If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It

or

Home Education Works

By JOSEPH HARRIS

I never cease to be amazed at the logic displayed by people in power.  Bureaucrats design car seat laws to protect the lives of children outside the womb, but fight tooth and nail for laws to kill them while still in the womb.

"Just say No" was an anti drug campaign supported even by liberals, but these same geniuses kick and scream when you call for sexual abstinence among teens. And then there's the insane logic of insisting on fixing what is notbroken  by creating regulations, re- quirements and guidelines for those who home educate, even though home educated children leave "Every Child Behind" in government schools,  when it comes to performance.

"More money and more rules" seems to always be the government's philosophy, though more regulations and more money has never guaranteed success.

Though they are not offering money to home educators, they are always offering to implement more rules and regulations.  The bottom line should be, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

But what if it is broken?  Or what if it is smashed beyond repair?  Broken appliances can be repaired, but anything broken beyond repair has to be replaced.  Replacement is exactly  what home educators are doing.

They are replacing the government education system with a program that educates efficiently and costs far less per student.  Increasingly, state and national politicians and educators are calling for more regulations for home educators.  They need to spend time cleaning up their own backyard and focus on trying to effectively educate the millions of children entrusted to their care, instead of diverting attention from their own failing system by focusing on the miniscule number of home educated children who are not being "properly taught" and might not receive the "quality" education their system offers. 

The state superintendent of education of Mississippi recently stated that he was concerned about the students not attending Mississippi schools who are either being taught by unqualified parents or are being neglected in their education at home, even though there is no evidence that neglect is a widespread problem.

Does he really believe that if he can just get them inside a building that has a school sign out front, it will automatically increase their chance of education?  Maybe if schools focused more on an academic education, rather than social engineering, more learning would take place, and the powers that be would not have to take time to attack and hinder home educators from their serious business of education. 

Here is the hard and unpleasant truth that is ignored, but cannot be denied: HOME EDUCATED CHILDREN AS A WHOLE, OUT PERFORM CHILDREN FROM GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS.  PERIOD.  No amount of kicking, crying, screaming, and diverting attention can change this fact.

And what about socialization?  I've yet to hear an opponent who does not proudly pull this "unanswerable" argument from their arsenal.  It certainly does not deserve the attention it receives as the "felling blow" to home education.

Well rounded home educated children experience socialization with all age groups during their education, not just with their same age peers.  Studies of adults who were home educated have shown this is hardly the major issue it is touted to be.  As adults, they perform average and above in social skills.

So leave us alone.  We, as home educators are not trying to change or even repair the current government school system.  We have chosen to replace it with what we believe to be a more effective, efficient, and in most instances, Biblical world view education, that produces good, productive, moral citizens.

If this end does not fit the mold of those in power who think they know best, they need to rethink their goal.  I also realize that the 11,000 plus children in Mississippi who are home educated, can affect the flow of money into the system to the tune of millions of dollars a year, but whose money is it anyway?  Where does the state get it?

We all know the answer.  The money comes from the people who earn it and the children belong to their parents, not the state.  Leave us alone and we will get on with the job of educating and the state can continue with it's business of socializing.      

Joseph Harris is the Vice President of Southeastern Baptist College in Laurel, MS. (This article may be reprinted in whole, as long as the name Joseph Harris and

www.miniedition.net also appear)