OPINION: Public schools should be supported, not undercut

It perplexes me that our government would throw more money at a process as ill-defined as “home-schooling.” As a public school teacher for 33 years, I watched the term used and the process of its evolution. There are established curricula that use the label, and there are all kinds of people who define it differently. Some parents seem to think that if they made it through the public school system, they are qualified to teach what needs to be learned. Some take it as an OK to train their children to share their religious beliefs at the expense of other information. There seem to be different degrees of accountability, depending on which system is chosen.

One of the purposes of public education is to produce an educated citizenry to facilitate a functioning democracy. That’s a reason there exists an established curriculum. It is also so that each consecutive grade teacher knows what to expect the children in class to have been taught, so they’re as ready as possible for the next level of information presented. Both of those goals are thwarted by individuals who have their own agendas and think they know how to evaluate learning.

A functioning democracy is no small thing. It requires people who know not only how government works and how we have established and defend our rights and responsibilities, but also how we accommodate differences of ideology and opinion. Public education should provide knowledge that teaches us to take care of ourselves, as well as each other, physically and mentally, to help the greatest number live well.

We need to learn our strengths and weaknesses so we can choose how best to provide for ourselves and each other, how to make a living, and how to contribute to the common good. Such learning requires exposure to the way other people think and learn and go about making their lives work. That’s the value of learning together in groups. Our public schools are the greatest contributor to learning to respect a diversity of people and ideas, and we can’t afford to let them be destroyed by people who want to limit that perspective.

Marion Vicary taught in the Anchorage School District from 1983 to 2010. She says she is happily retired but can’t let it go.

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