People often describe homeschooling as opting out, Robert Pondiscio notes, but he suggested something different to a group of “graduating” homeschoolers:
Your parents may have exited one educational institution. But they didn’t stop there. For just a moment, they were consumers. They looked at the educational marketplace and concluded, “This school is not the right place for our child.” Then something remarkable happened. They stopped consuming. They became producers. They didn’t merely purchase an education. They built one.
The most diligent homeschooling families are performing a profoundly American act of strengthening civil society:
Tocqueville famously observed that Americans possessed a remarkable habit of association. Faced with problems, they didn’t simply petition the state. They gathered their neighbors, formed organizations, accepted responsibility, and built institutions together.
I wanted the graduates to leave with something more than pride in their accomplishment. I wanted them to understand what their parents had really given them. An education, yes, but also a brilliant example of citizenship. Their parents saw something they believed needed doing and, instead of waiting for someone else to do it, accepted the responsibility themselves. Whether the graduates someday homeschool their own children is beside the point. What I hoped they would inherit was that instinct: When something important isn’t being done well enough, don’t complain or blame others. Build.