Compulsory Education and 2 cars killed the family.

That’s the conclusion I came to after reading Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto.

Compulsory Education left Mom’s at home without children for a large chunk of the day. A few decades later it became the norm for families to have 2 cars instead of just 1. This combination made it possible for Mom’s to leave the home and enter the work force. As public schools taught children that life was all about acquiring “stuff”, families put their hearts and minds into the effort to keep up with the Joneses. Now that we have a nation of mostly two-income families the pressure is onto send our kids to school at ever-earlier ages, extend the school day by several hours, and get rid of summer vacation. The assumption is, when kids aren’t in school they aren’t learning or do anything valuable with their time.

I totally reject this idea. I believe the more time a child has at home with his parents and siblings, the better. Of course the parents and home environment make a big difference in the quality of time spent at home but it used to be assumed that home was the place for the family to be rather than a trophy to show off. Families spend hundreds of thousands today upgrading, designing, and decorating homes that they hardly do any living in. The whole family leaves the home early in the morning and makes it home just in time to go to bed. In the old days, families put their effort into making a safe, comfortable, and even inspiring place to raise children and live together. We ought to go back to that model and if that means down-grading to one car, a single income, a smaller home, and home school--I’m for it!