Someone Please Explain Homeschooling

Ok, I'm sure this is going to get me in big trouble with the homeschooling contingent, and make it all the more clear to Dear Reader that I am just not cut out for this job, but here goes...

Homeschooling... I don't get it. Like wiping butts, cooking food, cleaning the sty, and entertaining the inmates doesn't take enough time out of the day, there are actually people who take on the responsibility of educating their children as well.

We live in a community with a sub-standard public school system, so for the most part, people who remain in our neighborhood after their children reach schoolage either homeschool or send their kids to private schools. We moved here knowing we would be part of the second group. One of the best Catholic gradeschools in the city is right across the street from my house.

My husband came up through Catholic schools, and attributes much of his success to that. Mind you, he went to one of the most prestegious college prep high schools in the midwest, St. Charles Preparatory High School. Thank God I have all boys because we would not know where to send a girl to high school since there is no equivalent school for girls in Columbus. But I digress.

I went to public high school, but not without cost. I spent the days of my early childhood in the city schools, but then came the concept of "busing." In the late 1970s, they decided that rather than kids in Columbus going to neighborhood schools, they would bus some of the white kids to the 'hood, and bus some of the black kids to the white neighborhoods. It still amazes me that it took them almost 20 years to realize forced desegregation doesn't change social ideas. Anyway, this "busing" concept forced a good number of middle class whites in Columbus out of the city to the surrounding suburbs. From the Wiki on White Flight: "...A similar 1977 Federal decision, Penick v The Columbus Board of Education, accelerated white flight from Columbus, Ohio to its suburbs." That included my family, as we moved to a town north of the city with its own school system. In that town "middle class" meant something completely different than we were used to. But again I digress.

Now, knowing the educational background of me and my husband, you can see why we are both baffled by homeschooling. To hubby, education is something you pay for, and for me, something provided by paying property taxes. And another thing... people are educated for many years to be qualified to teach my kids how to read. How could I possibly think I could do a better job? Heck, my middle kid knows his letters and can count to 20, not to mention, he knows how to spell O-H-I-O, and I have no idea how he learned this (he's three).

Maybe the moms who homeschool (I'm not being sexist here, I'm sure there are dads who homeschool, too) have a better relationship with their kids than I do. I mean everything, especially with my oldest (age 5) is a battle. I can't even imagine what will happen when we add on the homework factor. I shudder to think how it would go if I was the one who assigned the homework.