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In response to Simon Goulden's critique of home schooling.
I suspect that many parents who home school their children do so well
aware of the social and communal consequences of that choice. The
question is how to balance the value of community with other values. =20
Simon Goulden says, "The whole ethos of Jewish study at any level... is
community." This sounds overstated to me. I prefer, "One of the many
values which Jewish studies promotes is community." This leaves room for
other considerations: for parents who don't identify with the values of
the mainstream school system; for children who will be frustrated and
bored in a regular school setting (with all the behavioral and
psychological consequences that entails); or for students who will simply
learn more Torah (and other things) in a home school.
Sensitive parents, I hope, will find other venues to provide their home
schooled children with exposure to and involvement with the community.
Parents have an infinitely greater obligation to each of their children
than to the community's institutions. If a student will do better at
home, parents have no obligation to the community's school simply because
that is what the community provides at the moment. If Jewish schools are
losing students to home-schools, let them improve the product they provide
to attract those students.
Yoel Finkelman</HTML>
