Memo: Top 10 Reasons to Criminalize Homeschooling
(2002-08-26) — In an effort to increase the public drumbeat for criminalizing homeschooling, California Deputy Superintendent Joanne Mendoza has distributed a memo containing the top 10 reasons why public schooling is better than homeschooling. Here is an excerpt from that memo:
Why Public Schooling Is Better Than Homeschooling
- Most parents were educated in the underfunded public school system, and so are not smart enough to homeschool their own children.
- Children who receive one-on-one homeschooling will learn more than others, giving them an unfair advantage in the marketplace. This is undemocratic.
- How can children learn to defend themselves unless they have to fight off bullies on a daily basis?
- Ridicule from other children is important to the socialization process.
- Children in public schools can get more practice “Just Saying No” to drugs, cigarettes and alcohol.
- Fluorescent lighting may have significant health benefits.
- Publicly asking permission to go to the bathroom teaches young people their place in society.
- The fashion industry depends upon the peer pressure that only public schools can generate.
- Public schools foster cultural literacy, passing on important traditions like the singing of “Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg…”
- Homeschooled children may not learn important office career skills, like how to sit still for six hours straight.
