http://www.slate.com/articles/doubl..._among_liberals_and_progressives_.single.html The article's interesting to me mainly because it explores the conflict a liberal might feel at homeschooling their child. As a conservative, it was an interesting insight.
Oh wow. That article raised my blood pressure a few ticks! It's so frustrating to see things like that being published for masses to read without providing a counter argument. Some of the replies to it are frightful as well. Think I'll keep my babes "sheltered" for a bit longer
I personally was fascinated at how a liberal would approach homeschooling - no offense intended at all to those of a liberal mindbent. For the most part, liberalism embraces compulsory public schooling [as the author of the piece clearly does]. Unfortunately, the author spends most of his op-ed groaning about how wrong the liberals who are doing this are instead of giving deeper reasons as to why they've chosen that route. Still, the little insight into that thinking was interesting to me, if not, as you put it, a bit 'frightful.'
The article was so biased it almost seems to border on sensationalism and, for me, began to lack credibility. I live in a liberal city within a conservative state and I know plenty of liberal homeschoolers. Some are radical unschoolers, while others are very regimented school-at-home homeschoolers. I have yet to meet any whose children watch television all day and don't know what day of the week it is! In fact, my daughter's best friend is an unschooler. There is not a textbook in sight in their home. However, the house is filled with living books, classics, great literature and poetry; they use Life of Fred for math; and they make great use of all the resources our city has to offer--art history classes at the museum, science workshops at an arboretum, Spanish lessons from a local Latina woman, etc... But at first glance they would appear to be the stereotypical "hippy" unschoolers--attachment parented vegan/vegetarians who sit around in their mismatched clothing knitting hats and sewing quilts! But they are so much more than that. The author of the article obviously did not take the time to dig a little deeper into the real lives of unschoolers. Instead, he chose only to look at the surface, which is a shame.
Interesting. So, according to this article, the liberal position is "society over individuals". I read the article to say, "Liberals should consider what is best for society over what is best for their own children." Of course, if everyone just did what was best for their own children, the benefits to society would be enormous. However, since everyone will not put their children first, it is up to us to sacrifice our own children in order to compensate for irresponsible parents. It's educational socialism. Not everyone can give their children the benefits of a homeschool education, so in the name of equality, all children need to receive the same inferior education. Scarey!
It's the whole societal thinking thing that has our country in the shape it's in right now. Nowhere does it say that everyone is guaranteed complete equality across the board. Equal access to the things that help you achieve, yes, but not identical wages, housing, etc. I get so frustrated by the entitlement thinking that's running rampant right now. We work really hard for what we have and we sacrifice things to be able to home educate our children. We certainly aren't top tier in society, but we have shelter, transportation, food, etc. that DH works for everyday. I don't think we should have to also support those who have no interest in applying themselves for those things. Education isn't supposed to be the same across the board either. That is just another dis-service to the kids in the long run! Society's needs should NEVER come before individual needs as far as I'm concerned. When the individuals can take care of thier own, everyone wins in the long run.
How would you define 'liberal'? There are plenty of big-government right-wingers and individual-rights left-wingers around, for example.