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The Reason why I homeschooled my children may surprise you. Or, maybe not.

I have no recollection of the actual day I decided to homeschool. I don’t remember ever not wanting to homeschool.

I decided long before I had kids that’s what I’d do.

If you read my post, The Day the Doorbell Rang, you know I was introduced to the concept of homeschooling 37-years ago around the time it was just becoming fashionable in the States.

I do know that initially my decision to homeschool had nothing to do with the quality of America’s education system.

I hadn’t yet learned how poor it was or about the breadth of the real education that, as a public schooled child, I’d missed out on.

It wasn’t for religious or character issues, either, that I wanted to homeschool.

I didn’t know back then how public school undermined a child’s integrity and how he’d have to work very hard to get it back (think about the 97% of children who now tell lies to get through public school and remember that honesty is a virtue).

Bullying and school crimes weren’t much of an issue back then, at least not like they are now, so I didn’t factor that in like many parents today.

I decided to homeschool for one simple reason:

It was my idea of fun.

Not exactly profound, I know. Remember, I was young at the time.

But how marvelous thought I, to sit around with a bunch of books all day and teach my kids the things I knew, and how leisurely to be able to go back to school myself.

Because when you homeschool, you learn with your children.

It’s one of the perks.

In part, I credit my father for my attitude because he was a classic scholar and seeker of Truth, and, in part, I credit my philosophy teacher in college, Barrett Culmbach, who taught me that what mattered in life weren’t the things I had been led by society to believe mattered.

It wasn’t about the big house, the boat, fancy car—the stuff — it was something much more profound and more precious than that.

It was knowledge. Self-knowledge. It was in understanding that this life is fleeting, I will reach my grave one day and will I be prepared? Will I have lived a meaningful life?

And, so, a life in pursuit of knowledge became more interesting to me.

And what an honor, I thought, to be the one to teach my children to read; to open the door to the world of knowledge for them like my father and Mr. Culmbach had done for me.

You can see now how the idea of homeschooling constitutes a "good" time to some of us. Maybe it does to you too?

It wasn’t until years later, about the time I started having children, that I began to learn about the dark side of modern education.

A lot of things began to make sense about my own public school experience; an experience that was near tragic, at best.

School is a twelve-year jail sentence where bad habits are the only curriculum truly learned. I teach school and win awards doing it. I should know.

—John Taylor Gatto, Author of Dumbing Us Down

I was fortunate that I liked the idea of homeschooling because, after I discovered the hidden history of modern education, I shut the door to public school.

It was no longer an option for my kids, and I’ve never looked back.