To Be or Not to Be: Our Call?

   The death penalty has always been a bit of a controversy, now more than ever. Capitol punishment rates have been dropping steadily over the years, yet there still appear to be some staunch supporters of the death penalty. One only has to look at the Republican presidential debate of September 2011, when "the audience erupted into applause when moderator Brian Williams noted Texas had executed 234 people in recent years" (NPR). All of this discussing other people's fates as if they were already dead is frankly making me a little queasy, so I think we all, as Americans, need to come together and have an educated discussion on whether or not the death penalty is moral or even worthy of merit. Only then do I believe that we would decide whether or not it should truly be our call if a person should die for his crimes.
   I think most of us, whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, or even Atheistic, can agree that all human life has value. The question then becomes how much is a life worth? Is it worth killing something for a crime they committed if there is a chance of redemption? Are criminals "worthy" of the death penalty even worthy of redemption? If all else fails and you still have an un-slakeable bloodlust that will not slumber until the person in question has paid for his/her crimes in your mind, isn't it a far worse punishment to be sentenced to "natural life in prison, without any chance of parole," (NPR) being forced to live their lives in agony over the crimes they've committed? (a tad morbid, I know and I apologize). The answers to these questions are "Priceless, no, no, and NO!" Every life holds value because it is a scientific miracle that it exists at all, even if it has been adverse to society, and it should not be ended. Everybody is worthy of redemption and to those who would see a life end because they deem it necessary, I say this: "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" (Gandhi) we must be better than the killers.

Homeschooling: Should you or Shouldn't you?

     Lately there has been a lot of discussion about the issue of homeschooling versus more traditional methods of schooling. Proponents of homeschooling point to statistics saying that home-schooled children tend to be more well adjusted than traditionally schooled children. Also, the point to the statistic that children who received a home education generally outperform "at least 70 to 80 their conventionally scored peers" on standardized tests (Gathercole). Opponents of homeschooling, however, generally say that homeschoolers generally fall into three categories: "left-wing unschoolers and right-wing religious fundamentalists"or "middle-of-the-road suburbanites"(Reich). Both sides can agree that there is an incorrect  stereotype of home-schooled children being socially inept, undereducated, and unprepared for the real world.
     So what are the key issues associated with homeschooling? The most important issues include quality of education and the social implications of homeschooling. Why the former of these issues is important is obvious; parents want the best possible education for their child no matter what medium of education they choose. the implications here vary on a case-by-case basis. There are some parents out there who are more than qualified to teach their children and may do so if they wish, but there are always those who are under-qualified to teach theirs or anybody else's children. It's these parents, these stay-a-home moms with all the free time in the world who insist that their little Johnny is too smart for public school who think that teaching is only a glorified babysitting job, who are the ones that are really going to screw their kid up.
     The social implications of homeschooling are the second key issue to be considered. Parents can provide positive, reinforcing social interactions with other local homeschoolers (assuming there are any) and set little Jimmy or Sally up for a large self-confidence boost and sunshine and rainbows everywhere they look, but seriously, is this kind of control over your child's interactions such a good thing? What happens when he or she meets his very first jerk? His or her first idiot? How will they handle it when they're thrown into a world filled with the worst and best kind of people when all they've experienced before is what their parents wanted them to experience. As Mary Elizabeth says in her article "Cons of Homeschooling" on the website educationbug.org, homeschooling simply cannot "provide the diversity of social contacts that a public or private school does." I just personally can't see homeschooling as a feasible option, though everybody else is entitled to their own opinions.