Hi Abaddon, Long time no argue, eh? lol Good to talk with you again. Actually, we started home-schooling our daughter for very practical reasons. We were traveling too much between continents to put her into school without it being very disruptive. I am a stay-at-home-mom, and educated quite well, so I can teach her at least the basics, and we can find the rest in libraries, textbooks, etc. Here in America, the home-schooling population is growing by leaps and bounds, and it's not just for religious fanatics anymore. (Or as the political comedian, Mark Russell put it the other night, "It's not just for white supremacists in Idaho anymore")
Now that we are settled in one place, we are making sure she gets socialization through community-offered outings, like the local aquatic center, community center, non-religious based homeschool groups, etc. She takes guitar lessons at the town music shoppe. We belong to a large family who she sees often, also.
We object to public schooling, as in the State we live, the public schools are in a horrible mess. Funding is again being cut to them, and the state of the school system in Missouri is just deplorable. Yes, she is not maturing as fast as the public schooled children, but I look on that as a Good thing. As far as the drug education goes, believe me, she has three grown sisters, one whom has explored that issue quite nicely, who can teach her the pros and cons, and I do believe the cons outweigh the pros when it comes to drug use, although I'm sure you're quite ready to debate that issue, lol. I firmly believe that learning from parents far exceeds anything which can be learned from peers and peer pressure. No roomful of 10 year old's is going to have the life experience to be telling another ten-year-old how to live properly for the good of their health and well-being. And alot of teachers today grew up in an atmosphere of recreational drug use themselves, so they're not going to be teaching my child what I wish them to learn.
That goes to another issue of public schooling. Once you enter your child in public schools, the government views your child as THEIR property. MANY school officials, and I say this by experience, look upon the parents as not having any more say in their children's upbringing. They take on the role of a socialist government, trying to tell the parents how they are to raise and teach their children. I'm totally against this mentality and behavior. And I've seen it for myself when my older children were in school. No way will I give in to the US government's new "socialist regime" way of thinking and lawmaking.
Okay, enough of my soap box speech. Again, good to talk with you, Abaddon. I hope you and yours are doing well.
RCat