This is the text of a speech I delivered at my Toastmasters group this morning. It seemed to do a good job persuading my audience not just toward my opinion, but that it's something they should be well-informed about.

Just over a year ago, a judge in California caused quite a stir within the Homeschool community. In a case that had to do with parental neglect issues, he ruled that parents did not have rights to determine their children’s education choices and ordered the children into a public school setting because neither parent was a certified teacher. Now, as shocking as that ruling was – and it was eventually overturned by a higher state court – it probably seems irrelevant to most of you since you’re not homeschoolers. But I believe it is important to be aware of the issues surrounding homeschooling for two reasons. First, education is always a hot-button political issue. If you want to make intelligent choices in voting or communicate intelligently with your political representatives, it is important to be well-informed on the issues. Second, a court may be ruling today about appropriate educational choices for our children – and tomorrow the judge may be ruling about appropriate health-care choices for your children, your parents, or even you. When we allow the government to interfere in personal choices that don’t matter to us, we risk allowing them to eventually interfere in personal choices that do in fact matter.

With this in mind, I want to share with you this morning four reasons why homeschooling parents can be highly successful teachers without state certification. Much of what I have to say today springs from conversations I have had with certified teachers who now Homeschool their own children. They have given me insight into the teacher education process and how it helps – or doesn’t help – in teaching their children at home.

One of the reasons critics believe homeschoolers require state certification is for accountability to be sure they really are educating their children at home and not sitting around watching TV. I agree with that. Colorado law does provide that accountability. Just like children in public schools take the CSAP test, our children are required to take a nationally standardize test or be professionally evaluated every other year beginning in 3^rd grade to demonstrate they are making adequate educational progress. With this kind of accountability, no homeschooled child will be “left behind.”

Second, if you think about some of the things that help students succeed, one very important element is how well the teacher knows their student. When a teacher understand their students’ learning styles, likes and dislikes, and status of their home life, then that teacher can customize lesson plans to help individual students. Now, I ask you, who knows a child better than the parent who spends every day with them, year after year? A Homeschool parent has no “learning curve” where the students are concerned. Before the school year begins, I already know I have one right-brained, visual learner who learns best in the early morning and is highly motivated by opportunities to play on the computer and a left-brained, auditory learner whose favorite subject is Art and does best if allowed to sleep as late as possible. I can anticipate how my children will respond to new material and structure the day to best fit their personal styles. So if some of the best teachers are those who know their students best, then homeschoolers certainly fit the bill.

And if good teachers are those who know their students well, then even better are those teachers who care about their students’ success. The current emphasis on testing to provide teacher and school accountability attempts in part to motivate teachers to be personally invested in their students’ success. This kind of motivation can work to a certain point, but it can never create a loving relationship between teacher and student like that of mother and child. Allow me to read you a quote from Elizabeth, a mother who is homeschooling her two children, one of whom is high-functioning autistic: “I am not going to give up on my kids…a teacher might think that they have tried everything but they don’t know how to reach my son, and after one year he won’t be their responsibility anymore, but I am his teacher and his mom and I will always keep trying.” Homeschooling parents are much more personally invested in their children’s success than those who teach one year at a time.

Finally, if you still believe that anyone who is involved in educating the next generation should be well-trained, then I assure you that homeschooling parents do seek out all kinds of training resources. I know homeschoolers from coast to coast across this country, and Ido not know a single one who does not read books, attend conferences and seminars, seek out and evaluate curriculum resources, and ask questions of other homeschooling parents in order to do the best job possible in educating their children. Even my friends who have education degrees from college and state certification say that they are constantly doing these things to fill in gaps related to their current situations. They agree that the resources available to homeschoolers are quite comparable to what they learned in teacher training. Since homeschooling parents are personally invested in their children’s education – not just because they know their children will be tested but because they want their children to succeed – they do take advantage of all kinds of training resources.

With the training that homeschool parents seek out, their personal investment in their children's success, their knowledge of their students, and their accountability to the state, they are well-equipped to teach their children without the additional burden of state certification. Are they good teachers for their children? Yes! Do they need a piece of paper from the state to prove it? No!