You see them at the grocery, or in a discount store.

It's a big family by today's standards - "just like stair steps," as the
old folks say. Freshly scrubbed boys with neatly trimmed hair and girls
with braids, in clean but unfashionable clothes follow mom through the
store as she fills her no-frills shopping list.

There's no begging for gimcracks, no fretting, and no threats from mom.
The older watch the younger, freeing mom to go peacefully about her task.

You are looking at some of the estimated 2 million children being home
schooled in the U.S., and the number is growing. Their reputation for
academic achievement has caused colleges to begin aggressively
recruiting them. Savings to the taxpayers in instructional costs are
conservatively estimated at $4 billion, and some place the figure as
high as $9 billion. When you consider that these families pay taxes to
support public schools, but demand nothing from them, it seems quite a
deal for the public.

Home schooling parents are usually better educated than the norm, and
are more likely to attend worship services. Their motives are many and
varied. Some fear contagion from the anti-clericalism, coarse speech,
suggestive behavior and hedonistic values that characterize secular
schools. Others are concerned for their children's safety. Some want
their children to be challenged beyond the minimal competencies of the
public schools. Concern for a theistic world view largely permeates the
movement.

Indications are that home schooling is working well for the kids, and
the parents are pleased with their choice, but the practice is coming
under increasing suspicion, and even official attack, as in California.

Why do we hate (or at least distrust) these people so much?

Methinks American middle-class people are uncomfortable around the home
schooled for the same reason the alcoholic is uneasy around the teetotaler.

Their very existence represents a rejection of our values, and an
indictment of our lifestyles. Those families are willing to render unto
Caesar the things that Caesar's be, but they draw the line at their
children. Those of us who have put our trust in the secular state (and
effectively surrendered our children to it) recognize this act of
defiance as a rejection of our values, and we reject them in return.

Just as the jealous Chaldeans schemed to bring the wrath of the king
upon the Hebrew eunuchs, we are happy to sic the state's bureaucrats on
these "trouble makers." Their implicit rejection of America's most
venerated idol, Materialism, (a.k.a. "Individualism") spurs us to heat
the furnace and feed the lions.

Young families must make the decision: Will junior go to day care and
day school, or will mom stay home and raise him? The rationalizations
begin. "A family just can't make it on one income." (Our parents did.)
"It just costs so much to raise a child nowadays." (Yeah, if you buy
brand-name clothing, pre-prepared food, join every club and activity,
and spend half the cost of a house on the daughter's wedding, it does.)
And so, the decision is made. We give up the bulk of our waking hours
with our children, as well as the formation of their minds,
philosophies, and attitudes, to strangers. We compensate by getting a
boat to take them to the river, a van to carry them to Little League, a
2,800-square-foot house, an ATV, a zero-turn Cub Cadet, and a fund to
finance a brand-name college education. And most significantly, we claim
"our right" to pursue a career for our own
"self-fulfillment."

Deep down, however, we know that our generation has eaten its seed corn.
We lack the discipline and the vision to deny ourselves in the hope of
something enduring and worthy for our posterity. We are tired from
working extra jobs, and the looming depression threatens our 401k's.
Credit cards are nearly maxed, and it costs a $100 to fuel the Suburban.
Now the kid is raising hell again, demanding the latest Play Station as
his price for doing his school work ... and there goes that modest young
woman in the home-made dress with her four bright-eyed, well-behaved
home-schooled children in tow. Wouldn't you just love to wipe that
serene look right off her smug face?

Is it any wonder we hate her so?

Sonny Scott a community columnist, lives on Sparta Road in Chickasaw
County and his e-mail address is sonnyscott@yahoo.com.