To the editor:

Everyone has an opinion on home schooling, and guess what, we do too.

We realize sometimes home schooling is necessary and convenient, and obviously it has advantages such as a great student-to-teacher ratio. Although proponents may disagree, we believe that exposure to social and cultural diversity is important to the education and growth of young people.

The main problem we have with home schooling is in the reason some choose to do it. Many conservative Christian parents do it to shelter their children from contact with people of different religious beliefs or ways of life that they don’t agree with. They want to prevent their kids from hearing scientific views or information about sexual education that contradict their religious beliefs. Isn’t this just a form of mental cloning?

Children are capable of independent thought and we think that it’s wrong to deprive them of the need to grow socially, mentally and culturally and experience many ideas and not just be expected to be or programmed to be duplicates of their parents. This growth only happens by interacting with people of a wide range of beliefs.

Internet education seems to have its place as an addition, but it’s not personal and not the real world, with all the good and bad aspects. Whatever it may be, kids need to experience life, and they can’t be sheltered forever. Some day, when they get older, they may well resent this lack of exposure in trying to contend with life’s reality.

Craig Tucker and Judy Northway,

Lawrence