Homeschooling Thoughts

The majority of parents feel affection for their children, and this sets limits to the harm they do them. But education authorities have no affection for the children concerned; at best, they are actuated by public spirit, which is directed towards the community as a whole, and not merely towards the children; at worst, they are politicians engaged in squabbles for plums
- Bertrand Russell





Once all are comfortable with the idea that my kids can function adequately academically ("at or ahead of grade level" will bring on the knowing nods), the "S" word, as it had been skulking all along in a forbidding forest darkly draped in Spanish moss, like some huge, horrific toad, will suddenly leap out from among the stinging nettles and skunk cabbage to reveal its gnarled and grotesque, scarifying even if slightly ludicrous, visage.
-David Albert, in "And the Skylark Sings with Me"







When they learn in their own way and for their own reasons, children learn so much more rapidly and effectively than we could possibly teach them, that we can afford to throw away our curricula and our timetables, and set them free, at least most of the time, to learn on their own.
- Holt