Aside from the issue of legitimacy, there is the issue of choice. Why are parents forced to pay taxes to support the public education system, even when their displeasure with that system causes them to place their children in a private or home school? Mr. Evans claims to be a proponent of choice, but all I hear him clamoring for is a more bloated public education system that takes more and more of our tax dollars and is less and less accountable to parents for what is being taught.
You state that teacher competency is “the most important factor affecting student learning.” I strongly disagree. Would not the student’s dedication to learning be the most important factor? If the student doesn’t have a vested interest in educating himself, no amount of teacher competency is going to make him a better student!
It was surprising to me that, throughout Mr. Evans’ article, no statistics were given. No research was quoted or referenced. There were absolutely no facts to support Mr. Evans’ radical stance against home education, except for one small quote from Quintilian, a Roman. Interesting how the author had to go back nearly 2000 years to find something to support his argument, and that from a citizen of an empire renowned for its debauchery, cruelty and moral perversion.
The point of this article is not to convince Mr. Evans personally of his fallacy (an all but impossible task), but to convince his readers of the lack of research and thought that went into his article. My suggestion to Mr. Evans would be that, in the future, he actually “home educate” himself on the subject he is writing about prior to beginning his article… unless he thinks the state can do a better job of it than he can.
Guest article by Matthew Bass. Matthew Bass was homeschooled from K-12 and is currently working on his Computer Science degree through distance learning at Thomas Edison State College. The article by Matthew Bass is republished here with his permission.
