Stop using things like this to further your “bubble” ideology.
Protecting children from sexual assault by not putting them in situations in which they are not likely to be sexually assaulted is not *bubble* raising our children.
We homeschooled our three for a total of 12 years. I graduated my oldest from highschool in 11th grade. For her senior year she went to the local public high school (in a small God's country community), and attended a BIG name private secular university entering in their honors program.
Likewise for my other two. The vast majority of their schooling was homeschooling with some public schooling in highschool before going on to secular private big name universities also entering in their honors programs.
There is a world of difference between sending a 10 year old child to a hell hole government school and a 18 year old well grounded in their faith to a secular university.
Nobody is advocating protecting the child forever. It's hardly bubble mentality to homeschool a child in a bad situation anymore than it is to make the decision to live in a protected flyover country community where it is safer to send the child to the public school. Could it not also be considered that moving to a God's country flyover community also protecting your child from the *real* world is *bubble* mentality?
When we homeschooled, we lived in a bad welfare community. There were drug busts in the house next door, one family's children were removed from their home when it was discovered that the mother's boyfriend was molesting her 5 year old daughter, there were a couple kids from different families who were vying for being voted most likely to grow up to be a serial killer.
Hell would freeze over before sending my kids to public schools in those situations. It was like living an episode of COPS. We'd watch COPS on TV and laugh because we recognized all the situation and types of behavior the people on that show displayed.
We moved out of there to a new community which is like living on a different planet, like the situation you find yourself in. It was then that we decided to send them to the local SMALL public high school.
Did we protect our children from probable abuse? I have no doubt. Were they sheltered and raised in a bubble? Not on your life. Even just living in that community gave them an education that they haven't forgotten.
I KNOW that you would never advocate sending a child into certain situations within the Catholic church because of the sexual abuse that has been exposed in it, yet I would never dream of accusing you of bubble raising your children for protecting them that way.
If you have a public school that you have that kind of confidence in and feel comfortable sending your child to, have at it. More power to you.
But don't disparage those of us who for very legitimate reasons advocate homeschooling for the protection of our children until you live in the situations that some of us have lived in. You don't, can't, know until you've been there.
FWIW, my oldest is now living out on her own finishing up grad school, my second is engaged and the youngest is still in college. They are all walking with the Lord, strong in their faith, knowing what they believe and why they believe it.
Yes, we protected them when they were young and they needed it. It was our God given responsibility as their parents. They are adults now and we have let go and they are doing fine.
One of my most vivid memories was my mother telling me to stay away from so-in-so down the street and sort of insisting I stay away from the much older sibling of my closest friend at the time. The two older boys (one Catholic and one Protestant and both of them private-schooled) attempted to have some younger boys in our neighborhood service them. I’m sure this was due to the influence of the internet, tv, public schools, etc. /sarcasm (this happened almost 40 years ago.)