GD- just so you know: Here in Spokane School district 81, a child has to be at least two years behind to receive any remedial services. Attending public school is no guarantee that the needs will be identified in a timely manner, let alone addressed in the same.

Since government agencies are, at least theoretically, our proxies, it depends on what's being indoctrinated. Civics, civility, patriotism are commonly indoctrinated in our schools.

As to the larger point, clearly, students should not be punished for attempting to defend unpopular positions in a persuasive manner. What is the home schooling alternative that you envision? More openminded approaches to analytical writing or simply indoctrination of different ideas?

Good question, Strangler.

Being that teaching often includes value judgements of events or facts themselves, it seems to be the right of parents to protect their children from value indoctrination that they would deem as harmful. Often times NOT including value judgements is a statement in and of itself. These are not the children of the state, they are minors in the care of their parents.

So yes, I agree that indoctrination through opinions and methodologies and body language or tone of voice or whatever will take place when there is education. If I object to the values my child is picking up in the government schools I should have the right to pull that child out and teach that child myself.

I think I agree with requiring a college degree, but a teaching certificate might be a bit much (odd as that seems). I could see requiring a one-semester course in teaching that the parent can do before, or concurrent to, starting to teach their child.

I don't understand all the methodology stuff with teaching. Seriously. Some trained teacher is supposed to understand better than I do how my child learns the best when I've been raising my child and to the teacher my kid is just one of 25-30 kids who may learn in a completeyl different fashion.

Let alone the one on one time (or if not one on one, a better teacher-student ratio is going to exist in the home without a doubt).

Traci - what happens when the kid who's been doing art for 90% of their time decides they need to go to college for whatever reason. College degrees are almost manditory for many jobs, even things like receptionists. If you don't have a degree on your resume they don't even bother. So if they go to college how to they catch up on things like math and science which would be required courses? I'm just curious.

Scaeagles - Personally I want my child to understand that other people have values different than my own. Seeing and understanding that will, I hope, help her to choose her own values. And some may be different than mine.

All I have to do is look at my kid, and I can tell by her expression if she is 'getting' the material being taught. If not, I simply re-state it in terms that I think she will understand. This is not something one can expect a teacher to do when they have so many other students to deal with at the same time. However, with Deaf/Hard of Hearing students, this is something that has to be done to ensure they get the same information hearing students get. Since the school district was unwilling to hire an oral facilitator, we had no choice but to pull her out and teach one-on-one. In our case, the District knows what they need to do to give my child what the law requires- they were simply unwilling to do it. I know I am not the only example of the public school system's failure to do what the laws of the land require. I could have sued, but I have neither the time or the money to do so. Homeschooling was our only answer, as it is for thousands of others. Yes, it can be done badly, but so can public school.

A good teacher, absolutely. Would you say the same of doctors?

By most accounts, I'm a math genius. I knew more about calculus than my calculus teacher did before I began taking the class. And yet I have tried countless times to tutor people on basic algebra...and have failed miserably. I am a terrible teacher, I don't understand it at all. It's a skilled occupation. No amount of restating it until they get it has ever done me any good. I simply do not possess the skill of passing my knowledge on.

Traci - would your parents have made good homeschool parents? Nevermind, I think know the answer to that based on what you've said about your family. Odds are, many of the same qualities that would have made them poor homeschool teachers are the same that lead you to feel unserved by your education. There is a HUGE misconception that the goal of public education is to dump your kids and have them magically absorb knowledge. The reality is that any education system can do no more nor less than provide a framework in which to learn. Success relies on active (and productive) participation by the student in the learning process and by the parent in the student's learning process. I'm sure Traci and Wendy and others are in a better position to confirm this, but my suspicion is that a good chunk the homeschool community are people with parents that didn't do much to reinforce good learning while they were in public school and therefore have a bad impression of it.

And Wendy, like I said before, no one is arguing that there isn't a place for homeschooling. At least, I'm not. No system can fit everyone's needs and homeschooling is absolutely the right choice for some. All I'm saying is that not allowing for some level of accountability is not a workable option. While it may be true that the majority of the 200,000 homeschool students are doing just fine, even a small percentage of 200,000 is too many kids getting left behind (to coin a phrase) or worse as in the case that lead to this ruling.

I would suggest that public school is done badly FAR more often than home schooling is done badly.

This is based on the premise that public education does better. I do not support that premise.