homeschooling case

Here is a disturbing and sparsely detailed news item about homeschooling in Indiana, echoing recent articles on homeschooling regulation.  I cannot help but think that the higher standards advocated by the Department of Education inspire many to help out that mistaken effort thereby accepting those fradulent education goals.  It is also indicative of the loss of generational knowledge of education outside of public institutions.

Education in 1900 took place within a strong community and agricultural structure that receded throughout the 20th century until today, memory of that original context for our current public school system, is lost.  Now many people cannot imagine how education could take place outside the public school system and they accept unthinkingly the right of the state to invade their family life and relationships in the name of education.

It is not unlike what breastfeeding advocates face when they discuss the loss of a breastfeeding culture, a culture where mothers and friends were helpers instead of the current situation where many well-meaning family members and friends often hinder the breastfeeding relationship.  Or childbirth, where high-technology and overeducated medical personnel impede women's ability to give birth in a natural way.  Or like massive, mechanized agriculture, where we grow tomatoes, swollen to a massive size and eerily flawless and completely without vitamins.

In the above item, both parents and court officials seek something far beyond literacy or required attendance, the simple goal of previous generations. They seek education, a deep patterning of social and psychological experience, and something few would chase so fervently if education was not a code-word for class struggle in a society that cannot discuss class status or openly acknowledge it.