THE LETTERS
Late December of last year, the New York Times published "The Home-Schooled Kids Are Not All Right" - a guest essay describing an experience of being isolated by a parent in crisis. We published our own response, pointing to the Nirvana Fallacy at the heart of the piece - a comparison between the author's real (and tragic) story and an imagined ideal.
While we were on break, the Times ran a series of letters to the editor that made the counter-argument better than we could.
Mason Ember, a 16-year-old who spent over a year filming a feature-length documentary called Against the Grade about homeschooled teenagers, got top billing:
Hicham Oumlil, a Brooklyn father pulled his 12-year-old son from school - but not by choice:
His conclusion: the system "seemed to punish difference rather than cultivate potential."
Elissa Kellner, a Vermont homeschooler, pushed back on the assumption that standardized testing is the solution:
She also challenged the isolation narrative: her homeschool community has "socially adept children who are enrolled in dance and art classes, team sports and community service programs, and who appear confident talking to their peers and adults - something that has become a rarity."
We applaud the Times for featuring the counter-argument. Block's experience was real, but it was just one data point - not the whole picture.
We look forward to following Mason Ember's documentary, Against the Grade. A 16-year-old spending a year interviewing homeschooled teenagers and producing a feature film is, itself, a pretty good argument for the approach.