Regarding Mr. Applegath’s letter about homeschooling.
Mr. Applegath described homeschooling as a nice notion. It most certainly is not a notion, it is a massive movement that is growing and has come out of the closet. There is nothing ‘ notion’ about it.
I and many parents feel the opposite of Mr. Applegath in that I am the ultimate expert and No. 1 advocate when it comes to all matters regarding my child. I do not drop this immense job in anyone else’s lap and assume they are somehow better at it than I will be. Teaching is not about being an expert, it’s about putting in the time, yes, whining and all.
Going to university to become a teacher qualifies you in going to university. Good teachers are born, not made. The passion that Mr. Applegath mentions does not come from pay raises or perks or job action. Passion is a purely internal event and existed in the teachers that we all remember even years after we leave school. Then there are those teachers who, lacking passion, do not retire as Mr. Applegath suggests but remain where they are and make students want to stab themselves in the eye with a pencil. Attending university does not make you qualified, passionate or an expert, it just means that you attended university.
Mr. Applegath said that homeschooling is a very bad social experiment that can have disastrous results. That was a good one! I wonder how many homeschoolers laughed their morning coffee right out their noses when they read that.
We homeschoolers love to poke fun at the crowd of people who think the sky is falling. This same mentality didn’t want explorers to sail into uncharted waters since the world was flat and you’d just sail right off the edge into space. Disastrous results indeed!
But I do have to agree with Mr. Applegath when he says that homeschooling and public schools cannot be compared. He’s got that right!
Ramona Rizzi, Vernon
