I am pretty sure that the future of our nation depends on homeschoolers.

 

There are several reasons why I feel this way.

 

First, our public schools are simply not preparing our nation's young people to lead productive lives - they can't even think intelligently too much of the time.  I was listening to talk radio this afternoon, and the big news story was a high-school walkout, in protest of military recruiters on campuses.  A girl was interviewed for her reasons for protesting, and her answer was something along the lines of Miss South Carolina: (I can't give an exact quote, but it went something like this) Like, the US military is like forcing poor, helpless kids to, you know, like fight in illegal wars, just like they do in like other, you know, countries, like Africa or something, you know? The fact that the US's Army is made up of volunteers was apparently unknown to her. It seems like the poor girl had never given the Iraq war a second thought, and only went to protest because it got her and her friends out of third period - where they were probably having a test - and obviously hasn't been taught in the school system that we have the freedoms we enjoy precisely because our brave volunteer army has fought to preserve them.

 

When you combine this terrifying lack of knowledge, insight and critical thinking ability with the fact that a huge percentage of kids can't read, find Iraq on a map and/or can't do simple arithmetic by the time they graduate (or just don't graduate at all), it brings into focus the very real fact that by the time our young homeschooled kids are grown, they will be the most intelligent people around and they will probably rule the nation.  At least, I fervently hope so.

 

Second, families are extremely valuable to those who homeschool.  I would argue that to us, families are more important than they are to the average American.  We have made significant, life-changing adjustments in our lives to have the kids home with us and intentionally take the time, money and make the effort it takes to educate them and instill values into them, including the value of family.  The average American family is spending the majority of their time apart; so much so, that the Ad Council has been reminding us to eat dinner together at least once a week for many years.  Can you imagine such an ad in an earlier era?  Between school, sports, work, Scouts and recitals, and screen time (throwing TV, internet and video games into a single category), the average family hardly ever sees each other.  But homeschooling families are together every day, taking meals together, learning together, playing, fighting, cleaning, working and doing everything that families do - together. 

 

Homeschooling families also seem more likely than the average American family to have a BIG family.  In 1960, the average number of children per family was 2.33; today, it’s 1.87.  But it is common to hear of homeschooling families who have 6 or more children.  If this is a trend, and it continues, then maybe someday we'll have more homeschooled people than public-schooled people, and our values will prevail. (And yes, I know that it's unlikely, but it's interesting to think about.)  I got this idea after hearing a Mexican woman tell a reporter (during the protests by illegal immigrants last year) that We [Mexico] will get America back because white people don't have babies and we have many children, more all the time.  {{This isn't an exact quote, just my memory of the news show - it really made an impression on me!}}  This also made quite an impression on me.

 

The other thing is that according to Dr. Brian Ray's research, homeschoolers are more involved in their communities, on average, than their public schooled counterparts.  That leads to politics in some cases, but definitely to leadership in communities, making our neighborhoods strong, safe and values-oriented.  It could even lead to changes in the public school system.

 

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