To the editor:

In response to Craig Tucker’s and Judy Northway’s letter to the editor, “Sheltered lives,” on May 22, I would like to give them my insight as a home schooler now in college. Their concern about sheltering children from the “real world” is understandable, so allow me to address it.

Our U.S. military shelters its trainees a great deal. When you first join the armed forces, you aren’t going to be sent to Iraq right away. Why not? Iraq’s the real world, and they need to be prepared for it. Yes, but they first need training. The school environment is a place for children to learn and grow before weathering the effects of the world.

Tucker and Northway imply the public school is the “real world.” I would agree with Haskell University Professor Smokey McKinney when he said that public schooling is a “fake world.” The kids have a bell telling them when to move on, they have assigned recess time, and their homework is handed to them. In my home school world, I had to monitor my studying, make sure the work got done on time, and learn how to get a year’s work done on schedule.

With all of this said, do I “resent” my parents for my lack of exposure to the public school world? No, I don’t. My lack of exposure to the public school world has much better prepared me for exposure to the real world.

Isaac McPheeters,

Lawrence