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I'm rather unconcerned as to whether or not someone sees me as a "professional." It is my opinion that the more concerned someone is about titles, the less they concentrate on their work. But that's me.

Did my teaching degree teach me how to 'teach?' My undergrad provided some basic structure and gave me the opportunity to teach with supervision, but wasn't terribly important. My masters is a different situation. That degree is from UVA and is in the teaching of reading. I could write a book on what I learned from every class. Yes, emphatically, that program taught me how to teach reading, especially to struggling readers and the learning disabled.

Congratulations to your daughter. She worked hard for what she learned and she is deserving of praise. I take a slight bit of umbrage with the SAT comment. You may not have met Valedictorians with 1500+ SAT's, but I have. In fact, my 17 year old has a 1500+ SAT and she's not even ranked as the Valedictorian, but the Salulatorian. (Actually, I don't know what the Valedictorian's SAT is - I just know she has taken one more weighted class than my child) Senior year will determine her final placement. When she has finished high school, she will have taken 12 AP's, including AP physics, calc, chem, English, and a myriad of social studies/history. In complete honesty, no hyperbole, I do not think I could have taught her the majority of those subjects. But at the end, hopefully we both produced the same product didn't we? Two very well-educated young ladies, strong in their faith and conservative beliefs ready to take their place in this world.

As far as 'ruffled feathers' I try to remember that basically as conservative parents we are all expressing the same sentiment, but using different words. You took a look at your situation and determined that homeschooling was your best option. I looked at my situation and determined the public school was the best option. For either one of us (or anyone else) to then point and say that the others' decisions were wrong and that the other committed an act of abuse upon their child - that is where my feathers get a bit ruffled. Unless you live in my community, you cannot know what type of education my children received - and conversely, I cannot comment on your community either.

I believe you 100% that other teachers have appeared to look down on your for your choices and I know that was uncomfortable. I've had posters here on FR berate me for my choices and say some pretty ugly things, and I was uncomfortable also. What can I say but that the world is filled with ignorant people in every ideology, and I can no more control what a public school teacher says to you than you can control what a home schooling parent says to me. But it is sad that conservatives can't put aside the small things and focus on the big issues and not drive away our own.