Damn. Nearly as good as yesterday.

Mark

Let's face it. The right side of the blogosphere has the better writers.

Lileks is amazing......and amusing as hell.

If he thinks it's fun and rewarding to stay home and raise a little kid, he ought to consider homeschooling- they only get more interesting, challenging, and fun as they age. Why, if you don't want a day-care worker to teach your kid the ABC's would you want to send them somewhere else to learn math, writing, and life? Back to work...

MEIston, What about the social interactions young people are going to need as they get older. Doesn't this require a larger association with other kids, like a private or public school setting?

Alice in Texas recently wrote very well about this, I think.

Scroll to Why Schools Don't Work:

http://aliceintexas.blogspot.com/2004_10_01_aliceintexas_archive.html

Jim R > Despite the common belief that homeschoolers are shut-up in tiny rooms with their mothers all day, they are actually quite well socialized. Homeschooled children are more likely to volunteer in their community, often attend certain classes at the local highschool and community college, as well as work with other homeschooled children during the week. Most communities have homeschool co-ops which enable the parents to utilize everyone's skills, i.e. - one parent is excellent in math, so the children all go to his/her house one day a week for math, another parent happens to know greek, so the kids learn greek from him/her.

Awesome Amy. So home schoolers are networking. Kinda' like a modern day private school.

I certainly admire all those who try to home school to be sure their children get a good education and at the same time removed from some of the NEA's weird social/political agendas in public schools.

Hi Jim,
Maybe the institutionalized 'social interactions' of public schooling is what we have come to accept as the norm, but it is far from the only way - or in my opinion even the best way - for a child to become a well rounded person. Homeschoolers do not, as a rule, lock their kids in a box. Most homeschooled children I know have more like been set free. My 11yo daughter has 'peer interaction' as you say in educationese, several times weekly at Church, martial arts class, and 'great books' club. Sports, band, plays, choirs, 4H, Scouts, and later on, community college classes are all available to homeschoolers in our area if we want to participate.
On the flip side, my daughter has time to be a child. I personalize her education to fit her needs and interests, and she never has to waste time waiting for the class to catch up, or be hurried through something she doesn't quite get. We sometimes take unscheduled days off, and sometimes do 'paperwork' on nights or Saturdays.
I could go on, but suffice it to say that 'socialization' is a reason some people DO homeschool their kids!

Lileks is a god of prose. I'll start reading him again *after* the election; he warned us this summer that he would be increasingly nuts as the election approaches.