We want our children to get an education without being subjected to all the stressful and counterproductive pressures of a system created by the government and run by bureaucrats.

Watch the trailer for the documentary “Race to Nowhere: The Dark Side of America’s Achievement Culture” for a glimpse of what formal education has become:

To be fair, part of me wonders, after watching the video, whether the bigger problem is that we have reared a generation of whiny kids who cry “Woe is me!” because they have to do homework to get ahead. But I also think this is a valid point:

[W]hat’s documented here is that everyone from the federal government to state and local governments, to teachers unions, to school districts, to administrators, to teachers, and yes, parents have contrived — not conspired because the “good intentions” thing is definitely present — to royally screw kids up, steal their very childhoods, stress them out to the max and generally do them the double disservice of both wreaking havoc in their lives, and for most of them, not really educating them. It’s all downside, or mostly so.

Teaching done right will make children love to learn, and loving parents focused on educating just a few children can do the job better than most “trained” teachers in today’s schools.

(Read previous “Why We Home-School” lessons.)