How A Home Education Differs from A Standard Education

Categories: Léo’s Insights 2019-2020, Miscellaneous

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We are all thankful for having choice in education. After all, if everyone was subject to being educated in the exact same way, we would be correct in renaming schools, factories.

In a factory, the goal is to consistently produce the same product without issue, as anything differing from the expected standard is usually a source of trouble. Fortunately, we do not have factory schools, or do we?

Since standards are often mentioned in education, one can be forgiven for thinking that schools are perhaps factories. One’s suspicions are elevated when it is discovered that there is no real definition for standards in schools. There may be vague references to Student Learning Outcomes, but if every student is expected to achieve the same things, how is that different from the standard expectation of a factory?

Now to be fair, schools have an enormous disadvantage compared to a home-based education. The number of students alone should be cause for concern. At home a large family of say eight children would have no more than eight students, (usually less) to educate.

Simple classroom management of two dozen children requires a certain level of expected or “standard” behaviour to avoid problems. Sounding like a factory again!

Now to be fair, again, schools have professional educators who have been specifically trained to meet “standards” in schools, which is obviously much different from teaching at home. Not only is there need for standardizing behaviours, but also for standardizing programs. Few teachers can handle a dozen things at once, like a mom can, so everybody needs to act the same and learn the same thing within a standardized schedule.

Continuing in our desire to be fair, schools are often seen as day care systems. When most view adulthood as beginning at age eighteen, schools are obligated to standardize the length of time it takes to complete a standard education.

In fairness, there has to be a standard expectation of required standards for a standard education to be competed. Otherwise, there is no measure for when the standard line of completion is crossed.

Another consideration, given in fairness, is that it is impossible to be all things to all men. Now since it is impossible to please all men or meet all expectations, there is a need to have a standard philosophical approach and that would be a standardized secular philosophy.

Come to think of it, there is need for, indeed, there are a great number of “standards” associated with a standard school-based education. This is in spite of there being no evidence of a standard family or individual, for that matter.

When considering that, of the seven plus billion people on earth, no two individuals are the same, one has to question where the idea of standards ever arose.

Standards in schools are standard, even when there is no such thing as a standard student. Like factories, standards are needed to make sure all the products (students) are consistently created (indoctrinated) to avoid trouble (politically incorrect behaviour) from occurring.

One more consideration, and again, in all fairness, the school is attempting to do what has not been ordained of God. Parents have the authority and responsibility for education, even if government makes claim to having a compelling interest in the education of its citizens. Indeed, that is pretty well the only standard I find respecting the training and teaching of children.

In short, if you want your children to be as much like everyone else as possible, send them to school, which specializes in standardizing children.

But if you want your children to be the unique individuals God created them to be, follow His “Standard” for children by teaching them at home in keeping with who they are and pay no attention to government “standards.”

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