Why I believe in public schooling

Kelvin and I both are products of public schools in this country.  I know many people who have chosen to send their children to (religious) private schools or to home school and, while they're entitled to their choices, I do not agree with the approach and I knew always that this would never be the path that our family took (and am thankful my husband feels the same way).  

I know (and which was confirmed with the year of "zoom") that I am not cut out in terms of patience to homeschool my own children. I do not have the desire nor the aptitude.  Home “piano lessons” are struggle enough. 

More importantly, however, is that children live in a society, not an isolated home or religious bubble. Denying young children the opportunity to learn from people and from perspectives different from those taught at home is, in my opinion, a disservice to them as people and actually harms society by perpetuating the unfamiliarity, if not the "fear," of ideas and others which/who are different (especially of people of different races and backgrounds) and encouraging extremism as we’ve seen (on the right) take over our country. 

I am so thankful to not live in a state like Florida where parents are trying to micromanage and override a public school curriculum with respects to our nation's complicated history. Thank goodness for “banned” books and I hope my kids read them all. While I do not agree with home schooling as a concept (the one exception being as an alternative to distance learning which was horrendous!), parents who really feel that public school curricula are damaging their kids are free to keep them out and stop interfering. Good luck when your kids enter the real world.