I have mixed feelings about the bill winding its way through the General Assembly that would allow home-school students to play on the local high school sports teams. Our columnist Reggie Hayes makes the case against the idea, though reluctantly:
The decision to home-school is a serious one. The home-school parents I know are devoted to the task and fully confident that the home-school route is what's best for their children. I admire their decision. They have a strong belief, and they stick to it.
My choice has been to send my children to public school, taking the good (extracurricular sports) along with the bad (uncontrollable distractions from learning). My choice includes the access to sports teams
Comments
I think another issue is qualifications- to be on a sports team you have to maintain certain grades (or at least you had to when I was in school).
This idea will give a not-great student the option of being "home schooled" and still be on the team. Not sure that gets us where we were hoping to go.
Kevin, agreed. (I know, worlds collide!)
We need to make sports available to homeschoolers, because they are an important part of education.
Our kids learn sportsmanship, character and fair play from such exemplars as Michael Vick, Ben Rothlisberger, Kobe Bryant, Floyd Landis, Tiger Woods, O. J. Simpson, etc.