Why don't more parents homeschool?

My wife and I are strong believers in homeschooling. We see great value that homeschooling provides in areas like the individual attention, the strong family relationships and the better moral environment. At one point I had a list of over fifty reasons why people should homeschool.

Every year there are more and more articles about the problems with public schools in the United States. Many children never graduate from high school and many of those who do graduate are functionally illiterate. Public schools are rarely a positive environment often including gangs, bullying and drugs. These government schools have become hostile to religion and basic Christian values. For a great summary of the dozens of problems with government schools check out Thomas Sowell's Inside American Education.

With all the problems in public schools why don't more parents homeschool?

It seems like many parents don't take the plunge because: It is too hard.

Because homeschooling is unknown many people feel like it is an incredible amount of work. There are a couple issues here. One is a concern over the amount of time needed to homeschool. A second is a belief by many parents that they are unable to homeschool their own children.

I am sure that many parents would be surprised at how easy homeschooling is, maybe even easier than public schools.

Having children in public schools today is a lot of work, from the constant fund raisings, the carpooling, all the late evening homework sessions and so on, having children in government schools takes a lot of time. Most parents would be surprised by how little time it takes to homeschool.

Much of the challenge teachers face in public schools is learning how to control a class of 25 plus students. Parents shouldn't have this problem. (An out of control child is a bigger problem than education.) There are dozens of ways for parents to get help. There are local support groups. There are online aids. There are blogs and magazines.

Janine and I have blogged for almost seven years now.  One of the reasons we keep going is we want to provide support and encouragement so more parents recognize that they can and should homeschool their children.  Hopefully over the next decade or so more and more parents will come to see the value of homeschooling and save their children from the cesspool of government schools.

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