Taking back learning from ''education"

Our compulsory school laws do not promise children will be "educated".

It doesn't matter how many tests are administered, there is just no way to measure how much a person is learning, or at least comprehending.

Compulsory laws can guarantee only one thing; that a child is tethered to a desk for so many hours a day, for so many days a year.

Attendance is not the same thing as learning. We take tests all of the time and then conveniently forget the content unless it is relevant or necessary for our lives.

And in this we have the advantage. We can throw out the "scope-and-sequence" and serve up whole meals of the soul-satisfying, delicious variety, instead of bland, dull  institutional fare.

As this new year begins, let us forge ahead with confidence that we are not hampering or harming our children by keeping them home, but by our sacrifice and willingness to suffer loss and sanction, we are blessing them and allowing them the most extravagant and richest opportunities possible!