“Why is it that millions of children who are pushouts or dropouts amount to business as usual in the public schools, while one family educating a child at home becomes a major threat to universal public education and the survival of democracy?”

So true! We parents who take responsibility for our own children's education cannot possibly be as qualified, or "care" as much about our children as the so-called experts. I say let's compare track records!

Indeed! If I had school-age children, I'd definitely be home-schooling them. American public education truly was great once, several decades ago. It's gone terribly downhill since the early 1970s. Wish I could figure out precisely *WHY*.

Brilliantly said, acutely accurate. We hold this truth to be self evident.

Great Question!

answer= DEPT. OF ED. a giant leap toward collectivism.

The Department of Education along with the teachers unions are the main reasons that our schools are so bad that they have remedial reading classes in colleges.

You beat me to it jim k. I was going to say the same thing.

This atrocity against our YOUNG PEOPLE will continue only as long as "we the people" permit it to. A seperate movement needs to be put in place by "we the people" to stop this.

The Department of Education is the biggest hypocrisy since the Cold War. I as an educator personally spit on the Dept of ED

I have known and grew up with transferee to public high school who came from chruch schools and home schooling. They were generally bored in their former schools and loved the diversity, freedom and sense of fresh air in the later environment, rather than being controlled by a Nun or Parent.

As a homeschooling parent I have faced this issue head on. Luckily my children never got the long burn of government schooling and still had the spark to learn all about their world enough to keep studying independently. They can write their own ticket whenever they are ready. Looking at universities right now is mind blowing -- $50,000/year for 4 years or more, graduating with a 6 figure debt -- what a racket! Again designed to keep the classes divided. Heck, most of the curriculum is reading text books and writing essays -- and we have to pay for this? I am encouraging my children to start working immediately in their fields and continue developing their skill sets on the job and off. Learn to SAVE instead of BORROW for one's life. It is so obvious to me that the world is run by bankers whose sole purpose is to put everyone in debt to them forever.

Where is the supposed argument that "one family educating a child at home" has become "a major threat to universal public education and the survival of democracy?" This quote was just a mindless rant for the sake of ranting...

Homeschooling can be a powerful tool for educating your children. However, you must make every effort to ensure that they have adequate time with peers of their age so that they do not become social outcasts. They must also be exposed to authority figures other than their parents so that they may learn for themselves how to judge whether the autority should be followed or disobeyed. Some homeschool children only obey their parents, others obey everyone. I've seen it many times and I'm still not sure which is worse. You can indeed teach your children everything they need to know from the textbooks at home, but there are some things that they must learn from their own experiences, by themselves, outside of the home. In most cases, it is better for them to learn these lessons while they are young in a public school setting than when they are older and the stakes are much higher.

Everything has its genesis at home.

As the Puritan divine Thomas Manton expressed it:

" The home is the seminary of the Church and of the State."

Every parent who possesses earnest love for his or her child necessarily understands that a parent's signal responsibility is to so rear a child as to equip him or her to become a Sovereign Individual.

State employed indoctrinators are the most contemptible of surrogates for a child's devoted parents.

The "A" from Reston, you have obviously not home schooled. While being an obedient slave, accepting all that the theocratic seminaries (government schools) have, to dumb down future generations, you will never hear from ecclesiastical propagators (4th branch of progressive government - the media) the prejudice, pressure and abuse home schoolers have to endure.

Publius, the first objection to homeschooling is the lack of 'socialization' the children would get. (!!) Heck, that's the PRIMARY reason for homeschooling! I don't want my children 'socialized.' Then of course the next objection is that the children won't obey authorities. (!!) Again, education is not supposed to be indoctrination to permanent obedience and dependence, i.e. to remain a child. The purpose of education is to learn how to be responsible for oneself, to stand on one's own feet, and to treat others as you would like to be treated -- i.e. how to live in the world.

Do we learn or are we taught? Feed a child's thirst for knowledge with honest dialogue, not government sponsored propaganda which provides no nourishment and students are naturally unfulfilled by it.

We still live in the world, and there is no shortage of other people to play with. Guess what, there is plenty to do and learn outside of school! In fact, I would say that we learn more from our day-to-day experiences than from mandatory education programs. Geniuses are not geniuses because of school, they are geniuses in spite of it! ;-)

People should just have the right to decide for their children's education - or lack thereof, so be it. I make it, I take care of it. No government busybody should oblige me to hand over my child to others (and their abuses)

Socialistic indoctrination depends on the so-called democracy they claim we are as a nation. Remember not long ago the Democratic socialist party would not use the term Republic. Now with post election, it is used quite often. The Third Awakening Begins !! Drain the Swamp ! Semper Fi

Oh Captain, my Captain.