Time Magazine tells me that home schoolers are still fighting in some states for the privilege of playing on school sports teams. There are arguments on both sides. Schools have academic requirements for sports teams to encourage students to keep their grades up. Home schoolers don't generally follow a standardized curriculum that can produce those grades. Some schools can be recalcitrant towards individual students. Some home schooling involves little beyond watching television.
It is complicated to have an individualized education plan for each student. Yet each student is an individual, subject to growth spurts, maturity spurts, and changes of interests. It is important that we as a society find the flexibility to address the needs of individual students, not just purport the big box theory of education. If we simply "offer" education then we are free to be as rigid as we choose. Read West Point. The moment we as a society decided to "require" education we committed ourselves to meeting a vast range of needs. It is a huge responsibility which demands flexibility. The world has outgrown one education fits all. Schools must do the same.
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