This is B.S.
Home schooling is not for everyone. It’s for an elite few, committed and fabulous though they may be.
Most people are not equipped to do it. They don’t have the money for one parent to stay at home and do it and most parents are not mentally and emotionally equipped to tackle this. I know I’m not.
A far better thing for Santorum to run on would be improving schools, defunding the NEA, stopping the unions which protect bad teachers, and, most of all, promoting school choice and vouchers.
This paints him as a sort of fringe, holier than thou guy, in my opinion.
And you have just painted yourself as well.
Gee, I didn't know I was a member of "an elite few."
I homeschooled our son from 6th through 8th grades. (After that, he enrolled in an online high school curriculum that is available from a midwestern university for far less than the cost of a private school.)
Yes, I stayed home so I could homeschool him. Husband earned the money. We live modestly.
If I had been a "working mom," i.e. working outside the home, I would've had to spend $$$ on clothing, shoes, commuting costs ... and, extra taxes on my income. How much would've been left over after that? Not enough to be worth throwing him to the wolves in the public schools.
Homeschooling is neither expensive, nor requires extraordinary skill or education.
Your response demonstrates you know nothing about homeschooling.
Most people are not equipped to do it. They don’t have the money for one parent to stay at home and do it and most parents are not mentally and emotionally equipped to tackle this. I know I’m not.
From what I've seen, the typical homeschooling family has a modest income but also the ability to live cheap. (Homeschooled kids have no need to keep up with the Joneses, after all.)
Elites typically send their kids to private schools.
Half the homeschoolers I knew growing up were low income blue collar families. They made huge sacrifices to stay home. I knew single moms who homeschooled too. My own mother didn’t have a college degree.
Homeschooling Is for anyone who wants to try. There are plenty of excuses why you can’t do it. Most of them are crap.
I am sorry.
Yes, some children will need institutionalization for their schooling. Some parents are too sick, too mentally ill, too unstable, too emotionally ill-equipped, too poor, too stupid, too vain, too materialistic, too annoyed by their kids, too undisciplined, too ill-educated themselves, etc, to homeschool.
These kids need institutionalization. It's a shame. We need orphanages, too, but no one is say it is the best way to rear or educate a child.
We have old age homes for the same reasons.
What? Make existing state schools even more godless and more socialist?
How is it possible to reform godlessness and socialism? Our nation's schools are the very definition of a godless worldview socialist entitlement..
That is almost exactly what my "public" schooling was like back in the 1970s in my Boston neighborhood. An old run-down brick building with juvenile delinquents running the place ( and they weren't nice like the Sweathogs) with a beaten-down faculty just trying to keep students from getting assaulted in the hallways.
I wasn't one of the "elite" to get a private or home education but it sure would have been superior to the public one that I got.
Whiles many schools have gotten somewhat better these days, the inner city schools are still havens of delinquency. Until we as a society are willing to expel students that are disruptive and deny them a public education until they are willing to behave themselves, we will always have this problem.
However, you're clueless about who homeschoolers are. They are the farthest thing from elite you can imagine. In fact, they are largely below the poverty line - willingly. They are largely underemployed and many try to have some kind of sideline business - think Amway and you've got some idea. It is almost a characteristic amongst HS’ers to pass on where the specials are, stocking-up tips, thrift stores bargains and, yes, even dumpster diving for some (the rest are too polite to discuss things like that) The point is, we know how to live on margins. They sacrifice the two income middle-class lifestyle deliberately to live in poverty (so government figures say) to do what they want - that is freedom, no?
On the issue of being able to do it, all of us go through this fear and the guilt associated with it. In time, I think most HS’ers would agree that HS’ing is nothing more than maintaining family harmony and consistency with your ideals. Truth is, THAT alone is what most HS’ers are trying to pass along. The improved academic performance (not guaranteed) is a byproduct of a balanced and traditional home. Most of us believe God created the family as the source of instruction and training. It follows that following God's principles in our own lives is absolutely paramount.
You're right, however, about working on a plan for public schools - they are needed. I'm fine with him living his example, but we absolutely do need public education - just not public union and federally controlled education.