Let Me Tell You How I Really Feel About Public Schools

The decision to homeschool was one that had been somewhere in the recesses of my mind since the pregnancy test came back positive. In fact, it was something I'd thought about even before that, due to my own experiences with the public education system. I had always considered it a 13-year prison sentence, personally. However, due to sufficient brainwashing, from which I have since deprogrammed myself, I also believed that school could actually be a good thing with the right support and conditions.

Undoubtedly, there will be no shortage of people who can attest to the truth of either side of this argument. After all, I was quite bipolar about it depending on the day. But I have learned a few things, through observation, experience, and real world education. I have come to the decision, which you can applaud or vilify me for, that I was correct in my assessment of public education as a prison sentence. I will share with you why.

In recent years, there seems to have been a precipitous drop in the use of common sense in dealing with problems which plague public schools. Most of the problems don't actually need to be problems in the first place. Take, for example, the news reports of elementary-age children being suspended or even expelled for such innocent behaviors as giving a classmate a kiss on the cheek or drawing a self-portrait including a friend and a water gun. I cannot begin to imagine the confusion and fear these children must have felt over being so severely punished for such innocuous behaviors.

I suppose it's a good thing, considering the fallout of children having time to actually interact with their peers, that schools are slowly but surely phasing out recess. This is apparently so they have more time to fill the kids' little brain containers with the rote memory tasks that will ensure the best scores on state testing - never mind that this isn't real learning and they'll forget most of it by the following school year. Hey! They scored in a range of excellence, so the schools must be doing something right! Wrong. Children need free time. They need to play. Children are built to play, and it is how they learn. Inadequate play time goes against every natural instinct a child has.

Ah, but then you can just medicate those unruly children, hyped up from a miserable combination of their nutritionally-deficient cafeteria carbohydrate slop load and lack of adequate down time between cram sessions. It's easier to pathologize behavior that can't be easily controlled, rather than admitting it is a natural consequence of essentially messing with nature by forcing children to be the opposite of what they are. Currently, more than 25% of U.S. children are on prescription medication. Ironically, we're drowning publicly-schooled children with war-on-drugs propaganda while simultaneously pumping them full of Ritalin and other psychiatric medications. When I was a kid, parents and teachers were concerned about us being hyped up on too much sugar. Kids today are snorting and selling their Ritalin. All of these unnecessary drugs are turning young children into drug dealers.

And, oh yes, this brings more consequences. Drug sniffing dogs and SWAT teams, metal detectors and random searches. My, what little criminals they must be! Or...not. The FDA acknowledges that some antidepressant medications can cause suicidal behaviors and other brain dysfunction. Could it be that the disastrous things happening to our children and in our schools is being perpetuated by these drugs and not prevented by them? I'm firmly believe it.

Of course, there is also the bullying, the verbally abusive teachers, the school administrators on power trips, the mental programming delivered via advertising piped into the schools, the severe disconnect between children and their families and the lack of opportunities for most parents to be involved, the financially-driven attendance policies that have parents with the constant threat of criminal liability over their heads if Timmy happens to miss more school days than the district thinks he should, and let's not forget the all-important dress code! Wait, you didn't know there was a dress code? Oh yes. It's unwritten, but your kid is expected to know it and comply, and it involves copious amounts of money so he or she can fit in and (hopefully) avoid some of the peer-perpetrated abuse that would result from committing the sin of not wearing whichever brand is deemed "cool" at any particular moment for whatever arbitrary reason.

And finally, the public school system violates my beliefs and principles as an attachment parent. Homeschooling is a natural continuation of what we have been doing as parents from the moment our children entered this world; we guide them, encourage their interests, foster a love of experiential learning (zoo or museum, anyone?) and reading for enjoyment as well as information, share in the experience of learning, provide opportunities for them to interact with children of all ages - not just their identically age-matched peers, and provide them with as much time as they need to play.

Yes, public brick and mortar schools suck. If children come out without psychological damage and with an education that genuinely reflects their actual potential, I call that a miracle. And I know there are teachers who take offense to this, but this is not about you. I'm sure there are also parents who don't care for my assessment and will adamantly protest and say that public education was the best thing that ever happened to their child(ren). You're not the ones I'm talking about. This is about all the other schools and teachers.

Recommended: The War on Kids documentary, available on Netflix