Hello, , from NHERI.

I was inside a public middle school in a western state last week and saw a poster that reads like this:

Our No Bully Oath
We Will . . . . .
This is a NO BULLY ZONE!
We will not bully others!

But no moral authority was offered for why, other than "thus saith the State-school system."

And I was inside a private K-12 school this week. They, too, have posters up pressing students to not bully others. Again, no moral authority was offered as a basis for the "good behavior."

Yes, the above are noble sentiments. I suppose the State-run schools shall not post things like the following:

Jesus, fully God and fully man, said:

"You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
"... you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."
" There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark, Chapter 12)

And I suppose some private-school administrators are leery of putting too much stock in the authority of Jesus the Christ.

But what has this to do with scholarly research and writing on homeschooling? Consider the following views on what constitutes the best social training for children and youth. Professor Evans claimed: "The isolation implicit in home teaching is anathema to socialization and citizenship."[note1] Legal academic Buss expressed concerns that home-educated students not being enough with peers would not facilitate identity development that is best.[note 2] Further, while I was testifying as an expert witness in a Midwest court just over a month ago, the judge was not worried about the homeschool children's academic achievement or their respect toward their parents and other adults, but he was very concerned about how they would learn to get along in the world without being institutionalized with all the public school students in the area for 5 days per week, for 12 years of their lives. Fortunately, he asked me a direct question about this, something judges normally do not do.

Part of my response was like this: Do you want all children to grow up to be incarcerated at the same rate as are public school graduates? Do you want all children and teens to bully others at the same rate as do public school students? Do you want all children to get involved in illegal drugs and alcohol abuse at the same rate as public-educated young adults? Do you want all young adults to have the same low levels of respect toward adults as do those in State schools? Do you want all American youth to be a part of the same rate of "unwanted" pregnancy as for those in public schools? If your answer is yes to these things, then you probably want all children and youth to spend as much time as possible with public school students.

So far, there is no research evidence that the discouraging rates of incarceration, bullying, drug and alcohol abuse, disrespect toward adults, and out-of-wedlock pregnancy amongst the State-educated are the same or worse amongst the homeschooled. Contrariwise, plenty of anecdotal evidence and some research suggest the opposite.[note 3]

So far there are a lot of reports of the Ten Commandments and Jesus' words being posted in homeschool homes but not posters pushing "Our No Bully Oath."