Different opinions

My husband was not against it, but had some concerns about it. The book "Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense" by David Guterson is not a "how to" book, but a "why to" book. At the time he wrote it, he was a high school english teacher at a highly regarded public high school in Washington. He and his wife homeschooled their 3 sons.

I've read on other boards that this book in particular seems to speak to men about their concerns. I thought it was a great book and very well written.

Anyway, my husband had questions, and we found the answers. (Usually by my reading, and then telling him what I'd learned). He also talked about it a little bit at work and found other fathers there who's children were homeschooled. He was impressed with what he heard and this made him feel better about the decision. Now he is *so* impressed with homeschooling that he's also an advocate - like mom2kbeth's husband!

Is this somehting you think your dh could be convinced to do or is he dead set against no discussion allowed?

If you think thereis some openness there and there is some possibility for discussion I would join a good homeschooling group. that would give him a chance to meet other homeschoolers, see some nice homeschooled kids (my dh was scared it would turn them into nerds : ) and see that thereismore toit than books and cirriculums and sheltering your kids and all the other negative stereo types out there.

This weekend we had a boig birthday party for my dd who turned 7. out of 9 kids only two were public schooled. he didn't know where everyone went to school. About half way through the Party he commented that J. and M had bad attitudes that would follow them through life. I made a point of telling him that out of the group they were the only two in PS and that is probably what made the difference in how they enteracted with the other kids (and I pointed out the were both perfectly sweet kids when they were over alone ). I don't think I wqill every here another negative thing abouthomeschooling. Just spending one evening with a group of sweet well behaved homeschoolers and seeing the differrence in the way they played etc. . . was enough to convince him for good that this was not a bad choice socially speaking.

Also the proof is in the pudding. Ask your dh for a comprimise. Ask him for one year to prove yourself. Your kids won't fall behind in one year, PS kids don't do that much in a year that isn't either review from the previous year or reviewed the next year. After oneyear if anyone prefers PS then fine but if homeschool is working then you will try it another year. That is pretty much the deal I had with my dh the first year. just knowing that I was open and wanted what was best for my children and not just wanting to be like all my cool friends helped him think it was OK to give it a try.

Good luck.

We've decided to take ds out of ps for kindergarten, and I thought that when I suggested it, dh would not want to do it. The thing that really bolstered my argument was my personal observations of our son in the classroom environment. Since your dd is in school, another few weeks isn't going to make that much difference. You can go to the classroom either as an observer or as a helper and see what is going on.

Personally, I think that John Taylor Gatto isn't going to persuade anyone but the converted. The good points of his argument are too lost in the anti-school hype. The introductory chapters of "Teach Your Own" by John Holt and Patrick Farenga say much the same thing without seeming so over the top. However, for a quick read, the September 2003 Harper's Magazine had an article by JTG and my dh read it and it may have played a role in his agreement with my proposal to bring our son home.