Sociodiversity

According to its Wiki entry, biodiversity has four main benefits:

1. It insures that all natural processes are carried out, making the ecosystem less vulnerable.
2. It provides a wealth of resources: a variety of foods, medicines, tourist climates, and industrial materials.
3. It insures that all species are allowed to exist (very basic ethics!).
4. Greater diversity means a wealth of data for scientific study, providing clues into evolution and current biology.

Now apply this idea to human beings... let's call it sociodiversity. Sociodiversity has the same benefits to society as biodiversity has for ecosystems:

1. It insures that all jobs and services are carried out, making the economy less vulnerable.
2. It provides a wealth of human resources: a variety of ideas and skills, more innovation and invention, different kinds of intelligence.
3. It insures that all kinds of human beings are allowed to express themselves.
4. It allows us a fuller understanding of our own species, our many ways of life, our disparate styles of thinking and expression.

And then consider this bit from an old 1996 American Psychological Association article (thanks to another homeschool blog -- only I can no longer locate which one! -- for the link):

[S]chool exposes children to many different teachers with varying attitudes and values, notes psychologist Carole Rayburn, PhD, a consultant to the Maryland public schools. Children who stay at home only hear their parents' philosophies and have little chance to form their own views, she says.

"What if parents are teaching a narrow view that goes against what society values?" Rayburn wonders. "The school is more apt to represent what society as a whole values."

I will reiterate that parents have the right to teach their children what they want. Some parents may teach their children to believe some really despicable things, but what's the alternative? Total fascism, that's what.

Secondly, this article is quite out of date and reflects the old misconception that homeschoolers keep their kids hermetically sealed in the home or refuse to allow them to speak to anyone with differing beliefs.

But lastly and most importantly, when parents teach their kids a particular set of values, particularly when they are non-mainstream or an eclectic mix of beliefs, they are increasing sociodiversity. When China begins to eat up the world's supply of crude oil, we're going to need innovation to maintain our economy. When global warming changes our climate and wreaks havoc on agricultural practice, we're going to need a bunch of different ideas. I think virtually everyone would appreciate a greater diversity of politicians. And then there's the fact that sociodiversity is just more fun.

[Regarding fun and the lighter side of diversity: Have you ever been wandering the internet and discovered that, for instance, there are square dancers willing to pay $300 and up for a gigantic poufy gold lame petticoat? And your mind boggles? Or maybe you've wandered onto a web page run by someone who attends Star Trek conferences in furry animal costume? Or maybe you were trying to replace the hinges on the entertainment center door, which broke after your daughter hung on the door one too many times, and you find yourself reading a woodworking site's flame war about Blum vs. Mepla European hinges? See, I love that stuff. I say, bring on the diversity.]

When people talk about "fringe beliefs" or mutter about children needing to grow up ready to accept mainstream society, I think that somewhere in there is a fear of differences, a fear of bullheaded people whose ideas might not mesh with yours, a fear that we might have to have debate, that our neighbors may one day not be like us.

In other words, there's a fear of the very diversity they claim to be enamored of.