The Post Bag: Letters To Squall

Home Education

Squall 13, Summer 1996, pg. 65.

My Dear Squall,

Emma Jackson makes some cogent points about homeschooling (Radical Home Education, Squall 12, Spring ‘96) but I think it’s worth mentioning that the most ardent advocates of homeschooling in America are loony, right-wing, born-again, gun-toting, fundamentalists.

However, Emma is undoubtedly correct when she blames school for crushing children’s individuality and creativity. Most schools are too big, too noisy, too impersonal and the teachers are not inspiring role models. They are egregiously inefficient in imparting brainskills. What schools take seven hours a day to teach can be assimilated by any child in less than an hour if he/she is taught individually or in a small group.

Michael Masson