A Neat Definition of Homeschooling

The other day I was doing some internet surfing, and I came across this definition of homeschooling:

HOMESCHOOLING:  An educational method where parents teach their own children at home in order to emphasize academic excellence, restore Christian values to education, and to bring unity to the family.

I thought that this definition pretty much summarizes our main purposes for homeschooling our own children. 

I recently received some pretty sharp criticism for our decision to homeschool  that stated that public schools are where “professionals who have accredited degrees” perform their “specialty.”  I spent time thinking about that.  At first I was pretty defensive–after all, I do have an “accredited degree” in education, but is that what really makes me qualified to teach my own children?  Isn’t this the United States of America where we still enjoy the freedom to raise our kids as we see fit?  Would my children still be scoring in the 98th percentiles and above in their standardized testings in the government schools?  Would they be nearly as self-confident as they are now, or would the peer pressure tear them down?  And so my defensive thoughts went.

Then my questioning of myself took a turn.  Who cares more about the academic, let alone the spiritual, success of my kids–”professional” teachers, or me as their mother?  I invest my very soul daily into the lives of my kids.  I care more than anyone else on the face of this planet what happens to them.  THAT is what qualifies me as their teacher.  My educational degree is nothing more than a piece of paper that sits in a file somewhere.