In the article ‘What You Need to Learn About Homeschooling’ in Contemporary Pediatrics magazine, the authors urge pediatricians to monitor the socialization of homeschooled children, and to struggle to understand the parent’s reasons to educate their children at home.
When I need groceries, I go to the grocery store. If the pipes in my house break, I call a plumber. I get my car’s oil changed at an auto-shop. And if my kid gets ill, I take him to a doctor. But not for groceries, plumbing or an oil change. I take him there to have a doctor figure out how to help make him well.
If you buy into the doctor-as-councilor bit where your physician is also your life coach, then perhaps it is appropriate for your child’s pediatrician to not only examine him medically but to administer a whole battery of psychological and academic testing. I don’t buy it.
Overall the article is not wholly unfavorable toward homeschooling, though its tone is suspiciously paternalistic. It contains many statistics favorable to home education and is absent of evidence that homeschooling is harmful, relying on stereotypes for ‘balance’. Still, the overall flavor of the article is not positive, and it’s not necessary.
Every doctor should be keenly aware for signs of abuse or neglect in every patient they examine. And that, of course, is a red herring and not what the article is about. The article is about what a pediatrician should do different when examining and diagnosing a homeschooled child and the correct answer is NOTHING. They should do nothing different.
What pediatricians need to learn about homeschooling is that they should do it with their own children.
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