Last week, Thomas Sowell almost wrote quite an interesting column regarding homeschooling over at Townhall.com. Almost. He starts off going one direction, more the tried and true direction of pointing out the failures of public education by pointing out the success of homeschooling. (All block quotes come from the article.)
When amateurs outperform professionals, there is something wrong with that profession.
We have gone over what it means to be an amateur before, but to recap briefly, it is a “lover of”–someone who does something for love rather than money. There are a number of endeavors which may be pursued as successfully by the amateur “lover-of” as well as, if not better than, the professional “paid-to.” Teaching is one important example.
If ordinary people, with no medical training, could perform surgery in their kitchens with steak knives, and get results that were better than those of surgeons in hospital operating rooms, the whole medical profession would be discredited.
At this point, he has not indicted teachers because of whacky people with no training “operating” on their own children’s minds with pencils found in a drawer and outdoing professional educators in the process. But he will in the very next paragragh. The problems teachers face, however, have very little to do with the faulty analogy Sowell sets up.
The success of homeschooling does not indict professional educators because we are comparing apples to oranges. Even if the system were functioning properly, it is still likely that homeschooled children would be doing comparatively well because the key in the system is not the professional but the people supporting the child, particularly the parents. Homeschooling by its nature selects for the most involved parents. The one factor outweighing all others in a child’s academic success is the involvement of parents. There is no mystery behind the success of homeschooling. This is where Sowell’s analogy really falls apart. He writes as if the system should educate a child better than a family, when the family is the most important aspect of a child’s education even when educated within the system.
Sowell probably wouldn’t disagree with any of that, but he doesn’t make his point very clearly. Where he goes from here is much more interesting and much more relevant, however. In fact, if he had begun with his discourse on the problems of a planned economy and then related it to education and homeschooling, leaving out the crazy people with the steak knives, I think he would have had quite a compelling essay. The real problems teachers face, after all, deal more directly with this brief look at the Soviet Union.
One easy to understand reason is that central planners in the days of the Soviet Union had to set over 24 million prices. Nobody is capable of setting and changing 24 million prices in a way that will direct resources and output in an efficient manner.
We have approximately 75 million children in this country. Central planners, being the US Department of Education, cannot possibly make reasonable decisions for each of those children regardless of how many charts, graphs, test results and degrees they have at their disposal. What a teacher needs to be successful in the classroom is the freedom to make these decisions for the children in the classroom as well as the support of the children’s families. In all too many instances, the teacher has neither.
It is hardly fair to compare the results to a homeschooling family which has both.
Hat Tip: The Daily Goose
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Homeschooling by its nature selects for the most involved parents.
I agree- and parents who realize it isn’t their cup o’ tea usually put their kids back into a traditional school. The problem there is when homeschooling overall is measured as a failure because parents who were alert enough to realize that they couldn’t meet those academic needs took steps to get their kids in the right educational situation. How’s that for “you can’t win for losing”?
What a teacher needs to be successful in the classroom is the freedom to make these decisions for the children in the classroom as well as the support of the children’s families. In all too many instances, the teacher has neither.
Ditto that. Accountability all the way around should remain as local as possible. Townsfolk and local officials should be involved in the hiring and firing of teachers, the choice of curriculum, the services the school provides; and parents who use the system should commit to having their kids in school, every day, on time, dressed, after a good night’s sleep, with food in their bellies and adequate supplies.
Federalizing education has been a bomb, and will continue to be a national disaster until control is returned to parents and communities. Shut down the Dept of Education and dismantle the NEA, and we’ll be choppin’ in high cotton.
I read that article by Thomas Sowell a few days ago, and knew it bothered me, because his stuff is usually so well thought out and to the point. I didn’t have time to go back and figure out what about it was nagging at the back of my brain. Thanks for doing my homework for me.
It really seemed to me that he spliced two different articles together. He is obviously arguing for more local control but he is missing a transition and introduces a tangent in a pretty short article without the time to either explain it or to bring the reader back to his point. But then, I don’t like analogies comparing education to medicine, anyway.
I agree… his article seems like it’s missing a bunch of paragraphs somewhere in the middle, which is unfortunate because he starts off so well.
While many teachers truly love teaching and helping children, few have the same desires and goals for our children as we do. Their ultimate goal is not spiritually inclined and does not deal with the child’s “whole being”. In fact, most schools could care less about that.
I believe most people are capable of homeschooling, but it requires a lot of “work”, and, lets face it, we’d rather leave that up to someone else.
Yes, I agree that there seems to be something missing in the middle. And that more people could homeschool if they felt convicted to do so. Leaving it to someone else isn’t so bad if there is someone else trustworthy enough to do the job. Unfortunately, we have this sense that because they are professionals, they know better than we do.
Dana thanks for blogging this because I’d not seen the Sowell piece.
I like his argument about central planning not working.
I am not fired up about anything about the analogy of homeschooling to government schooling. Not sure if it is my mood or what.
It did make me think though that when those in the media say something negative about homeschoolers, some of the homeschool bloggers go crazy. But also when homeschooling is portrayed in a positive light still some homeschooling bloggers find something negative to say about it. Perhaps that is why I won’t be bloggin anything negative about this piece.
The comments in the Sowell piece on Townhall.com are interesting. One spoke to spending more money when it is someone else’s.
Reminds me of something that happened last month with a relative who owns an apartment building. A bat came into an apartment and the tentant took it upon herself to call an exterminator and then deducted the $160 off the rent. When I had a bat in my house, and once at my grandmother’s house, all three times I opened the window and caught the bat and got it out myself. I never thought to call an exterminator when I wanted the thing out of there as soon as possible! And I’d not want to have paid $160 to be relieved of that pretty simple task. And we have three funny stories to tell about those bats and our antics at trying to get them out.
Individuals spending their own money spend less. Individuals doing jobs with their immediate family (i.e. homeschoooling them) are very different than running huge organizations whether it be the public school system or any number of other big organizations.
True, but I think it is only natural. We tend to react more strongly to what we disagree with and let stand that which we do agree with. I know politicians get far more letters and calls when they do something that upsets us than they do when we agree with them.
I really do not like that analogy. It is most often used by those trying to discredit uncertified homeschoolers by comparing us to unlicensed doctors.
And you are quite right that it is much easier to spend other people’s money. That is why I don’t trust politicians with mine.
Interestingly, this entry actually started as a reaction to a letter to the editor of the Courier-Journal.
The intro amused me:
I am truly tired of hearing arrogant know-it-alls sitting in ivory towers telling the world how lousy the teaching profession is (Thomas Sowell’s column, Aug. 21, “Amateurs outdoing pros”).
Who is sitting in ivory towers instructing whom about the best education of children? I don’t know about Sowell, but it seems that it is largely the education establishment sitting in “ivory towers” instructing us on what is best for our own children.
He then goes into the assertion that amateurs are outdoing professionals and accuses Sowell of libel. And his conclusion is rather interesting, as well:
I would dearly love to see how long Sowell would last in an inner-city classroom with 31 kids, out-of-date books, no supplies and no back-up from a weak administration. I dare you, Mr. Sowell. I double-dog dare you.
But as I went through the two and tried to sort out my own thoughts, I realized that Mr. Esarey has a point. I agree with Sowell’s basic premise but he sort of left himself open to this by not tying his introduction to the main thrust of his column and really in almost contradicting himself depending on how you try to work out the seeming disconnect between how he starts his column and how he ends it.
Well, he is an economist after all, so the economic references fit into that context.
As for the expectations toward the school system….I’d agree that the schools *should* be providing the best education available. At 10K per kid of our collective tax dollars, there should be more to show for it. Not that I want the intervention and strings, but if we got 10K per school-aged kid that was homeschooled, imagine what educational resources it would open. Not just places to go and things to learn, but less work hours required to keep the family going–and thus more time.
The medical analogy can work to explain homeschooling. My son fell and scraped up his arm this afternoon. I didn’t take him to the emergency room for care from a medical professional - I put a bandaid on his arm. Similarly, I care for kids with colds, stomach flu and headache by treating the symptoms and maybe checking in a book. I don’t sit for hours, waiting for someone with a medical degree to give my kid Tylenol or prescribe going to bed.
Of course there are reasons to see a doctor. Just as there are things that others can teach my children with more passion or experience than I can. But the basic skills of elementary school are well within my grasp. Even most of middle school is quite achievable. Then I may start to farm some special branches out.
I agree, Sebastian. But people seem to like to reach for major surgery with your kitchen knives for an analogy which just doesn’t work. I seek professional help when I need it…sometimes I even call the nurse to get a second opinion on whether or not I need to have one of my children seen. The same with education. I know the limits of what I can teach them and there are plenty of options available, right up to enrolling them in school.