Happy to be of Pedagogical Assistance

Our good friend the Headmistress is in charge of The Common Room, one of the premier homeschooling blogs on the web. She and her husband are blessed with a (possibly uncountable) number of children, and have homeschooled them all. That’s part of the secret of their blog’s success: all those young bright young minds are put to work doing research, designing graphics, and developing blog posts as a part of their schoolwork. The Common Room is a content-rich site as a result.

To all of the commenters who have in the past dismissed the idea that we have a significant number of homeschoolers who read our blog: You’re mistaken.

Positive feedback is always gratifying, and it’s especially gratifying to receive an encomium from the Headmistress, who, after all, has very high standards.

Tonight I happened to come upon the following in one of her regular news-gathering articles which she posts for her student readers:

The following items are taken from the excellent newsfeed offered on a regular basis over at Gates of Vienna. It is an excellent resource for homeschooled students in high school and, for some students, jr. high, to use for compiling their news notebooks. Dymphna and the Baron work (and their readers work) very hard at this, and they also are very much aware that homeschooled students read their blog from time to time, so they ask their readers to be mindful of the comments they make. Some of their readers do not really believe high school students could possibly be interested in news, and they do not watch their language, but that is not the fault of our good blog hosts. Bookmark them. Their posts are really helpful for current events notebooks.

Thank you, Headmistress. Glad to be of help!

To the homeschool pupils and teachers among our readers: it’s good to know you’re out there. Your attention will make me that much more mindful of my spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
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Dymphna and I homeschooled our son, so we are avid supporters of the homeschool movement. You may be — as we were — tagged with a reputation as Christian fundamentalist zealots and nutcases, but that’s only among those who have never homeschooled their kids or known any homeschoolers. Those of us who have actually taken part in group homeschool activities know what a rich and varied bunch of dedicated, intelligent, and well-informed people you are.

But don’t be too hard on people who sneer at homeschooling. Either they don’t have kids, or their kids are most likely stuck in the public school system. The latter possibility is enough to make them deserve our sympathy.

Homeschooled children are the best-educated kids in America, as proved over and over again by the results of standardized tests and their performance when they go on to college. The most expensive private schools are hard-pressed to match the education that homeschooling provides.

So you have a lot to be thankful for. You’ve made the right choice, even if it did cut your income almost in half to do it.

To the rest of y’all: notice that the Headmistress is aware of your bad language, but she forgives you for it.

When you comment, please be mindful of all those young eyes that pore over your every expletive, solecism, and grammatical infelicity.