BLUF: we all have the same number of hours in a day, but God blessed us in different ways. (Sorry if this comes across as preachy instead of informativeinspirational.)

I came out of poverty and when I married (at 26 y/o), I had moved up to making nearly the poverty threshold (over 3 times as much as my mother made while supporting 4 kids).

My wife and I have both worked UP TO 132 hours per week trying to move out of poverty (that had to decrease in order to accommodate going to church). When we had toddlers, it was time for me to carry the load so that my wife could stay home with the children and support my efforts from there.

I usually had 2 or 3 jobs (counting schooling as one of those jobs) and worked my way up in the businesses in order it get down to only one job at a time. God blessed our efforts and we were able to shift our priorities repeatedly in order to balance and rebalance our responsibilities.

Unfortunately, I have forgotten how to sleep (I average 3-5 hrs per night over the past 3 decades), but after the initial few years, I haven’t let that bother me much. Point is that there are 24 hours in every day for every person. How we use those hours is PRIMARILY our choice.

Homeschooling isn’t for everybody, but I recommend making sacrifices elsewhere for those who feel called to try it.

Side note: My son-in-law is one of 11 children and they were all home-schooled exclusively; some all the way to the first year of so of college. They all went on to get advanced degrees (except those still in school) and my son-in-law now has a master’s degree and will be promoted to Major in the Air Force w/in the next year. (They all have far nicer homes than mine as well. BTW, their dad made it to the enlisted grade of E-8, so you don’t have to be rich to do it either (just highly motivated and dedicated to this as a priority).

BLUF: Raising young people to be critical thinkers is one responsibility of parents. (Prov 22:6)

I wanted my children to have a good public education when they were growing up. Finally, when my oldest was in 5th grade, I saw I was wrong and started homeschooling her for 4 years (retracting 5th in the remaining 5months and then 6th-8th grade) until she reached high-school; then I put her in the most advanced program they offered in the assigned public high school.

Side note: What convinced me her public education in her assigned school was not acceptable was when they were teaching her Mayan math. One evening my wife (a woman with a medical bachelor’s degree) called me and asked when I’d get off work so I could help her with her math homework since she couldn’t figure it out and I had a science master’s degree. I came home and looked at the problems and all through the book and there were dots that were worth one and other dots worth 20, but no way of distinguishing which was which. “They don’t have enough info to determine these problems, but no problem”, I said, “just make an assumption as to the difference and make the rule and stick with it. Turn in the homework and ask the teacher how you should have known the the rules weather you get them all right or all wrong”. She didn’t feel comfortable phrasing the question, so I wrote out the question for her to ask the teacher. The teacher angrily answered, “I don’t know; that’s just what the answers are in the answer book”.

As her parent, it was my responsibility to provide for our children. Even though I was paying a lot in taxes for their education, I had to purchase their books and equipment; and my wife and I spent the time and effort teaching them not only the facts, but how to learn those facts. (It paid off as she excelled and her BSRN was mostly paid by scholarships and her sister story was similar). She wasn’t a victim of the public school system and we weren’t victims. We just had a challenge. The responsibility was always ours; we simply needed to stop deluding ourselves into thinking our taxpayer dollars were going toward a valuable education.

It appears you are in the minority. Most people are all about “group think” so all their thinking is done with somebody else’s brain (and motives). I would personally prefer to have more people thinking and contributing to my own thoughts. Even if their ideas are “wrong”, as long as they are honest, they can lead to a broader perspective that may even improve the final outcome.