by Stephen Hammel

Created on: June 26, 2009

It must be said that homeschooling is a massive undertaking. It requires time, patience, knowledge, ability, resources, more time, and a broad perspective upon which to balance everything out. There must also be some concession about what level the homeschooling parents are operating in. There can be no question that there is a difference between primary and secondary educational needs. Furthermore, the idea of holding a degree, versus attending college, must be clarified. Any person with a particular interest or skill should hone it by gathering more information about it, and developing a broader perspective on that skill or interest. While this may include college, college is not the only place to learn. Likewise, while many people would be foolish to attempt homeschooling their children, holding a degree is not requisite to being a teacher for your children.

To assume that only people with degrees are credible would be comparable to thinking every musician needed a degree, or every sculptor had to be trained by someone with a degree to be considered credible. Teaching is an art that many have, and many more do not. Unfortunately, our children have about a 50% chance of getting a poor teacher in public schools. If the parent is a natural teacher, they have a much better educational guide 100% of the time. This is why schools typically do not allow teacher choice in the lower levels - students are assigned to their classes. If parents knew who the better teachers were, those teachers' classes would be filled to capacity while the other classes were not. This reduces the effectiveness of the better teacher by increasing class size, and it's just not feasible to have one teacher with 30 students and one with 10. The great equalizer in "The Office" determines, by random act, which students go to the better teacher, and which go to the teacher who is new, or being treated for depression, or struggles with grading, or has no classroom management skills, or has cancer and only in class 3 days per week, or is a professional leader and must be in other classes half the time. Homeschooling eliminates all of this, and if a person has the passion and knowledge required to teach, it is an infinitely better arrangement for the student.

Although parents are responsible for their children's education, it cannot be only the parent who teaches. Any teacher, degreed or not, will agree that being the sole educator for your children is dangerous because it limits

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