The other afternoon an unsuspecting conversation with one mother turned into a day-long rumination over the merits of home school. I, the guy who just recently took on the role of PTA President for our elementary school, heard about the benefits of home-schooling and thought, “Hmm, that seems to make a lot of sense.”

Herein lies the rub. I have a lot of respect for teachers. I think the vast majority of them are great at what they do. There are people everywhere who are not good at their jobs, so to point a finger at one teacher or another, and claim that teachers are the root problem of our current educational morass is erroneous. But that is not the point. If the majority of teachers are not at the root of an issue where home schooling suddenly becomes attractive, then what are the issues?

I don't think anyone for whom I write would feel that there is any single answer to the ills in our current public education system. But is money the answer to what has befallen our schools? I propose, however that there is one over-arching problem that on cursory inspection is much simple, yet also much more difficult to remedy: something that began in the late 1960s.

Each movement from epistemological era to epistemological era – for example from the era of Enlightenment to Modernism – came with changes to macro sociological conditions. As society has allowed for and even enabled deeper investigations into our current and past epistemologies so too has grown the argument that within each epistemological change are more subtle, subsets: for example the argument that we have already crested into Post-Post modernism.

A posting to follow along these lines will illustrate my position that technology has lead to the growing speed of change from era to era. Where epistemological eras previously lasted for a century or more, the latest era barely lasted 50 years.

But what does this brief, highly esoteric tangent about epistemology have to do with home schooling?

Many would agree that the 1960s saw the heyday of the United States public school system, including the California public school system, which was envied by all. At the end of the 1960s, however, came the magic moment of enlightenment, which lead to the empowerment of many previously neglected social groups. The benefits we found in this moment in history had a dark side: the erosion of the notion of personal responsibility.

Insidiously, well meaning attempts at inclusion of everyone have lead to a culture where everyone thinks, feels, or worse, expects that “the government” – a faceless body of power – is responsible for everything, including ourselves. This is not an argument against inclusion in society. Our heterogeneous culture is one of the great strengths of this nation. But there is a strong argument supporting that our society has become one of entitlement.

Again, what does this have to do with education and home schooling?

Well, my problem with the public education system is not with the teachers, or even the administrators. The bureaucracy is overwhelming, and layers of it are absolutely unnecessary, but it's not the sole problem. Countless countries whose educational systems outperform ours by leaps and bounds spend far less per pupil than we do, so we can't even say that the issue is lack of funding, though maybe eliminating some of those layers of bureaucracy would help!

When you look at the countries, and even the sub-groups of people in the United States whose children perform well, there is one common thread: accountability. The accountability flows downstream. The parents in these cases hold themselves accountable for everything in their lives, and in turn, expect the same of their children. Of course these are grand, broad strokes of stereotyping, but conversely, examples of a waning, if not absent sense of accountability in our society are not hard to find.

And when I'm holding my children accountable for how well they do in school, I also hold myself accountable for making sure they are given all the tools to succeed: getting enough sleep, eating well, exercising, and making sure they not only do their homework, but do it well, top the list of things they need.

So I'm working hard at providing my children these tools, but then I'm confronted with parents who do not. It leads an engaged parent to quickly feel like he or she is shoveling something against the tide, as the old saying goes. What's even more frustrating is that even in a good school system like ours, these examples of children and parents lacking accountability creep up and are very tantalizing examples for their peers. The children who are not held accountable for their school work are constant references for my children for the reasons why they should not have to do dress better for school, finish their homework, or even care about doing well in school at all.

Kids are easily seduced by bad examples, and it doesn't take many bad examples for children to ask parents “why do I have to do this when so-and-so at school doesn't?”

This is where all of these tangents -- tangents all stemming from views of accountability -- collide and force me, a concerned parent, to consider home schooling his children. Me. A guy who would ultimately reach that moment where either he would survive, or his two children would survive. I know I don't have the disposition to home school my kids. I know I would never kill my kids, so I'd be left with having to do a Marie Osmond, just walking out of the house, leaving, coming home when I was ready, whenever that would be.

I'm not knocking home schooling. The more I hear about it, the more I lament not having the personality to handle doing the job myself. I think...no, I know my kids would flourish. Thirty percent of my children's school day would not be wasted waiting around for the kids who don't want to be in school, or who are constantly disrupting the class, and my own kids would not have the exposure to those disruptive kids. This last element, the exposure to some of these other kids, is just as important as anything because I know my kids are those kinds of kids who get easily distracted by a class clown.

So how, as a parent, do you constantly battle such influences without eventually sounding pedantic and judgmental?

Maybe more importantly, how do parents who really care about accountability in our society find ways to incentivize those parents who don't see personal accountability as an integral feature of a constructive society, and in turn influence a new generation of kids to care, and be accountable themselves?

Am I being too idealistic to think that a society can influence children to try their hardest, and become the best people they can be, attaining the highest levels in academics to which they are capable? Or should I just throw up my hands and relegate myself to the understanding that some people care, and some people don't? The latter conclusion seems awfully depressing to me.

RJ Lavallee is the author of IMHO (In My Humble Opinion): a guide to the benefits and dangers of today’s communication tools on sale at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and lulu.com.

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