...to NOT read it! Looks like I might have to hit the bookstores after it's release and turn her picture to the wall (shhh....don't tell on me, but I get the urge and do that now and then at the mega bookstores).

Speaking of books, I got an e-mail from my bookclub today and it had (NOT as the featured book, of course) Glenn Beck's latest book about talking to idiots for sale. He wears a uniform in the cover photo and I swear it makes him look like a Nazi officer.

...more than Chicago needs the Olympics. The President needs to stay here and work the phones convincing folks to support health care reform with a public option. And I don't buy the argument that he's only going to be gone a day, sleeping on Air Force One and so on. He needs to be HERE twisting arms, making deals, and keeping his promises to us about bringing real change to the system.

How many people sick and suffering, and without insurance, care about the Olympics?

As to the idea of having a big name personality there to help win the Olympics, Oprah fits the bill all my herself.

Sorry, but you asked for that.

What you're doing is NOT homeschooling. Your twins are five years old. As you've aleady said, you currently have the option of sending them to kindergarten or not because it isn't mandatory in your school district. So you're doing what lots of parents of children this age do, who chose not to send their offspring to school at age five--you're sharing your knowledge, opening up their minds to discovery, taking them on outings, and allowing them to be kids. That's a good thing.

But, when they become eligible for first grade, that's when I have a problem with the concept of homeschooling, just as I have a problem with parochial, private and even charter schools. Parents who chose these options are abandoning the public school system, and then turn around and criticize public schools for being failures. You not only abandon the system, you abandon the kids who must remain in the public schools, thereby condemn them to mediocrity while you (the collective "you") point to the brilliance of your own children.

Where's the commitment to educating and bringing up good citizens? The COLLECTIVE commitment, I mean---the one that gives a chance to Mikey, the son of the neighborhood drunk, who has the potential to be a biochemist and find the ultimate energy source? Where's the commitment to Annika, the daugther of recent immigrant Sophia who hasn't acquired sufficient English yet to help her child read and understand literature thus depriving a furtile mind the opportunity to become an award-winning novelist? How about Juan or Antoine who crave an opportunity to learn and rise above the gang mentality around them? Mikey, Annika, Juan nd Antoine are "stuck" in the public system where someone may or may not provide them with the help they need to achieve - and whose parents (if they're present at all, or if they're not working 2 or 3 jobs to just pay the rent and provide the basics) don't have the wherewithal to homeschool, while you and your children are off visiting museums with other homeschoolers not caring at all about helping to fix a broken system--one that is entirely FIXABLE if we all pull together and make it happen.

Homeschooling may be the most selfish of all options listed above. So I hope that next year, when it comes time for mandatory educational opportunities, you will opt for that public school and work just as hard to make it successful as you're now working hard to convince us that homeschool is a wonderful idea!

If you think my letter about homeschooling is the rantings of an old woman, you don't want to get me started on PLAY DATES!!!!!

You said: "Wait a minute. My kids are supposed to help teach other children in a public school system? I'm selfish if I decide not to subject them to this?"

I didn't say your children should be teaching other children. I also didn't say it's just the teacher's job. I'm saying that it involves all of us working together to educate our children.

But, from the tone of your comments, it's clear that you're part of that "me first" society who is too self involved to understand my point that it takes a village. Your child if, indeed, he or she is really smart, has the potential to bring UP the level of education, which then helps to bring up the level of education of kids who need role models, challenges, and goals. And YOUR child learns about diversity in lifestyles, abilities, backgrounds, socio-economic differences, and so much more.

So, I guess you're right. You're selfish. And if your homeschooled children take on your values, I suppose they'll be selfish too. That's too bad because there is so much need for unselfishness in this world.

It appears you're trying to say that people who homeschool their kids are doing it for economic reasons because they can't afford to send their kids of public schools. That's a new one! LOL!!

There's a place to start, by working to eliminate that program from our public schools. It was introduced and supported by a president who bragged that he was a "C" student! It was his ONLY success (if, indeed, it was a success) during his time as Governor of Texas. Then it was foisted upon our entire public school system and should be dumped. It has no merit, as you point out. But how can that be done when people who care about education desert the system?