Reading response by Molly Hilken

“Do we really need school? I don’t mean education, just forced schooling: six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years. Is this deadly routine really necessary? And if so what for? Don’t hide behind reading, writing, and arithmetic as a rational, because 2 million happy homeschoolers have surely put that banal justification to rest.” –Gatto

I agree with Gatto in the aspect that we need an education and maybe the school system as it is today isn’t quite as necessary as we are raised to believe. I feel as though high school would have been more beneficial to me if I had gotten educated through experience rather then “schooled” by sitting at a desk all day, five days a week. But at the same time reading, writing and basic arithmetic are vital skills that we need to learn somewhere, if not in a structured schooling system then where? While homeschooling, as Gatto mentioned, provides children with an education outside of the typical structured learning setting it does not teach them the valuable social skills that children learn by having social contact on a daily basis in a classroom. These social skills are absolutely necessary for life as adults. While these home schooled children benefit from learning independence and creative thinking , some of them may lack being properly socialized.