To Raze A Village

In your April 1997 Correspondence, Margaret Brye asks, “How can we best educate our own children, who are part of a society in which often both parents work, people are removed from the land, and friends and family are spread all over the map?” There is no simple answer to this question. Any solution, however, will come not from top-down school reform but from the heart of each parent. Public schools cannot be reformed because the system is fundamentally flawed; the seed energy is one of coercion and conformity, and diametrically opposed to freedom of choice and individuality.

What can parents do? To start with, we can assume responsibility for our children’s education. This could mean home-schooling; it could mean hiring tutors; it could mean paying for private school; it could mean visiting our child in school as often as possible. The bottom line is that we have a choice when it comes to our children’s education. If we decide that money and career come first, then we are sending the message that kids aren’t as important as making money.

Our experience with home-schooling our five children has brought us a greater sense of community and a deeper relationship with our children, and with each other.