Is Homeschooling Just a Strategic Retreat?
Don's post about Crunchy Cons directed me to Jonah Goldberg's criticisms of the idea of Crunchy Conservatism. In this article, Jonah says that conservative "...homeschooling, for example, is nothing but a strategic retreat from the battlefield..." I thought about that for a bit, and realized that, initially, that was true for us. We planned to homeschool to protect our children from indoctrination with the modern liberal ideologies so prevalent in public schools. We also had concerns about the poor academic quality of many schools.
Things have changed, While we still retain the "strategic retreat" and "academic quality" portions of our reasons to homeschool, we have also come to see homeschooling as a way of life that we would be loathe to give up. We enjoy being closely involved with our children, in their education and in their lives. We believe that Sarah and Alex are such close friends because Sarah is home during the day rather than heading off to school. And we believe that Alex benefits enormously from listening in while his sister does her work. We enjoy learning things with them.
Homeschooling is a strategic retreat that should allow conservatives to rise stronger in the future, but it is also a way of life.
Comments
While I often get the meaning of strategic and tactical confused, homeschooling seems to me to be more of a tactical retreat. Since parents want their children to get an excellent education that isn't available in public schools today, and since children don't wait to be educated until the public school war has been won, the tactic is to educate them in the home while still stratically fighting the good fight for an excellent education for every child. Plus it can also be an excellent way of life.
Posted by: Gloria Nafziger | February 26, 2006 8:11 AM
Yes, you are right. The proper word in this instance is tactical. I suspect Mr. Goldberg used "strategic" because he feared many readers wouldn't understand why he would use "tactical." But perhaps the use might have motivated readers to go to the dictionary. A teachable moment! Can you tell I'm a homeschooler? :->
Posted by: Lisa | February 26, 2006 8:45 AM