My wife and I plan to publish a couple reasons a week. Over the last two years I've read dozens of books, and looked through several hundred web sites, looking for reasons why people homeschool. The last time I counted we had over 70 distinct reasons for homeschooling. With so many reasons, it is a bit of a dilemma to decide on which reason to mention first.
Most every day I'll wade through a couple dozen blogs. One of my favorites is Zero Intelligence, which is run by Jim Peacock. Over the last couple years there has been a movement for "Zero Tolerance" of things like drugs, weapons, and so forth. School leaders and politicians want it clear there will be no tolerance for hard drugs or weapons on the school premise. Week after week Jim finds instances of times where school administrators way over react. Most people agree that children should not have heroin or a hand gun at school, but in an effort to have "Zero Tolerance" many administrators get carried away. A girl was suspended for having tylenol in her bag. Three girls and a boy were stripped searched when some money was missing. A fourth grader was suspended for five days because he refused to answer a question on a test. Recently a girl 11 year old girl was suspended for folding a piece of paper into a gun.
One reason for some parents to homeschool is to avoid the kind of zero tolerance which leads to "zero intelligence." Time after time students are dealt harsh punishments for what really seem to be minor infractions. But when teachers are caught doing more serious actions, often the teacher's hand is slapped. Children learn it isn't so much about following the rules as being in a position of power.
What are some of the worse instances you've seen of zero tolerance?
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