Simpler to lie about moving than deal with the bureaucracy. Every state has mandatory schooling and truancy laws. We planned to move out of Texas anyway. Easier to say we’re moving than try to get permission to homeschool my own child.

> my own child.

I've never quite understood this focus. Do you think that because it's your child you should be able to do whatever you want?

No, not "whatever I want." I described taking my daughter out of a public school and legally homeschooling her. I didn't see any reason to explain that or discuss it with the school administration. If I quit a job I don't have to go to an exit interview. Same thing.

As I mentioned we moved to Oregon soon after taking our daughter out of public school. Oregon legalized homeschooling in 1985, before my daughter was born. Texas legalized homeschooling in 1994, the same year we made that decision. We didn't see any need to deal with the public school bureaucracy -- that would kind of defeat the point of homeschooling.

I think parents will generally choose to do whatever they think will best protect their child, or help their child succeed. If you don't understand that "focus" I will guess you don't have children.

> I think parents will generally choose to do whatever they think will best protect their child, or help their child succeed

And society does the same at large, because "whatever they think best" doesn't always equal "what is actually best" for the children

No one knows the future so as a parent you have to make decisions now with limited information.

Society as an abstraction doesn’t decide anything about individual children. Governments and school systems have policies and procedures and rules that may represent what’s “the best,” but I think you will have a hard time showing that schools specifically accomplish their stated goals, or do the best thing for any individual child. Or for “society” in general if you look at the dismal results of American public schools.

Forcing a child to stop reading and shaming a six year old in front of their classmates didn’t happen because of “society,” it happened because of one teacher who had the backing of a bureaucracy that will protect its own existence and workers at the expense of children.

Decisions made by teachers and school administrators affect thousands of children. Our decision to take our daughter out of school only affected us — none of the other kids at that school suffered as a result.

If you look at outcomes you will find that homeschooled children statistically do better than kids who go through the public school system. I attribute most of that to the additional parental time and attention, but as Maria Montessori documented children learn more and for longer in life when not subjected to rigid (and scientifically questionable) pedagogy from professional “educators.”

Actually, yes.