Reply #75: I think you have some misconceptions about homeschooling families

[LeftyMom]

In most homeschooling families that I know the father is involved in instruction but the mother is the primary educator. This is more practical from most families because men tend to make more money (it sucks, but it's the reality,) because youngere children at home need thier mothers more and often because the mother is more passionate about homeschooling and parenting in general. This hardly implies that the mother is cut off from the community and it's econonmy. I'm a homeschooling mother myself, I work full time from home. Most of the mothers I know who homeschool have thier own businesses or work for someone else, because it's nearly impossible to make ends meet otherwise.

So I'm home, giving my son the best education availible instead of subjecting to the awfulness local school. Sure, I could send my son to school up the street and add my voice to the other parents demanding change. Would it make a damned bit of difference? No. I can't get rid of NCLB or California's overlapping and equally stupid testing system, I can't change the budget so that there's enough money to keep all the schools in the local district open and staff them fully. I can't fil thier libraries with books or pay for the field trips they used to take. I don't have it in me to bash my head against the wall trying to change an institution that isn't willing to change and couldn't afford to do so anyhow. Maybe that's a failing on my part.

You know what I can do? I can read to LeftyKid and let him read to me. I can help a friend's daughter to write words on the refrigerator in magnetic letters and encourage her to keep the hope that she will learn to read someday, no matter what labels the school system has given her or how discouraged they have made her. I can bring another kid when I take LeftyKid to a museum, aquarium, trip to the mountains or whatever we're doing as a family. I can pay taxes into a school system that does not benefit my family, because I know that money will help my neighbors' children.

We all do our part in our own way. Please don't imply that homeschooling families aren't, we're just doing our best for our community by giving our children the best possible start.