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The credentials are called "parent."

You don't think its a good idea for someone to know something before they try to teach it?

As a former trainer in a large school district, I have to weigh in here. If parents knew the quality of teachers in classrooms today, far more would pull their kids out of public schools. Add to that the bullying, intense peer pressure, drugs, violence and secularism that is taught, and you don't have anything worth supporting.

The homeschool parents I know are doing a far better job of educating their children. The public school assumes the curriculum chosen by the state will suit every child in every age level in every classroom. There is no room for deviation. As a HS parent, I can adjust our curriculum if I find that it's too much seatwork for my 6 yo son or moves too slowly or quickly for either child.

Most public school teachers work very hard, but they're in a system that is not set up for excellence. They're set up to produce EXACTLY what is being produced today. Go check out My Space if you doubt me. In that regard, they are extremely successful.

You don't think its a good idea for someone to know something before they try to teach it?

Whoa! You really don't have a clue, do you? The requirements for getting teaching credentials require no real knowledge whatsoever, just lots of leftist mumbo-jumbo about "educational theory". Some years back, Massachusetts became sufficiently alarmed that they tried to institute a "basic skills" test as a requirement for getting a teaching certificate. It was keyed to the 6-7th grade level -- IOW, the prospective teacher had to demonstrate that their OWN academic competence was at least at that grade level. The union fought like hell and prevented the state from requiring existing teachers to pass it, but lost on the issue of new teachers applying for credentials in the state for the first time.

So you might think that now all public school teachers in Massachusetts can function at least at the 6-7th grade level. Wrong. Such a huge percentage of the would-be teachers -- most of them graduates of 4 year "teacher colleges" -- flunked the test that the state gave up, eliminated the requirement and gave them all teaching licenses anyway, since otherwise hundreds of classrooms would have been lacking babysitters the following year. Other states have had similar experiences, and I'm sure the lefty la-la land of California is no different.

I home schooled my youngest. I reviewed his lessons before I taught them. If I "got stumped" on something which occasionally happened with math problems, I resourced and figured it out. I didn't hide this from my son either. I taught him how to find answers. I have a college degree in science but I believe I could have done this without it. There are many talented, caring teachers in the public school system but they were not able to teach my child. It wasn't easy but I could.

That said, parents know best. Yeah, there may be some that let their kids run wild under the disguise of home schooling but this happens in public school too. I think you will find that most home schooling parents take the responsibility very seriously and if anything we "over teach" them:')

“You don’t think its a good idea for someone to know something before they try to teach it?”

That’s the whole problem with teaching “credentials” - they don’t teach you anything you are going to teach.