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I always get an enormous kick out of the paranoia exhibited by homeschool parents and advocates on these threads. It comes through so unmistakeably clear every time that I have to wonder how much of that paranoia rubs off on their kids.

I personally believe that parents willing to make the effort to homeschool their kids deserve a tremendous amount of credit. It's the paranoia exhibited whenever a comment or suggestion is made that homeschooling is not the greatest thing since sliced bread that literally scares me. Relax homeschoolers...y'all are doing just fine.

Agreed, the paranoia can be a bit over the top. But, to be fair, "even paranoids have real enemies." Every time my wife and I hear of children being removed from their homes for things like "educational neglect" we get scared. If the State, under the direction of unsavory leadership acting in "the name of the children," ever turned its eyes on our children they could certainly manufacture reasons to seize them. Most of the time, I believe, child seizures happen for at least a somewhat plausible reason. But sometimes they don't - I'm thinking of the case in MD over a Catholic curriculum, the MA case about not submitting proper educational plans, the NC case about the little girl who ran out in to her yard naked. I don't know all the details, don't know if these all resulted in children being removed. But as a parent I certainly find nothing more frightening than the prospect of losing my children. And so, while I twinge at the paranoia, I can understand the rawness of the emotions involved as well.