Homeschooling in the Real Universe

Last Saturday we were at an event where we didn't need to explain why we home school our children. It was the annual Rideau Valley Home Educators Association conference. As usual, we had a blast. But outside of the conference, the question gets asked a lot. We had a babysitter who was explaining that they didn't have any classes on Friday because one of the students made death threats, and they had to cancel classes while the police tracked the guy down. On the way home from dropping her off, I passed a high school advertising that their students now could get a concentration in "Environmentalism" (good for getting a job as... well... well what would you get a job doing if you had a high school diploma with a concentration in environmentalism?". And then the report out of Britain that schools want to train their students to use Facebook and Twitter, and to make room they are cutting out History. Yes, the average high school student needs to take a course in learning to use Facebook! All of which is to say that when people ask me why I home school, I sometimes wonder what universe they live in.