by Mike Miller

Created on: January 12, 2009   Last Updated: January 14, 2009

At present, in the United States, homeschooling is a far better educational choice for parents than public education through elementary school, and possibly also high school.

Parents must consider all factors that impinge upon the growth and development of their children. All factors considered, public education is not doing its job sufficiently well to merit confidence. Private education may, in limited cases, be up to snuff, but it is spotty, and cannot be chosen arbitrarily.

Formal education is value deficient. In fact, at present, the public schools are inculcating values that are diametrically opposed to basic family values. For that reason, public school systems should be shunned. Raise your children at home, educate them there, but do not isolate them.

It must be granted that higher level educational processes do require formal schooling. After the student has been well grounded in personal responsibility and right-minded values, formal education is mostly a mental discipline. Early childhood education is an entirely different proposition altogether. Young children are so impressionable, it seems irresponsible to relegate the development of value recognition in one's own children to individuals and institutions whose values may be inimical to the parents' values.

Curriculum-wise, primary education is not a high tech operation. Reading and basic math are the most important skills for children to acquire. I cannot help but think of Abraham Lincoln learning his "letters" with a piece of coal on the back of a shovel ! Certainly the home, and the close attention of a parent, far excel the circumstances of a crowded classroom.

The driving force behind public education is no longer the need to support an informed democracy by developing educated masses. The driving force behind elementary public education is the economic need to have two income earners in the family. Families are being coerced to hand over their children to the custody of the State. The decision to homeschool must be made int he face of several intimidating factors. Yet, it is a decision that ought to made if at all possible - for the sake of your children.

Negative socialization factors of public school systems are a key liability. The family environment, on the other hand, tends to plug the child into healthy relationships that are supported and endorsed by the presence of adults. The school, perforce, isolates children among themselves in an environment where an underworld of cruelty and callousness remain active and unchecked. The socialization process of the public school is more often than not something to be avoided.

The question before us is a no-brainer. It's not even close. Children born into a home should be educated in the home until such time as they require higher level course work. Efforts to reverse this process are actions that mask the intrusion of the State into realms where it has no right to trespass, and must be repulsed at all cost.

Learn more about this author, Mike Miller.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.