Virgil,
Thank you for the Top Down Perspective. I don’t believe, however, that you’ll find anywhere in Mr. Woodlief’s essay the phrase (or even the implication) “everyone should do this.” I do find it in yours — and find it correlates highly with a public school mentality of “put ‘em all through the same mill”, conveniently rationalized to the altar of (take your pick): socialization, “diversity”, “bettering our country”, anti-elitism, or what have you. (Though I admit “economy of scale” is one I’ve not yet encountered.) Funny how “individual learning that works best for your child” never seems to make the cut.
If you’re so gung-ho on diversity, how about a little diversity of method? We homeschool, you don’t. Our kids learn better that way; why would we send them someplace where we *know* they won’t learn as well? We don’t see this as some sort of sport with winners and losers (“We’ll see who is more successful …”). Call me crazy but we don’t even *think* that way; we just see it as giving our kids the best education available.
And what do you have against Lincoln? Before the latter part of the 19th century, *every single* “professional in various industries” and “civic leader” was homeschooled — and that seemed to have worked out alright. I’ll put my Washington or Jefferson against any post-Lincoln president you care to name.
