But...but...I thought universities were in a crisis and needing to raise tuition and all....

Also I have seen the most sweet, innocent, high-performing students go from acting like angels to acting like thugs in the course of a single year. They started out the year trying to please me, the teacher. But when they saw the short-lived satisfaction of that, they began a more rewarding enterprise: living to please their peers. So they began to act in accordance with what the "cool kids" did---with the attendant hairstyles and rebellious behavior.

Don't think it can't happen to your child. He is more desperate to please his peers than his parents not only because of his age and developmental level, but also because 1) his peers spend more time with him and thus become the center of his world, 2) they are more interested in his interests, and 3) and they know him better than his parents. He feels that his peers care about him more, even though this may not be true.  

Sorry if I'm stepping on some toes, but public school parents, please consider this. 

As a public school teacher, you will not find a more ardent supporter of homeschooling than me. I love my students to pieces but I see forty-seven of them every day and I am responsible for their Reading-Language Arts-Social Studies curriculum for the year. I cannot meet all their academic needs, let alone their social and spiritual needs. And they spend more time with me than with their parents. 

I have Johnny who is gifted, Susie who can barely read, Tony whose clothes suggest he is being neglected, all in one classroom. If you think your child is getting all the support he needs in a public school setting, please reconsider. 

Unbelievable quote @ Adrian: "And they would literally rather subject your children to what they themselves characterize as a vicious epidemic of bullying, as long as it comes with proper training in global warming and condom use..."

D

@ Precious Peter "Even if you make that assumption, you still have the cases where the womans health is put at risk."

First, it's not an assumption. It's a scientific fact. An abortion kills a human being, every time. It always stops a beating heart. Before the heart is formed, the baby is too small for the abortionist to find. 

Second, the woman's health is almost never at risk because of a pregnancy. But her body is always in great danger when she submits to an abortion, as evidenced here. 

"... issues like abortion - where everyone basically concedes that good people can disagree."

No, not everyone concedes that. If abortion is the killing of an innocent human being, then no good person could advocate it.

Most important one of all:

Relationships:

1) Understand the truth of the adage, "Why buy the cow, if you can get the milk for free," and walk away from non-buyers.  

@ Glenn: "It was not only expected, it was the law in Britain, wasn't it?  in the 1600's?  (I think Claire mentioned that in her excellent Thatcher book.)"

I remember reading that in ancient Rome parents could not expect their children to support them in their old age unless they had taught them a trade. 

FWIW, the public school curriculum we use, Houghton-Mifflin's Journeys, is heavy on hard work and perseverance. The first semester we read Thomas Edison as a Young Man, whose laboratory burned down and his mother died but he never gave up; Michael Jordan, whose brother was a better player than he but he never gave up; young Temba from Nepal, who tried to climb Mount Everest as a young man and failed but never gave up, etc. I've been pleasantly surprised. 

Yes! Like! Agree!

:)

@ Paul Rahe "We may have to send our children to their schools..."

No, we don't. 

Ask open ended questions that begin with "How..."

"Or could it be that bad people do terrible things sometimes, and it doesn't have a damn thing to do with who the President is?"

Like. 

 I remember reading Nancy Reagan's response to criticism that she looked at her husband admiringly while he gave speeches. Her response was, "What did they want me to do? Count the house?"

Good post. It's what a marriage should be.