http://www.teachersunionexposed.com/video_release.cfm Unfortunately the link is no longer working, but since it sparked my writing something that I believe is important, but mostly goes unsaid, I'm leaving the rest of this post intact.
While the information isn't exactly new on this video, it is delivered in a thought-provoking way, by persons who deserve to be listened to - teachers. I love teachers - most of them. They deserve respect (until they don't), and they often work tirelessly in difficult situations. The video was about the abuses within teacher's unions and how teachers and their students ultimately are the ones who suffer the greatest consequences.
Having fielded questions for years about why we would homeschool, I think it is overdue that those of us who are "veteran" homeschoolers turn the question back on those who question this lifestyle.
Perhaps we should just simply muse aloud (what we often muse privately), "I've been wondering the same thing....now that I've learned to enjoy true freedom in education. I wonder how do parents send their children into an institutional setting every day - where they have no say in the day-to-day happenings of their children's lives - where cameras have to survey the campus to created a semblance of security - where teachers who are opposed to different lifestyles and religious beliefs are given the opportunity to shape the thinking of the young ones in their charge - where children are trained at a tender age to respond to the ringing of a bell to stop thinking about one thing and start thinking about another? I could go on, but the point is.... it is all so unnecessary - and in my mind, such an artificial way of living. Why does modern culture (with all its talk of diversity and meeting the needs of children) continue to insist on this one-size-fits-way-too-many-at-one-time mode of education? "
Truthfully, I know some of the answers to the above questions. I wasn't always a home educator, afterall. It was a bit of a process to wrap my mind around this lifestyle. But now that I have, I find I am grieved that public education is at the mercy of politics and unions and no longer operates in the best interest of our children (if it ever did). I am discouraged at what my increasing tax dollars have to fund: extravagant, state-of-the-art school buildings with furnishings that will be outdated in 20 years (and the technology much sooner than that); athletic facilities that only a small fraction of the student body uses; tenured teachers - some of whom should never have been granted a license in the first place.Okay, enough, before I become completely discouraged. I need to go look into the eyes of my children and be encouraged again. I hope that my children always see the value in educational freedom and continue this tradition of independent education. No. We haven't done this perfectly. I definitely have regrets, but I also know I have tried to give my children things that a public education, by it's very nature of containment and control, can not give them.
We have learned that we we are not bound by conventional educational practices. Hopefully, my children will have learned that they are not at the mercy of educrats and politicians in defining what constitutes an education - and, pardon the cliche', but it has never been more true than it is today that the world is our classroom and we need to take as full advantage of that as we can. Perhaps most importantly, I want my children to understand that they have the capacity within themselves to learn whatever interests them. That a textbook is the launchpad for learning, not the rock upon which an education is built. That ultimately they need to take ownership of their education and their futures. That such personal responsibility is what makes knowledge truly theirs.
I hope my sons improve upon this lifestyle and as they take it well into the 21st century that they soar with their children, if they are so blessed. And if they take a different path, I pray it's because they have the freedom to choose from a variety of educational paths and that they will work to maintain that freedom for everyone.Do check out the link. The whole site is very well done and gives an alarming insight into what our educational system has become. And be sure to check out some of the links here (and beyond) to get a taste for educational freedom.
