Replies to '11/24 Great School Debate'

I agree with you.  Our family has been homeschooling for 4 years now, and even in this short experience, I can say with confidence that there indeed are ups and downs to it.  But for me, the ups and downs are situational and not with the idea that I think homeschooling in general won't "work".  For us, it's not really a "method of education", but rather encompasses our whole life.  The education is integrated, and we don't really have a separate and divorced "education life" and "other life".  We embrace all we learn in all facets, and nuture what needs to be nurtured.

I think what many people refer to as "perfect" is the bigger picture, of having complete jurisdiction over your own lives and not having some outside institution dictate to you what you should be, and which influences your child "must have" in order to succeed.  Many people willingly hand over that duty to outside control, and if it's working for them, then I can't judge that it's not.

I actually answered this post to attempt to itemize some of the downsides, and for us I can't really think of any of any significance, except perhaps, sometimes an interesting activity or event will come up and the money won't be there, but even then, that's a personal thing.  Whether or not one has money for something has nothing to do with whether PS or homeschooling "works". We tend to go for most of the public and community events, like free museum days, the library, multicultural festivals, etc etc, as it is.

 I'm sorry you were offended by my calling you hon. In Kentucky we call people hon, it's a friendly name and I in no way meant for it to offend you.

 

My message was to discuss the issue of homeschoolers being defensive and trying to give an explanation.