I have been watching, along with the rest of the nation, the stories pour out of Colorado regarding the shootings that took place a little over a week ago. Turns out the shooter, Matthew Murray, was homeschooled using a strict curriculum put forth by the Bill Gothard folks. I feel for everyone in the situation, including his parents.
As soon as it came to light that he was homeschooled commentaries poured forth with the usual offerings:
“We knew homeschooling didn’t provide proper socialization.”
“Had he been in public school, his mental health would’ve been monitored.”
“See, fanatic fundamentalists homeschooling is a bad idea.”
“Why weren’t his parents watching them if he was homeschooling?”
I don’t know the family. . .I don’t really have answers to all those questions. I too am wondering why his parents didn’t recognize any warning signs. Or perhaps they did and just received bad counsel as to how to deal with them. I don’t really know. But lumping together all homeschooling families and touting this one extreme example as something that happens when you homeschool is ridiculous.
In fact, the same questions could be asked about Columbine could they not? Had public schooling provided good socializing and monitored bullying more carefully, maybe the shooters wouldn’t have been pushed to the edge. Clearly their antisocial and suicidal tendencies were not monitored in public school. Teaching tolerance didn’t work for the gunmen–maybe God would have. And of course, where were the guidance counselors, teachers and other “necessary” adults that are supposed to “catch” these things? What’s worse is that in many ways the writings of the Columbine shooters were immortalized and quoted by numerous other anti-social types. It’s as if they wrote the handbook for others to follow.
Truth be told, I think it’s an insult to those who died to keep talking about the fact that Matthew Murray was homeschooled. In the grand equation, I think it is irrelevant.