On Wednesday, just after noon, I typed the term "teacher" into the Google news alert search engine. Here are five of the 10 headlines that came back:
- "Teacher won't be charged with crime," about a teacher accused of attacking a student.
- "Appeals court says Racine district must release teacher's records," about a teacher accused of sexual assault.
- "School board suspends teacher," for unspecified "inappropriate conduct."
- "Child porn teacher is spared jail," self-explanatory.
- "Teacher caught up in prostitution raid in motel," ditto.
Not an edifying result.
Now, would it be appropriate for me to conclude from this survey of an ordinary day's news that half of all teachers are violent and/or sexually twisted? Of course not. Every reasonable person knows that bad news gets play while the boring good news doesn't. Reasonable people further understand that in any large population there are rotten apples who ought not spoil our perception of the whole bushel. Suggesting that all, or most, or even many teachers are abusers because some are would be an injustice.
Unfortunately, that very injustice is frequently perpetrated on home schoolers.
The Akron Beacon-Journal has this week been running a series on home schooling that in years of biased reporting on education may just take the cake. Here's a gem from one story, headlined "Racists can use home schools to train youths":
Home schooling has a strain of racism running through it that may reflect similar ideas held by others in the broader society. There are no studies or numbers to put racism and home schooling in perspective, but home-schooling laws that ensure that parents have the freedom to make socialization choices for their children also allow some families to completely withdraw from society.
Let's unpack the nonsense: Home schooling has a strain of racism running through it that may reflect similar ideas held by others in the broader society. So, is home schooling racist, or is society racist, or both, or none? Is there more racism in home schooling than in the broader society? Who are these "others" - you, me, the local Klan? In sum, what precisely does this sentence mean? There are no studies or numbers to put racism and home schooling in perspective and we are not going to go to the effort of finding any, evidence being unnecessary when vague intimations accomplish the same purpose. But home-schooling laws that ensure that parents have the freedom to make socialization choices for their children also allow some families to completely withdraw from society. Yup, and the freedom to drive means that some people will get into car wrecks and the freedom to watch "Last Comic Standing" means that some people will turn into mush-brained morons and the freedom to. . . . You get the point.
This tedious series goes on, and on some more, in similar vein. With nary a shred of proof, the Beacon-Journal suggests that the ranks of home schoolers are rife with child abusers, white supremacists, and other maladjusted folks; that home schooling often amounts to nothing more than tagging along while Mom shops for groceries; and, in a particularly obnoxious twist (because the Beacon-Journal's own trumped-up data show the exact opposite), that home-schooled children are at greater-than-average risk to their physical safety. Of course, the hoary old charge that home schoolers aren't properly "socialized" is repeated ad nauseam. The writers even trot out a nameless "public educator" to sniff that "those are the ones who fall under the radar," speaking of home schooling parents who "want to control their children's education." The nerve of them!
Forget for a second the Orwellian tint of that charge. (You . . . will . . . be . . . socialized!) Forget the absurdity of this anonymous "public educator," more than likely tenured, who refuses to put his name behind an accusation that would have zero consequences to his career, safety, or reputation. Even forget the cowardice of a reporter who lets said public educator get away it, the heck with journalistic ethics. To get to brass tacks: who the hell's business is it to decide which kids will be socialized, and how? I'd plump for parents, and I bet most Americans would, too.
There are more than 1.1 million home schoolers in this country (a number that may be underreported), more than all charter and voucher students combined. They come to home schooling for a variety of reasons, with close to half of their parents reporting that they are chiefly concerned about school environment or the academic quality of their children's schools (see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=158#1933). This is a diverse, mature community that cannot be reduced to a Bible-thumpin', sister-marryin', gun-totin' cartoon. Are there abusers, racists, and other unsavory persons among the ranks of home schoolers? Sure, just as there are among public school teachers, corporate executives, carpenters, doctors, and any other large group. You can find fools, charlatans, and quacks anywhere. Perhaps even in such rarefied settings as the editorial offices of the Akron Beacon-Journal.
"Tracking home schooling: special report," by Doug Oplinger and Dennis J. Willard, Akron Beacon-Journal, November 15-17, 2004