David Friedman over home schooling

David Friedman writes:

"I realize that I (and I won't speak for my wife) am not a good (read: patient) enough teacher to keep my kids home and teach them for the 2 hours per day it would take for them to keep up with their public school system peers (leaving 11 other waking hour for socialization)."

It doesn't take two hours per day of teaching by a parent or anything close. There are books, the internet, other kids, lots of resources for learning things other than being taught by an adult.

Both of the children of my current marriage were first unschooled in a very small and unconventional private school and then home unschooled—total classroom time or equivalent, at home or at school, close to zero. As best I can tell, they ended up better educated than most of their age peers, despite no curriculum, no homework, no required study, just lots of encouragement, conversation, and the like.

Sort of the way I learn things.

As to socialization, I think making children spend most of their time in age segregated groupings where everyone is a direct competitor and status competition likely to be a primary activity results in less attractive socialization than letting them interact with a range of ages. As they will be doing for the rest of their lives.

Finally, I suggest that some of the patterns of libertarian belief being noticed represent not the presence of libertarian beliefs but the failure to conform to current liberal orthodoxy.