Where is Suri and why should we care?

As a teacher, I can assure you that most people in the profession did not choose to go into it because they thought it was a get rich quick scheme. Most realized after there first years teaching that it sure as hell wasn't for the six weeks vacation - you spend about two of that recovering from severe burnout (and for anyne out there that thinks teachers have it so sweet - think about how tired you get after spending that with your kids - then imagine somewhere between 20 - 40 kids, with backgrounds that you have little to no clue about...) I know so far this is not a convincing argument or pleasing portrait of what school can be, however...

the father of my children has convinced them to try going to school

Admittedly, you may not like this idea. In reality, they might not like it. But it might also provide them an environment in which to flourish. It is unfair to hold back children from fully experiencing their world based on our prejudices - within reason, of course. Keeping children 'out of the system' to indoctrinate them at home can cripple your child. At the end of the day, they will have to deal with a society where the majority of people have been in the formalised school setting, and have had to deal with school politics, interpersonal relationships, ranking, competition, camaraderie, friendship, exposure to the other - other lifestyles, career paths, subject areas, clubs, etc. How is it wrong to allow your child to develop their own personality? It is the job of the parent to be PRESENT for their children, so that if there is a problem or a concern, they can help them through it - which does not always mean solve it for them.

I am not saying that the public schoool system is for everyone, nor am I saying that homeschooling is inherently bad. I have, however, far to many good friends who have grown up with homeschooling leaving them unprepared for the world at large. Sometimes you just can't escape it - Zia did by killing himself last year, and then his sister did the same thing this spring. They didn't have a frame of reference... Of course, this is an extreme example.

The privacy that we were afforded with our homeschooling life is gone

Maybe, in some ways, that is not such a bad thing. It is very possible to risk not exposing our children to a wide range of attitudes and opinions, it is easy to stick to the homeschooling networks established in the community or online. Now, in terms of privacy with regards to vaccinations, that is unfortunate.

(re: vaccination) Even if it means that your child will end up mentally disabled for the rest of his life.

Though i completely disagree with the decision not to vaccinate, I think it is reactionary and uninformed, what others choose to do is not my perogative. I do feel that we are living in a culture of fear, where we are prodded by the media to think that our schools are full of violence and drugs, and, in terms of vaccinations, every second child is becoming autistic. Autism is on the rise, yes, but could it not perhaps be more related to environmental pollutants? After spending my early years in a country that didn't have the MMR (though I arrived here when I was four) - I lost 6 siblings to rubella. Now I am one of two children. A simple vaccination - and I might not have been here! - but, six other deaths might have been avoided.

Now I have to contend with prying noses of school teachers, principals and administrators in a way that is invasive and crosses the line of being not just rude but anti-constitutional.

I am sure it feels as though they are quesitoning your practices and judging you and your children, but, in reality we are always judging each other. Whether it is institutionalised or not.... I do feel that your children being restricted from school on the basis of a vaccination is a bit extreme - I could completely understand a child being asked to stay home if the were manifesting symptoms of a serious illness, but otherwise, it does seem excessive. Teachers and administrators can get bogged down in the bureaucratic processes that govern so much of what they do, however, no one is out there to point a finger and judge your children, to single them out and make them feel different. And if they are, they should be called to task - this is something between the parent and the institution, in no way should it be carried over to treatment in the classroom.

I am not sure that you intended it as such, but your opening paragraph comes across as a bit alarmist. Teachers do not have enough time or energy to be prying and invading your private lives ... they, just like you, and looking out for your children's common good. It really is not personal. If you really want to fight for change in society, think a little bit more suberversively! Allow your children to experience both sides of the coin. If they choose to continue to uphold your ideals, would it not serve them best to be aware of the audience that they will be trying to engage in dialogue - what their background is, how they grew up, what their frame of reference is... attending school.

If accompanied by a supportive (not judgemental or prejudicial) parent to help them through something new and different, that could become an experience just as valuable as living amongst the Pygmies. You have an opportunity to provide your children with a growing and learning experience, that will allow them to reflect on their values as they learn about others. Now that is an invaluable experience.

An experienced public schoolteacher possessed of more valuable educational prowess to offer the bright children of multi-lingual master's-degreed Liza than she could possibly provide without you, right? - a teacher who uses "there" to mean "their" and spells "too" as in far too many with only one o? Posing rhetorical questions concluded with declaratory punctuation, interjecting a jarring metaphorical coin with two sides but neither of them articulated to make any sense whatsoever?

I wish I could say that's to hard to believe but theirs plenty of reason too believe your reely what you claim too be -- which is a good reason all by itselves too not send our bright child too school if you ask or even if you flip me for it?

of such discouraging magnitude really might coexist with being certified and paid to teach everybody's kids as a "common good" [shudder], I offer my blog essays and stories here as prerequisite remedial reading to kick-start a Liberal Education about Schooling. Perhaps some of today's teachers retain enough intellectual curiosity to progress beyond what THEY'VE been indoctrinated by School, State and Labor Union to believe.

BTW here's the correct answer to content muffed in the argument above -- immmunization policy can and does keep kids all over the country out of school until they comply, to the letter. Not that strictly enforcing such overreach on the pretense it's part of "education" will save either School OR State when the next life-threatening epidemic without a known vaccine arrives; human-to-human bird flu for example would shut down school altogether, and teachers counting on the legal force of compulsory schooling for their livelihood will be out of work, with nothing else to do to support their OWN kids (also suddenly home all day with no State-subsidized babysitting and no place else safe to go.)

SO I suggest that schoolteachers immunized or not, have the most to fear by far, from bird flu AND from the giant holes in the polar confidence layer making things so hot for them already.

If schools had to be shut down for our mutual survival, which kinds of "education" would be the best prepared, for the least disruption? We'd soon need to climb back up Maslow's ladder. Virtual learning from home, maybe small groups of neighbors enjoying home libraries -- call it what you will -- would suddenly look a lot smarter than what we've legislated and labeled as public education policy during my lifetime.

And to carry the thought further, which kinds of education (if any) are best preparing future citizens to survive, and even help prevent, all manner of potential catastrophes to come?

I'd put a high premium on self-reliant yet socially responsible technology, schedules, lifestyles, networking, world views and income generation. The kinds of learning based on intrinsic motivation, privacy and sustainability, learning that doesn't require or prepare people to live and work in assigned dorms and barracks under constant public supervision and scrutiny.

Public school protectionism is sorry public protection. So why would we want that doctrine undergirding the entire third-millennium curriculum, and why would we accept union politicians as best equipped to control how all kids learn to think, plan and problem-solve?

I think our kids need to learn differently and do differently, SO much better than we did and so far past school. Someday soon they'll replace us as thinkers, caregivers, problem-solvers, diplomats, designers, and story-tellers. (If they survive!)

I believe preparing ourselves to prepare them, will require new learning and creative cultural-political change on our part first, changes for which the lessons of our grandparents (as interpreted through our own schooling) didn't prepare us that well, either.

Immunization has saved millions of lives. In Britain, parents stopped having their children immunized. What happened? A nice big outbreak of disease. One of those teens visited a college in the midwest and spread the mumps to some kids who weren't immunized or whose immunization had weakened, resulting in an outbreak not only at the college but also in the local communities when college kids went home on holiday.

I understand people being concerned about a correlation between immunization and autism but the suspected mercury ingredient has been removed from formulas. As for concerns of the public health, I think it's important to remember that polio used to be plague upon the land that disabled and killed many children and adults. Because of immunization we have lost perspective on horrible the world was before vaccines that prevented needles suffering.

One of the leading causes of death for women is cervical cancer, which is caused largely by the Human Papiloma Virus. A new vaccine given to girls and boys before they are sexually active will prevent countless deaths.

A VACCINE TO PREVENT CANCER!