I have seen the future

and it homeschools:

A mother of seven, Brentwood mother Mitzi Lowe also was hesitant at first. Lowe even had strong reservations initially about her friend choosing to homeschool her daughter after the girl had spent kindergarten in a public school.

"I thought it was nuts because I didn't know anything about (homeschooling)," Lowe said. "But for three years I watched her and saw how well it worked."

Four of Lowe's seven children now participate in home education at grade levels ranging between first and seventh grade. The other three are merely too young to begin school, but likely will follow the path of their siblings.

My son Nick graduated from high school last night, even though he's never set foot inside one. In fact, when he goes back to college this fall (he's already completed about half a semester at the local Juco) it will remain the only classroom he's ever taken a class in.

There were 69 kids in his graduating class, though as the MC announced, it was less a class of 69 than a combination 69-school graduation. He also announced that since Midwest Parent Educators (the support group hosting the event) began 20 years ago, it has grown from 13 families to more than 1200.

With each graduation, the parents had a chance to say something to and about their kids in front of everyone. To their kids it was usually a charge from the Bible: be a real man or woman, trust God, do what's right in his eyes. But about their kids, there was an interesting theme: John is the first of 8 kids, all homeschooled; Jenny is the fourth of 6 kids, all homeschooled; Joshua is the youngest of 10 kids, all homeschooled. I looked around at the full arena: there were schoolkids (and babies) everywhere.

And I thought about a statistic shared by one of the senior speakers (who, much to my joy, were shorter-winded and far more interesting than most commencement speakers): 86% of people who are homeschooled go on to homeschool at least one of their kids.

Add it up any way you like. That's a freaking mess of homeschoolers coming down the pike.