Four boys under nine and homeschooling. Wow!

The secret of home-schooling, however, is that you don’t have to be a master teacher to do it well. Energy, dedication, and good materials are what you need. Your competition, meanwhile, is a system that by design and necessity seeks the median. Public (and many private) school students have to move along in all subjects at a similar pace, and in the same order. Outliers — the talkative, the energetic, the gifted, the struggling — are labeled and interventions (counseling, special classrooms, tutoring, medication) prescribed. The goal is not a full realization of the child’s potential, but rather the system’s smooth functioning.

While I can understand the reasoning of a factory-like model in the public school system -- there are a lot of kids to render after all -- one hopes that a more Socratic mentorship model (maybe without some of the teacher with "benefits" aspects, though that exists in the public schools too) might be a better educational experience for your kids.

I also appreciate that the writer, "Tony Woodlief" has "...a willingness to walk away from home-schooling itself if a better alternative emerges." If it isn't just a personal jihad against public schools with your own children as the hostages, homeschooling needs to be based on results. And if you can't get the results you are looking for; find alternatives. Even if you don't like them. It's not about you.

A tip of the hat to Instapundit