Recently I read An Army of Davids (by Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds, for those not in the know). Overall, it was a good read, with discussions of how "we the people" make the advances that spur our civilization along (as opposed to our government, which is making advances toward bankruptcy). I really don't need to go into all that, as countless other blogs and websites have reviewed this book already.
Anyway, with all these changes and advances, Mr. Reynolds supposes, the schools, "will have to adjust to train kids for different career options." But should they? And should we have to continue down the same path, with regard to public schools, that we have travelled for decades? If government is not the answer for most other advances, or, really, for anything of real value, then why should government be the only answer for educating our children?
Surprisingly, education gets short shrift in the book, and nothing whatsoever is said regarding home schooling. Home schooling is a passion of my wife, who is a former teacher (she left to have our first child), and we know at least one other family that home schools its children and does so very well. (Of course, we've also heard the horror stories about home schooling gone wrong; as with anything, you get out of it what you put into it.) The idea of people trying different solutions to the question of education seems to be the same idea that Mr. Reynolds discusses with regard to other questions/problems. Seemingly, having an army of Davids teaching children (and knowing how best to spur them not only to learn but to want to learn) would be the best thing that could happen to the children of this country. Let's encourage it.
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Perhaps home schooling fits your situation and would/will be beneficial to your child(ren), but many - perhaps most - need the structure that public schooling provides. To ignore that need is not charitable. Ignoring that need leads to a growing separation between citizens.
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