"The swelling legions of homeschoolers poke a subtle rebuke at America’s ever expanding nanny state"

I am not a home-schooler (and in fact sent my children to public schools), but I find it interesting, and good that an article like this would appear in Forbes. Though I am no fan of Ron Paul, who is positively quoted in this article, I appreciate the fact that the motives for and successes from Home Schooling are presented to the public once more, and this time in a national magazine. Christians tend to bash Christian institutions (including Christian Home Schooling), mostly because we are familiar with them. This bashing subsides some about the time that Christians have school-age children. I think we ought to be more supportive of good things.

If anyone wants to disagree with me or correct me, that is fine, but I would like to ask that you read the article first (5-8 min). And I sure hope no one makes this a discussion about Ron Paul. ;-)

One of the original purposes of public education was to use schools as agents of social change/unity (Horace Mann). When you start out using children to engineer society, where else is there to go?

I wouldn’t have a problem with public education if its primary purpose was simply to provide a foundation in academics and marketable skills. But time, money, and energy are spent on providing food, health care, counseling, character training, and babysitting for working parents (as well as irresponsible parents). The result is politicians manipulating the system to maintain a power base, while children are passed on from grade to grade without achieving proficiency in basic reading and math skills (just check out your state’s NAEP).

As to the article, while I agree with many points made, in 19+ years of homeschooling, I have never met a homeschooler whose purpose and intent was to ‘stick it’ to the state or anyone else. Frustrated? Dissatisfied? Yes. Vindictive? No.