SM,

Why do you assume that my family does not also rely solely on my income? Home schooling is not an option for us, and is a disastrous option for our society.

For starters, my wife is not a teacher. We pay people good money in my town to perform that service for our children. We have enough time and other burdens on our little household as it is without having to assume a role that is not for us to assume.

Also, despite my love of explaining things to my boys and my deep love of analysis of history, literature etc, I can think of no surer way to alienate my boys from a subject than for his father to become a pedant to him. I’m friendly to my boys but I am not their friend; I enjoy explaining things to them but I am not willing to become their sole teacher.

Perhaps your wife is gentle and tolerant and a perfect teacher; neither I nor my wife is. We’re fairly perfectionistic and would make awful teachers. This is one reason that our advanced society makes use of that old principle known as division of labor.

Finally, you neglect the examples I mentioned of other, far far poorer countries from Russia to China whose students are now running rings around ours in math and science. It is simply disgraceful that this country cannot provide its children with a first-rate education in the hard subjects that more than any other attribute will determine our and their success in the next half century. Though your son’s results may please you, your proposed remedy is not realistic for most individual American households or for our democracy generally. We need to slay this dragon, not run away from it.