Are School Shootings a Good Reason to Consider Homeschooling?
More parents seem to say yes
What would you do if you were Kirsten Clemons?
Days after a Georgia school shooting left four people dead, students presented the Lakeview Middle School principal with a TikTok video that seemed to target their Missouri school.
Students were scared. Teachers were scared. The parents who started calling Clemons’ office were scared. No doubt Clemons was scared too, but she couldn’t afford to focus on the fear.
She had a big decision to make—How should the school respond?
Time to Consider Homeschooling?
I never expected to be an evangelist for homeschooling, but since our family started our non-traditional educational journey I’ve spoken to many parents about it. They’ve either made the switch to homeschooling or are curious about it.
They cite the usual reasons. They want more academic rigor. Some seek better instruction for their special-needs children. They fear indoctrination, bullying, and more and more of them add a new item: fear of school shootings.
That last one is tricky.
In general, I regard movement away from public schools as a good thing, but let me add my usual disclaimer: If you’re in a good situation with your public school, please know I’m not referring to you. My main goal, even more than promoting homeschooling, is to help parents find the educational option that is right for them.
I might be big on homeschooling, but I’m also big on rational risk assessment. So much of life is a struggle to sweat the right stuff. Yet so many of us, myself included, swell with anxiety about tiny threats while we ignore bigger dangers.
Are schools safe?
So many of us want to know, but you can’t provide a sensible response without adding, “Compared to what?”
Nearly every action we take shows how we calculate risk. It starts when you wake up in the morning.
Should you take a shower? You might slip and fall!
Should you grab a coffee? What about the silent killer, high blood pressure!
Are you going to drive to work? You could get hit by a bus!
So many of us get nervous when we board a flight, but forget we’ve already survived the most dangerous part of our journey—driving to the airport.
If we were statisticians, we’d feel most relaxed at 35,000 feet.
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So Many Threats
Of course, we should worry about school shootings. But how much should we worry? That’s when the “compared to what?” addendum helps us think straight.
How much do we worry about drownings, medical errors, driving, or walking to school?
Turns out all of those take many more children’s lives than school shootings.
But I don’t want my friend
to revoke my Free Range Parent card—I’m not against kids walking to school, I swear!And what’s true in general might not be true for any specific situation. We all live in specific situations, and, with the right information, we can alter our situations and make more sensible decisions.
Unfortunately, we often fixate on specific types of tragedies (such as school shootings) but overlook the big picture (such as persistently low violent crime clearance rates). Here in California, 55% of violent crimes go unsolved, and, since clearance rates don’t account for sentencing, the reality is probably much worse when it comes to actual justice served. You’ll find abysmal clearance rates in cities across the nation. Cops solve less than 50% of murders nationwide. Clearance rates remain low partly because we’re invited to focus on a million other threats.
When it comes to school shootings, politicians, reporters, and activists often muddy the waters. Organizations such as Everytown for Gun Safety and the Center for Homeland Defense and Security tell us that America endures more than a hundred school shootings each year.
But there’s much more to that story.