[sofixa]

> my cousin's son who is being home schooled by the same sort of religious mother is just criminally under-educated for his age

That's why home schooling is just a terrible thing to allow to happen to kids. They can't choose what bullshit they're fed at home, mandatory free public education to some level is the main thing that can help them have a decent start at life.

[marssaxman]

There is no panacea. Many children may be tragically under-served by their home educations, but a great many children are tragically under-educated in the public school system, too.

My partner and I, not at all religious, are home-schooling our eleven-year-old because the public school was completely failing him. Pandemic-era zoom classes were especially worthless. By contrast, a few hours of parental attention each day has him thriving. We have the freedom to work with his natural curiosity, and the normal variations in the pace of skill development, instead of boxing him into a fixed curriculum.