Can Homeschoolers Be Taught Leadership?

Boingboing.com recently intereviewed Seth Godin, an American entrepreneur, and owner of Squdoo.com. Godin has authored 11 books, many of them best sellers. His blog can be found at SethGodin.com. Seth isn't exactly a homeschool advocate, but he is certainly not a fan of schools either. In this interview, he poses a dilemma of homeschooling which needs addressing.

In 2009, Mr. Godin, posed the question, what is school for? He listed 29 things school do, many of them contradictory. Many which are less than positive in my view. So I thought it might also be important to hear what this great thinker feels are the perils of homeschooling.

When asked if the current school curriculum is going to be relevant at all, he responded with the following. "Well, I think we need to ask a different question. School's been irrelevant for a while. The question is what do we want school to do? What do we need to create in our next generation? And I've argued we need to create two things: we need to create leaders, and we need to create people who can solve interesting problems. Anything we do in school that doesn't help with those two things we should stop doing. So homeschooling isn't necessarily the answer, unless homeschooling is going to come up with a way to work on those two problems. My biggest problem with homeschooling is that it makes it very hard to teach leadership because you're isolated.

I can't argue with his statement that it is hard to teach leadership because your are isolated as a homeschooler. This is true for many. But it worries me that such an inspirational and educated man would make such a blanket statement about homeschooling. Sure, there are many homeschoolers in isolation, but there are just as many if not more who do not homeschool in a bubble.

If you homeschooling anywhere near a major city and even many small cities, it is very easy to find a homeschool group where your children can participate in activities that allow them to hone their leadership abilities. In my case we have participated in Martial Arts, Dance, Track, Fencing, and theater. We also have access to computer courses, Mock Trail competition, engineering and Lego competitions and more.

So if you look at Mr. Godin's singular criticism of homeschooling, you should know this very true issue that he points out can easily be overcome with just a bit of effort into making sure your kids spend time in group activities on a regular basis.