More and more parents are turning to home schooling as an alternative to traditional education. Doubtless, this makes sense. Our homes are where we learn most of what life requires of us; and no teacher can do as much for a student as a parent does by talking, reading, and otherwise instructing a child. Home schooling extends this, and does so quite effectively: in fewer hours per day, home-schooled children frequently cover more material than students in traditional schools.

Homeschooling is not yet the universal answer, unfortunately. There are parents who do not themselves have the education to teach their children; many of them are required to work, and therefore do not have the time; and, sad to say, too many parents simply do not care enough.

When one or more of these is the case, then we are well-served to build schools. Institutional education may not be as effective or efficient as home-schooling, but it still correlates powerfully with all desirable societal outcomes: income, lawfulness, civic participation, personal fulfillment. The bumper sticker is valid: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."

Few parents have all three requirements. And even those who do, almost always need some help. Few among us have mastery of visual and acoustic arts, mathematics, language, social studies, etc., that we can teach a child all the way through the high school requirements.

And for the handful of people who can do it all, everyone has limits: who has the mastery to educate a child through all the necessary college courses?

Is home schooling the gold standard? In the future, will all children be home-schooled? Certainly, more and more of the world is attaining higher and higher educational levels. Possibly one day, every family will have one adult with the necessary resources to educate all children at home.

Quite often, home schooling is superior to institutional education; when done right, it definitely works. Unfortunately, we are not yet to the point that it will work for all children, and for all parents.