“There has to be recognition at some point, the child is going to leave the nest and they need to have interaction with others,” Egan said [in the recent Campus Report article The Homeschooling Decision]. “Education is not just about imparting knowledge to students. Its about preparing them to use that knowledge in the real world.”
Giving our children knowledge of the real world is exactly why we homeschool them. The real world does NOT exist of the same age people in a room all together doing the same things, regardless of their individual abilities and interests. Homeschooling allows our children the freedom to explore their world. Our children are not bound inside a classroom where they would be unable to participate in community activities during the day. Their potential to interact and socialize with others is not limited to being with the same age/same level peers for 180 days a year.
Our children are involved in activities that bring them in contact with the elderly, the homeless, the less-fortunate, the more-fortunate, etc. on a regular basis. A child in a classroom setting does not have the chance to see the real world as it will exist for him/her once school days are over.
I personally feel sorry for children who spend a good deal of their time in a classroom when there is a great big world out there they could be exploring and possibly improving by their presence. Instead they are locked up in institutions. How sad!
B. Wright
