Alan Jacobs rebuffs old arguments made against homeschooling which say to keep your children from public school is to ignore your “missional” responsibilities as a Christian. Jacobs replies that we need to think in longer terms. He says:

Because when properly understood education is for something — it is preparatory to the assumption of full adult responsibilities. In John Milton’s great essay “Of Education” he writes, “I call therefore a compleat and generous Education that which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully and magnanimously all the offices both private and publick of Peace and War.” You might feel that you’re doing your part for the “societal contract” by sending your kids to public schools for twelve years, and indeed you might be — but what if those schools do little or nothing to prepare those kids to serve the communities in which they live for the remaining sixty or seventy years of their lives? Intrinsic to both conservatism and Christianity as I understand them is the necessity of thinking in the longest possible terms, and well beyond the impulses, gratifications, and calculations of the present moment.

The girl in the photo above was in 11th grade in 2011 and was taught at home. She is reciting a poem in a county library contest, in which she won second place in her bracket.