You wrote: Homeschoolers spend more time socializing with a more diverse peer group than kids do in public school.

This was not my experience as s rural homeschooler. It was next to impossible to get kids together. I know this is less of an issue for suburban homeschoolers, but it was a huge one here. In addition, being a homeschooling dad did not get me invited into groups largely overseen by women; I suspect I was seen as a threat, a sad commentary on our times. Because I was often not welcome into the group, neither was my son.

You wrote: Public schools, as we know it today, was founded by socialists back in the 1800?s as a way to teach kids to act the way the government wants them to act.

Patently untrue. Public schools in the United States are an outgrowth of private Christian education and the Sunday School movement that had their roots going back to the founding of this country. As such, public school was inherently Christian. However, the Industrial Revolution and postmillennialism wrought major societal changes in this country that ended up splitting families and altering the way the Church functioned in the U.S. Subsequently, churches abandoned their schooling programs and “socialists” or postmillennialist progressives rushed in to fill the vacuum (and were often welcomed by Christians, often postmillennialists also, for doing so). Sadly, we Christians do not want to acknowledge our dropping of the ball, nor how our doing so created the antagonistic system we protest today

You wrote: As far as the exclusive club- I would say that is the biggest joke I have ever heard. You have fallen for the rhetoric on this one. More and more parents in my community are homeschooling, over 300 families in fact in a town of about 8 thousand. Our homeschool co-op is maxed out. None of the parents, nor do any of the kids, think they are better than anybody else.

My commentary on exclusivity was not about numbers but about how people who homeschool often look down on those who don’t. I would disagree with your statement that no one in your group looks down on those who do not homeschool. My own personal experiences both in and out of homeschooling speak strongly otherwise. This exclusivity is both obvious and subtle. Sometimes it comes when homeschoolers insist that the only Christian form of education is homeschooling. Or there is the constant need by some homeschoolers to always note (in nearly every conversation, regardless of the focus) that they homeschool. I once watched a room full of women play “can you top my homeschooling credentials,” with each one going one step further than her predecessor to show how she alone was the true representative of the perfect homeschooling mother. I felt awful for those women who could not compete in this silly game of “one-upwomanship.” I would say that the judgmentalism on display here is not so much mine as that of those women (and men) who define themselves this way.

As far as the exclusive club- I would say that is the biggest joke I have ever heard. You have fallen for the rhetoric on this one. More and more parents in my community are homeschooling, over 300 families in fact in a town of about 8 thousand. Our homeschool co-op is maxed out. None of the parents, nor do any of the kids, think they are better than anybody else. all kids in the co-op help each other. 18 year olds are even helping the first graders. The problem with people who think like you is you see it one way and so that has to be the norm. Somebody else said they do not see it either and you say they are in the midst of it. Could this be you are being too judgmental of other people.

Now homeschooling is not for everybody. Some kids need to be in the prison setting for 13 out of 18 years of their life! And then after being in prison for 13 years they are thrown out to the world and they think they know everything.

I’m in Clinton County Michigan, in a small town called Ovid.

Nonsensical … I’m going to try not to be judgemental here. I never understood why we spend so much time IN church but never get out to do real community good; to preach the gospel, comfort the poor and sick, in general ‘they will know us by our love’ Christianity. I don’t understand why nearly every church I attend feels the need to bash muslims, homosexuals, and democrats. I don’t understand why we would oppose abortion but then talk behind the back of a pregnant teenager who is the very picture of pro-life. Why aren’t we lining up at the Planned ParentHood Centers with signs saying ‘we love you,’ ‘we love your child,’ ‘we are here to help’ ? Why is it that the children at youth groups are more misbehaved than the random child in my daughters 1st grade course? Why can’t my wife aspire to be an elder or church leader – why can’t my daughter when she grows into adulthood?

Perhaps I’m oversimplifying the bible – I’m not a scholor of it by a long shot – but it seems to me that it boils down to: what you do onto others you do onto me, wherever two people meet in My name, I am there with them, and ‘understand that I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ Nearly everything in the church should come back to these points.

I’m sorry, I know this is a homeschooling forum. I worked with a pastor that quit (went into banking) who has services for his family (and friends, on occasion) where they do reading from the bible, talk of thier thankfulness and love and love for one another, and adjourn. I was thinking that this might be more helpful, along with weekly tasks to look (for example) at opporitunities to see and practice grace, or forgiveness, or mercy. But then I really would be sheltering my children from the world – no school, no church. I think perhaps I am taking it all too far, as I tend to do.