote it as two words. You know home school, with “home” an adjective modifying the noun school (like public school instead of publicschool, private school instead of privateschool). How legalistic is that? Frankly, if all I planned to do was to teach reasoning, communication and math in my home, it wouldn’t be worth staying home to do.
Frankly, having worked with and parented abused children, I think that using the word abuse to describe the experience of children being homeschooled diminishes the horrors of true abuse. It attempts to create agreement with an argument based upon an emotional response rather than facts, statistic and true knowledge and it is tiresome. And sadly, in our media saturated society seems to be an acceptable and successful method of “teaching.”
Very true. : ) At least in this video, he didn’t pull out abuse, so it was much more rational and easier to watch without wanting to throw things at him. He has his ideal for education which he doesn’t think can be carried out through homeschooling. But I think we need to always be mindful of the rights and interests of others while pontificating on our own ideals.
Very true, Julie. Abuse is horrific and we want to make the term meaningless by attaching it to anyone doing anything we disagree with.
And I agree about the term “homeschooling.” I’ve sort of given up and use it as well, but we really are not “homeschoolers.” Nor do we “homeschool.” School is by its nature institutional and “homeschooling” is not an institution, nor should it be, even where some do mimic the system.
We are home educators, educating our children rather than schooling them. : )
You’re welcome…it made me laugh!
Okay, I searched the history of my blog. I have used the word ‘frankly’ a total of 10 times in 408 entries over the past 2+ years as a person who blogs. (I am in denial; I know. But, I haven’t taken on the role “blogger.”)
So, why is it that I used it twice in this comment?
It is taking me forever to type responses, as I broke my right middle finger yesterday in a garage door. Hairline fracture, no big deal, but typing my long-winded response took me an hour! ARGH!
Anyway, excuse my intolerance for folks who perceive themselves as educated experts, and so can discuss any topic intelligently, whether they actually know what they are talking about or not. I get flat-out cranky when folks jump on the word ‘homeschool’ and blather on and on about who home educators are and what home educators do, but their research includes a brief glossing over of a website or two, and maybe an online catalog. Or ‘they met this one weird family’… Mr. Downes certainly did not read any of the published studies done in recent years, and offered no support for his opinions, other than it was his opinion.
And what is up with that “Don’t be psychotic?” line. That is the most bizarre term I have ever heard used in relation to discussing home education.
Eee…sorry to hear about your finger. And now I’m even more appreciative of your comments! And I agree. The whole monologue is a diatribe against his own stereotype.
I may well agree that what he has defined as homeschooling is “bad.” But since his understanding of homeschooling is superficial at best, his reasons against it fall flat.
Well, since it is about 32F in my garage, his definition of homeschooling as abuse is accurate. IMO most of his ‘arguments’ against HSing were petty jabs and not substantial criticisms, hence the constant references to the possible psychosis caused by home education and the idea that only the ‘wealthy elite’ can take advantage of such an option.
I kept picturing Pee Wee Herman saying “I know you are but what am I?” It’s as good an argument as any Mr. Downes has put forth so far. As much as he seems to care about education, you’d think he’d've done more research into who and what home education is about.
My finger really is fine- the needle they put into my fingernail to let out the blood hurt more than breaking it did. And now I have to take an antibiotic that makes me woozy. So here I am, blogging under the influence of Keflex.
I think his approach meets the definition of a “straw man.” Define a topic and attack what you have defined without ever establishing whether your definition has any basis in reality.
That said, here is a great video. I couldn’t help but think of Mr. Downes as I watched it.
http://www.shawnanigans.net/?p=806
You just needed extra frankness for the comment.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever used that particular word in a post…
Well, just checked and I’ve used it twice. But once was in a quote so it wasn’t my word. So really just here, talking about aging and the culture of youth. : )
Children will continue to be abused at home whether or not they are homeschooled. Many non-homeschooled kids are abused. My homeschooled son wanted to point out that many, many children are abused BY THEIR TEACHERS IN SCHOOL. Should we close public schools?
I refuse to debate homeschooling with someone who has no clue what they are talking about. It keeps my blood pressure low. Though, he does give a perfect strawman argument example. It should be preserved to help educate others on how not to attempt to argue their point.
I believe I used the word frankly, just today.
I frankly find it to be a very useful word.