Young Turks vs. school

While the same, old, tired controversy about public education here–or the egregious lack of it– continues to swirl in the same, old, tired circles, this statistical tidbit crossed my path: In the United States, about 1.5 million children are being home schooled.

In a lot of ways, I consider myself home and church schooled. Although I went to public schools (when I didn’t ditch) anything worthwhile was taught to me by either my family, my church, or even my friends.
Reading, writing, and math–these came from Mom and Dad. Science–from Grandpa.

Some literature and music–church. More math–ad hoc lessons from my best friend Karahan the Turk, who was a numbers whiz. In return, I’d help Karahan polish his English prose. Maybe Karahan the Turk and I didn’t have a Harvard level of academics going with our home-grown version of amateur tutelage, but it was far more productive than the fare the half- wits at our public school were offering.

What Karahan the Turk and I learned in public school was to have utter contempt for institutional bureaucracy; a factor that probably accounts for the fact that we were both devoted truants. The cops couldn’t catch us, though, since we’d hide out at the Northwestern University campus– nobody would expect to find truants on a campus, right?

We’d spend half of our time lost in some library or another, half skateboarding on the lush campus. Both endeavors were better than allowing the energy of youth to get smothered out of us by the brute force of institutional routine that passed for “public education.”

More places to learn: The Boy Scouts–Troop 26, as I recall. The scoutmaster was an insurance salesman who also lectured us on sales techniques and business. The Civil Air Patrol–sort of a flying Boy Scouts, where you learned about airplanes, the Air Force, close order drill, and related stuff. My bosses–who, at my various part time jobs, taught me how to work and keep customers happy. When it came down to it, school was a big, fat waste of time standing between me and all the great opportunities out there.

Which brings me to this point: For some, or most, perhaps public school is the only way they can get a so-called education. I guess, like potted plants, some people are inert, need to be tended regularly lest the weeds grow over them, and can most readily assimilate fertilizer (and you know what fertilizer’s made of). So be it–our economy needs these folks, the dully and duly obedient, the ones who are the hidden human gears inside the great machines of commerce and administration.

The others, though, the more inspired, capable, energetic, or just plain cantankerous, will want to remain untethered from the “See Spot Run” bunch. Looking at cattle is one thing, but having to be amongst them is quite another.

Big government, of course, loathes the idea of children remaining outside of its clutches. The few that escape the education camps might turn out to have ideas that are not healthy. If we breed an element that can really, truly read, write, learn, and reason for itself, where will that leave the propaganda of pedagogy?

I’m not surprised that home schooling is a growing trend. A small element in America has finally figured that it doesn’t take a village to raise a child, or a government bureaucracy to germinate a legitimate thought. If Karahan the Turk and I knew that before the disco era ever hit the scene, it’s about time that the rest of the country has caught the beat.