http://www.hslda.org/central/selected/docs/05-04-99.html

homeschooling... short article ... the big topic "Socialization" in
regard to Littleton massacre.

I N   T H E   N E W S
“Tragedy raises question
about peer socialization”

By Michael Farris
The Washington Times
May 4, 1999
 

The heart of every parent in America ached
in sympathy for those who suffered a tragic loss
in the recent school massacre in Littleton, Colo.
However, mixed with the sympathy was, for
many, anxiety about the safety of their own
children. “Will my child’s school be next?” is a
thought on the minds of countless American
parents.

For some, the Colorado tragedy was the
final straw. The day after the killing spree
erupted onto our TV screens, the phones at the
Home School Legal Defense Association
began to ring with a steady rhythm: “I can’t
take it any more. I’ve been thinking of
home-schooling. This is it.”

For some time, violence in schools—usually
physical assault experienced by their own
child—has been a strong motivation for parents
to home-school. I defended a family in
Tennessee who began home-schooling after the
blouse of the couple’s daughter was ripped
open in her home-room class by a relentless
suitor who would not take no for an answer.
A goodly number of other children have
experienced the teasing, pushing, hitting, and
intimidation of schoolyard bullies. School
officials usually respond to parents’ worries
with little more than sighs of frustration.

One couple in Iowa began home-schooling their
daughter in her senior year after she was
sexually assaulted by the star football player.
School officials were more concerned about his
status and protection than the safety of the girl.

Immediately after the Colorado shootings,
several schools across the nation found that
they had students who were so warped they
showed up the next day or two in black trench
coats and some even pretended to shoot guns.
One press account indicated four such
incidents in Pennsylvania alone. So much for
the idea that “it can’t happen here.” It probably
won’t happen in your child’s local school, but it
would be foolish to think that it can’t.

All parents should start asking themselves a
question usually faced only by home-schoolers:
What about socialization? Home-school
parents get hit with this intended rhetorical
trump card from people who think that a
home-educated child is missing something
important that is inherent and unique to the halls
of a typical high school.

To believe that what passes for normal these
days is good, wise or normal is a fallacy. We
have experimented with the notion that children
should be the ones to socialize other children
for only a short span in human history.

After all, the term socialization indicates the
process by which a child is taught the proper rules
of society. Why do we think that 6-year-olds,
12-year-olds, or even 18-year-olds are the
right people for this task?

Peer-based socialization creates the hazing
hallways where the big, the popular, and the
vulgar pray on the small, the morally pure, and
the weird. The two shooters in Colorado were
in the last category. While they bear
undiminished responsibility for their actions, it is
fair to say that the atmosphere of intimidation
faced by students who are different from the
popular crowd can be frightening indeed.

Another fallacy that must be challenged is
that aberrant lifestyles should be allowed a free
rein. Those who rent music halls and produce
records need to wake up to the fact that
satanic and Neo-nazi “music” affects some of
its listeners. Listeners who act out the ideas and
themes of such music create danger.

Parents of children who customarily dress in
black from head to toe need a wake up
call—their children are dabbling in a lifestyle
that is fraught with danger and evil. Some of
these children will never get a chance to “grow
out of this phase.”

People should not choose to home school
out of a momentary panic resulting from
watching the news about Colorado. You won’t
have the self-discipline necessary to succeed if
that is your sole motivation. But if you are
concerned about your children’s safety
because of guns, satanic rock, drugs, bullies,
and the inherent dangers of peer
socialization—and want to do something more
than wring your hands - then maybe it is time to
think seriously about home schooling your own
children.

THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Tuesday, May 4, 1999
Page E5