Home schooling - not everyone is qualified to teach

So I guess anyone can teach.  The story about home schooling was distressing.  How do parents reach the conclusion they can teach effectively, as though anyone can, no special skills required?  Of course, a home schooling master who has an education degree, or even a liberal arts degree, very likely has the requisite subject matter expertise on which to found a home school curriculum. 

Can any parent absent the training and experience really be effective across a range of subjects?  There is a reason teachers are certified – we make a judgment as a society that teaching children is too important to allow amateurs to engage in.

Many parents are, after all, educationally children themselves.  What should an educated child know or have learned?  “it’s just my opinion” – well I am not persuaded!  They need to be prepared to compete with others who have finished, for example, the common core.

What about debate, exchanges of ideas, defending your position, developing your own view – autonomy? Living in the world requires judgment – how is developed in a home schooling environment?

And what about extra-curriculars, exploration of interests, teamwork- and not only sports, friendship and society?  Don’t parents want their children to succeed outside the home, in the larger world?

How about active participation in the community, the republic?  This was, after all, the original idea, Adams, Jefferson, Mann.  Cultural literacy

Resistance to testing, validation of learning achievement – what is behind the objections?  “I don’t want the state to interfere in what is best for my child.”  YOU are still the parent; as a parent, you retain a vital role in your child’s education – it’s not either/or.  You want to take the chance that you are wrong, and your child will suffer?

A degree is a credential and represents achievement, certain acquired knowledge AND skills.  Parents need to realize that an independent adult results from a well educated child, and that teaching requires skills that are not innate to us just because we are parents and we have opinions.