Home & School

The story about the 18-year old kid from PA who killed his 14-year old girlfriend's parents is at the very least tragic. They're young and in love and distrust of adults comes with the territory. I don't know about you, but I do remember being in love as a teenager, and I would never want to go through that experience ever again. Sure, it was magical - but it was also very volatile and very dangerous, because for the first time in your life, you experience emotions that you were just not acquainted or equipped to deal with . Ugh... just thinking about it gives me the heevy jeevies!

But back to Romeo and Juliet... One thing that stuck to me was that they were both home-schooled. I am NOT a proponent of home schooling, and if and when I have kids, they will NEVER, EVER be home schooled. I would not want them to be deprived of the lessons learned from standing up to the playground bullies, overcoming the Heathers, enduring detention, being humbled by their peers... Experiences which would probably leave them with momentary broken spirits and temporary broken noses... but great learning experiences nonetheless. Away from school, home would always be what keeps them grounded. And away from home, school would be where they become their own person. But if the 2 were not separate, where could kids go?

Some people home school their kids for religious reasons, others purely for the economics of it. I don't know what the Bordens' and Ludwigs' reasons were for homeschooling the lovebirds, but it was nevertheless the backdrop for this tragedy. In the end, there is a 14-year old girl who would have to live with the burden that her parents' were killed by the boy she "loved", who probably would be blamed by her siblings for the rest of her life, who by her actions and youthful recklessness, started a chain of events that ended very badly. And an 18-year old boy who most likely would grow old and die in prison only because he thought he was fighting for the girl he loved. Both of them would wake up one day and realize what fools they had been, except they would not have the luxury of looking back and laughing at their impetuous foolishness.

Maybe a possible story pitch for Her Hotness, Delia Gallagher: the religious impetus for home schooling and the resulting pros and cons.