the longer I go on homeschooling and the longer I talk to new and existing homeschoolers, the worrieder I get.
The default approach is (rightly) we must teach our children to be literate and numerate. However, there are plenty of parents who seem to think that this is ALL we need to do. If we wish our children to be a 'force to be reckoned with' in the future and know that they will be SHAPING the church and community (rather than being squeezed inadvertently into existing moulds) we have to teach them to be masters of their language. Their peers come out not being able to look an adult in the eye or express a complete thought without using words such as 'like' and 'you know' and 'kinda' useslessly and abundantly. If our children can speak in correct sentences and control their use of superfluous and meaningless words, then they are better off, I agree. However, that doesn't make them masters of their language and able to detect the lack of reasoning which they will be confronted with in church and society and defend them from being led by the nose. Teach them grammar (the nuts and bolts of the language), logic (so they can KNOW why they don't agree with something ) and rhetoric (so they can express themselves interestingly and intelligently. I have this lurking fear that the Christian homeschool community is set to produce a generation of 'peasants' - Christian peasants are probably better for society than non-Christian peasants - but peasants are not very effective at changing the world.
Who's going to tell these parents who, in turn are products of an inferior secular-humanist education themselves? Maybe we are JUSTLY heading towards 'control' by the state over home-educators?