The Purpose(s) of Education, Public & Private

[Sandy Levinson]

Jim Henderson writes:
>
> In a home school with which I am familiar, freedom of thought, individuality,
> creativity, pursuit of personal study interests, expansion of appropriate
> friendship communities are all encouraged, and are pursued.
>
I would indeed be astonished if the "typical" home school exposes the
children to more heterogeneous ideas than does the "typical" public
school.  The hooker in Mr. Henderson's comment, of course, is what
counts as an "appropriate" frienship community.  No doubt (and I *do*
mean no doubt) some of my own prejudices are showing, but I suspect
that some sizable percentage of refugees from public education define
"appropriate" as "people just like us."  No doubt (and, again, I do
mean *no doubt*) there are many counterexamples.  This is a big
country, and all sorts of fine people, some of whom I am acquainted
with, homeschool and have otherwise given up on public schools.  But
the social scientist in me does have some hypotheses as to the
general data.

Sandy Levinson