Tell me, why can't you, as a parent, supplement the teaching going on at public schools in order to prevent the "diamond" from getting lost in the mud?
Why leave it in the mud in the first place? We pulled ours out of the system, and my wife, a certified teacher in one of the better public systems in the country, directed the homeschooling effort, along with others. We were most gratified with the end product.
My strategy, as a parent, was to immediately call bullshit on some of the lame teaching going on in the public school.
Knock yourself out. I myself had neither the time nor the inclination to be a crusader in the mode of Don Quixote, or to provide remedial instruction to assumed professionals, and certainly not free of charge.
And no, extracurricular activities are no more "diverse" than that neighborhood my son lives in. Football players play football and debate team members debate. Do you really thing if your child participated in either activity they would be exposed to diversity?
I surmise that your idea of what constitutes diversity differs from my own.
Poor students can't afford the equipment to play football nor can poor students afford the supplies and travel expenses of a top flight forensics squad. Hell, there are high school debate teams that fly on private jets. You think that is a diverse group of people?
None of that is or was any concern of mine outside charitable efforts. There will always be inequality so long as people are diverse in drive, talents and abilities.
The reason you don't run from the mud,
Life is made up of marble and mud.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
You send your kid to public schools because, at some point, they are going to have to deal with the public. Would you rather them go into the world with damn near zero experience with the public, or with thirteen years of experience? I have never believed in "protecting" or "hiding" my kids from all that is bad in the world. My youngest, a Philosophy major, and I were laughing today about him playing Grand Theft Auto at five.
I'm betting Mr. Hawthorne avoided slogging through the mud every chance he got, same as any sane person. Mud exists, but that's no reason to go wallowing in it with the pigs.
Perhaps YOUR life requires you to rub elbows with any and all riffraff that comes down the pike. Most people's lives do not. In fact, for most people, the ONLY time in their lives when their associations are decided strictly by age group and ZIP code, rather than by similarity of interests, educations, and backgrounds, is when they're in public school . . . IF they go to public school.
I have never believed that "the world sucks" provided me with an excuse to simply toss my children to the wolves and shrug my shoulders. I suspect that your children, and you, despite your constant bragging about THIS degree and THAT job and whatever, are probably not people I would actually want to be around socially on any level. It's amazing how people can be "successful" by what passes for modern standards, and utterly fail by the standards that really matter . . . at least, the standards that matter to people who homeschool.
Before you ask, let me spell it out for you. I certainly want my children to have a good knowledge of basic academics; obviously, I don't want to send my kids into the world functionally illiterate (and believe me, my standards on what constitutes "literate" are far higher than most people's) and incapable of handling at least basic algebra, for example. And I want them to love and enjoy the process of learning and the state of knowing things and the experience of working hard for something and then succeeding at it.
But beyond that, the degrees you wave at everyone as some sort of proof that "See? I'm the BESTEST parent" don't mean much to me. If my kids feel the need to have them, then I want them to do so, and to be able to do so. But if they don't want them, that's fine with me, as well. I look around me at this society, and I see people with all the bells and whistles that you seem to prize, but with appalling manners, the morals of a drunken alleycat, and a complete inability to have a happy, meaningful life. And I wonder seriously what benefit my kids could possibly get from associating with the children those people are raising to be just like their parents. Nope. Sorry.
My children have excellent manners and etiquette, far advanced over most adults I've ever encountered and more than sufficient to carry them through any type of necessary social encounter, although I suspect they - like me - come of as snobbish to people who run the risk of appearing on "Cops" someday. I'm okay with that. They socialize with people of all ages, from a wide variety of demographics, but all with some sort of common interest to them . . . exactly the way adults do, if only they realized it. And most importantly to me, they are good people, with compassionate hearts, strong moral compasses, solid life philosophies, and common sense.
Your post is quite telling and sounds like the typical self-righteous home schooler. And your "standards" are laughable. Basic algebra? Seriously? But mostly, I have to wonder, what grocery store to you shop at, you know, the one where all the customers share the same common interest. Where do you get your gas, buy your clothes, go out to eat? I mean I really want to know where this place is that all the daily interactions are with people that have the same common interest. It's got to be the most boring place on earth.
Predictably, you utterly misunderstand.
What you interpret as "self-righteous homeschooler" is simply the painfully obvious - to everyone but you, apparently - reaction of anyone having to listen to YOUR self-righteous tripe about how wrong WE are for not raising our children the way YOU chose to do. Perhaps if you find the way people respond to you objectionable, you might consider not being an obnoxious, offensive braggart.
Furthermore, I did not say anything about "standards". That is YOUR interpretation, presumably drawn from your own desperate desire to denigrate homeschoolers and justify the callous and lackadaisical attitude toward parenting you describe in your self-congratulating diatribes. What I mentioned are not "standards"; they are basic minimums, which are tied to the things you mysteriously don't mention, such as "love of learning". Not everyone NEEDS more than basic algebra (that would be basic COLLEGE algebra) in their lives. If they do, or if they simply wish to know more, then they study that. In actuality, of the two children I have who have already graduated high school, my daughter stopped after algebra, because her career field doesn't require more (she's a phlebotomist, not that it's any of your business). My older son is studying video game design, and computer programming has higher requirements. The youngest currently wants to be a zookeeper, but since he's 9, that will probably change. He will almost certainly continue much farther than algebra, simply because he loves doing math.
As for "interactions", perhaps if you hadn't slacked off and made do with public school, you would be able to read and use English more precisely. Please see the paragraph regarding the fact that my children have excellent manners - certainly in excess of YOURS - which are more than sufficient to carry them through any type of necessary social encounter. I would be sorry that I apparently used words with too many syllables for you to grasp, except that I'm really not; translated, that means "going to grocery stores, buying gas", all those minor momentary contacts that you want to conflate with actually associating with people, ie. having a job, joining clubs, going to church, dating . . . all the times in life when adults have long-term contact with other adults.
And I don't give a shit rather you believe me or not. But I will put my kids up against anyone's when it comes to "good people, compassionate hearts, strong moral compasses, solid life philosophies, and common sense".
OF COURSE you don't give a shit "rather"[sic] I believe you or not. That is why you keep posting all these "my son, the fill-in-the-blank-degree" to brag about how your
laissez-faire parenting MUST have been good.
I'm sure you think your kids turned out wonderfully as human beings; you almost have to, to rationalize away the fact that you made very little effort to make that happen, and by your own admission, hindered that outcome as much as possible. Perhaps I do your kids a disservice by taking your descriptions of them at face value, but if you are, in fact, being completely honest about them, then I stand by my statement that I would not care to associate with them. Certainly, if they turned out anything like you, I wouldn't even want them as neighbors on my street.
But I want to add another quality that my children possess that I am pretty damn sure your's don't and you most certainly don't. They are good citizens. The reason I say you are not, and your kids probably don't, is that one of the "duties" of a good citizen is, and I quote, from the Department of Homeland Security,
Respect the rights, beliefs, and opinions of others
Now I know, I live in a pretty unique area in terms of both diversity and inclusion. My kids went to the same public high school that I did, and my mother before me. A public school where neighboring school districts recommend students that have suffered bullying, that have been "left out", or made fun of due to everything from disabilities to appearance, attend. And perhaps even more rare, the school not only allows them to attend even when living out of the district, but openly recruit them. It is as if the school had it's very own Statue of Liberty and actually lived by the poetry inscribed beneath.
But honestly, I am going to tell you the biggest difference between you and I. You are SKEERED. Yep, scared that those "other people" are going to influence your kids. But I know, my kids are the influencers, and I have seen it time and time again in my 150 years of child raising experience.
And you are holding yourself and your spawn up as shining examples of "respecting the rights, beliefs, and opinions of others" based on what? The tolerant and understanding attitude you've shown toward homeschoolers?
Would THIS be an example of your idea of "respect":
"Parents that home school their children believe it allows them to control their children. But the truth of the matter is those home schooling parents are demonstrating that they have NO control over their children. They are openly admitting they can't prevent their children from being influenced by teachers or other students. To me, it demonstrates a lack of parenting skills. And honestly, it severely limits their child's ability to function in a free and open society. What, are those parents going to control which job their kids get, which church they go to, and what friends they have when they are no longer minors?"
Or is that merely an example of your hypocrisy?
You're damned right I'm scared of unacceptable people influencing my kids, and only a imbecile wouldn't be. You just got done telling me all about the wonders of your kids' public school that "recruits", and I quote directly here, "students that have suffered bullying, that have been "left out", or made fun of due to everything from disabilities to appearance". Pretty obviously, I'm not the only parent who is afraid of negative influences, and equally obviously, YOU think being afraid of it is warranted and sensible . . . so long as the reaction is to hunt up a special public school, instead of cutting through the hassle and simply handling it myself.
It is the job of a parent to protect their children from things they are too young and helpless to handle themselves, something you apparently forgot or never knew with your "the world is full of shit, so let 'em roll in it and get used to it" attitude. It is also the job of a parent to help the child learn, as they grow up, to handle those things themselves. It's the difference between teaching your child to swim, and simply throwing him in the deep end of the pool and expecting him to figure it out with no guidance.