I live in a subculture that is hostile to "government schools," but I still send my kids to those schools. I don't intend to explain my educational decisions here. I mention the environment in which I live so that the reader will understand that it has often been necessary for me to defend my decision to send my kids to the government schools. "Don't you understand that they want to brainwash your kids?" (Btw, Harvard now is proving that my homeschooling friends' suspicions are correct.) In my own defense, I have often said that if a teacher thinks he can be more influential over my kids than I am, then I pity that fool. Four out of my five children are grown now, and so I can say with some certitude that I think I was right.
In fact, I think both the left's attack on homeschooling and the right's attack on public education really are, at best, proxies for a bigger fight -- for presumptive control over the upbringing of children. As long as parents are primarily responsible for the upbringing of their children, I believe parents will be the primary influencers over those children, no matter how those kids are educated. The left gains little by effectively forcing almost all parents to send their kids to the government schools. I offer my four oldest children as exhibits 1-4.
This fight is not really about the quality of education. Kids with poor home lives will struggle whether they're home schooled or educated by the government. I am sad to report that I see examples of both all the time. Government schools cannot rescue kids from bad homes. And, of course, home schooling can't either. Kids in great homes will thrive both in a home schooled environment and in the government schools. I've seen plenty of examples of both of those as well.
The reason that I am firmly behind the home schoolers in their debate with the elites (even though I send my kids to the government schools) is that I believe that it is vitally important that fit parents be primarily responsible for the care of their children.
