A few days ago, I wrote a rebuttle to the NEA’s resolution on home schooling. The fact of the matter is that they’ve actually had a resolution about home schooling in their list of yearly resolutions for about the last ten years. I knew this when I wrote the article but felt that if they can write a resolution every year, I can write a rebuttal every year. In fact, I’m happy for anyone in the blogosphere to write a rebuttal. Words are very powerful and while I realize that most of you who read the home schooling blog are actually homeschoolers, there may be those stragglers who are on the fence or who are actually against home schooling and then read an argument in my article that makes sense to them. I do believe that sometimes, a mind can be changed with good writing.
However, like many of you I belong to several e-mail lists, and online forums that focus on home schooling. Every year when the NEA passes their resolutions, there’s always this onslaught of e-mails that read something like this: “Let the NEA know that home schooling is a viable option. Sign this online petition.” I can only imagine some poor schlub at the NEA office receiving this wave of incoming phone calls and letters from homeschoolers telling them to change their resolutions to favorably reflect on home schooling.
So my message to my fellow homeschoolers is simple: stop overreacting. Put your critical thinking caps on to positively affect the home schooling movement and let’s stop wasting our time harassing the NEA.
The NEA
The NEA is the National Education Association. This is a group of certified, public school teachers. They are not going to change their minds about home schooling. Some select teachers may read something or know someone that changes their mind about home schooling, but as a group, they are expressing what needs to happen in education in America. . .and more specifically what needs to happen in public education in America.
The Homeschooling Resolution
As I mentioned in my rebuttal, the part of the resolution that deals with home schooling is miniscule compared to the other meatier parts of the resolution. In other words, this is a tangential movement in education–of little or no consequence to the whole as far as the NEA is concerned. You may very well feel that home schooling is a significant movement but you don’t need to tell the NEA that. Their purpose is not to support homeschoolers but to support public education.
The Online Petition
Please don’t waste your time “signing” an online petition that supposedly let‘s the NEA know that “home schooling is a viable educational option“. An online petition has less worth than a blank piece of paper. It’s not difficult to have a computer program generate thousands upon thousands of fake names and e-mail addresses. So if the intended person actually receives the said petition, they have no way of knowing if it’s legitimate–and they probably don’t care. A blank piece of paper on the other hand is at least useful for drawing.