So, I’ll start by wondering aloud here what I would wonder there, “How does one begin to deal with such willful ignorance and bigotry?”

There are simple facts involved here. The most primary, it seems to me, is that the way we educate our kids is one of the most personal decisions we can make, very similar to religious decisions. If Andrew had written an article about how his family had recently joined the Lutheran church, it’s unlikely so many people would so rudely reprimand him and other Lutherans (“I knew a Lutheran family once, and they were so weird!”).

Another inarguable fact is that homeschooling works well for some and not so well for others, while public schooling works well for some and not so well for others. Also, there are excellent homeschooling parents and excellent public schooling parents, along with terrible representatives from each camp.

Until there is evidence to suggest that homeschooling produces adults who can’t function in society at a greater rate than public and private schools do (and let me help you out here: there is no such evidence), then any opinions about its effectiveness are, by definition, prejudiced.

And judging a group of people by the acts of individuals is, by definition, bigoted.

Where on earth are your social skills?

Enough with the grandstanding. Any objections to homeschooling are meant with defensiveness and demonization of public schools and those who question homeschooling.

And in your very first statement, you say something obviously untrue. There have been many defenses of homeschooling on this thread (mine included) that have not demonized public schools. Please try harder.

I question homeschooling because I've seen it in action--and these are the kind of homeschoolers of which O'Hehir would approve--not religious zealots, but liberal types.

And it still concerns me--the parents aren't objective and most of them are not strong at the give-and-take of argument. None of them even has much experience with any children besides their own.

So, you judge homeschooling--and homeschoolers--based on your own, limited, experiences. When one judges all by the actions of a few, that's bigotry. It's a simple fact that many homeschoolers, including myself, were teachers.

I really hadn't given homeschooling a lot of thought until one homeschooling parent started sending me idiotic, ill-informed tracts from her homeschooling mail-list. Then I realized what a *bad* teacher the mom was (not to mention she'd already been seeing a therapist for depression--24/7 with young kids ain't great for depression)--she parroted what she wanted to hear and didn't doublecheck or analyze. Wasn't patient with the kids either. Ugh.

Imagine a fella who never met a black man until he was robbed by one. Now he thinks all black men are potential thieves. Your reasoning is exactly the same as this imaginary fella's.

My concern further deepened when I met some emotionally and physically abused young adults who had been "homeschooled"--i.e. neglected under the cover of homeschooling

(and while this isn't the norm, let's quit pretending that homeschooling hasn't been used as a cover for concealing abuse.)

Who here has suggested that such a thing? This is just a terrible, juvenile strawman.

If this were the norm for homeschooling, I wouldn't bother to post--but I see no sign that it is.

Please, then, present us with evidence, that most homeschooling is negative. Until then, your philosophy hinges on the kind of bigotry of the imaginary fella above.

I noticed in the 2009 DOE report on homeschooling that fewer than half of homeschooling parents had completed college. You really think they're educational experts?

Can you even admit that the lack of education with these parent teachers *might* be an issue?

It might be, if only there was any evidence that homeschoolers fared worse than public schoolers. Why not provide some?

You see, that's the giveaway. You homeschooling defenders lack a basic credibility because you can't admit how bad homeschooling can be.

Another blatent falsehood (two in one post make it hard to take you seriously). In my only other post, I said that some homeschooling parents were terrible. Others here have made that point. So, why again do we "lack a basic credibility?"

So should Andrea Yates been allowed to have homeschooled her children?

Should other killers of their own children been allowed custody of those children?

Should homeschooling parents be exempt from the qualifications we require from the lowliest public-school teacher?

If you think that what teachers have to go through to be teachers makes them "qualified," then you're admitting that you have no idea what it takes to be a teacher.

Are you high-end homeschoolers willing to admit that there are homeschooling situations about which all of us should be concerned?

If you'd actually read the defenses of homeschooling here, you'd know that we're well aware of bad homeschooling situations. But it doesn't look like you did.

This is a lot like discussing geology with a young-earth creationist.

So, how's that for a "give-and-take" argument?

Look, if you don't have the intellectual honesty to admit that you were wrong for saying that homeschool defenders always demonize public school (when that was demonstrably not the case) or that homeschool defenders never admit that there are bad homeschooling situations (when that was demonstrably not the case), then there's not much point in this exchange.

Tell you what. There is either objective evidence that homeschooling is inherently more detrimental than public schooling or there is not. Since you are asserting that there is, then please provide evidence.

If you can't, you ought to have the decency to treat other people who choose to raise their children differently than you with some respect. (Again, this is really no different than what I'd say to a religious fundamentalist.)

Any post of yours that continues your dishonest attack on homeschooling and its defenders without objective evidence to back up your assertions deserves to be ignored.