Recently, much has been said about public education, by public school educators. While I have my own personal opinions of many of the public school educators I have encountered (but will withhold them here, as it's not germaine to the topic), my general view towards public education in America is that it is still more good than bad and we owe much to public school educators in this country. After all, as I frequently point out, I, as a homeschooling father, would not have had the confidence or the ability to educate my children were it not for the contributions of certain public school educators in my life. To disparage public education as a whole would be to disparage them and all they have done over the years.
That being said, I am less than thrilled with those who feel that, because we homeschool our children, we are not "educators". We most certainly ARE, as are many parents who DON'T homeschool their children, but still provide their children with a wealth of educational opportunities that the public school districts could never provide, due to time, budgetary, and logistical constraints.
We are the ones who taught them their first words.
We are the ones who toilet trained them.
We taught them to walk, taught them manners, taught them proper social interaction, taught them to tie their shoes. All of that before they were even "of age" for the public school system. In fact, had we not taught them that much, the jobs of "professional" educators would be much harder.
As homeschoolers, we took it on from there. We have to teach our children not only the basic educational components, but to stand firm against the extreme prejudice they face from a largely uninformed public. Our job not only consists of educating our children, but of educating neighbors, librarians, museum curators, and other individuals in the community who do not understand much about homeschooling. Our job consists of being ambassadors as well, as a higher standard of educational excellence and of community is EXPECTED of my children (any negative behavior or educational handicap is immediately attributed to their being homeschooled).
Our job knows no summers, no winter holidays, no inservice days. Every day is a school day, the only thing that varies according to the season is the level of formality. Every moment is a teaching moment, and we instill the values of a lifetime of learning to children we hope will pass those same values onto their children.
In my case, I also serve as a volunteer firefighter. Our chief once told us that volunteers were more valuable than professionals because professionals did it because it was a job, volunteers did it because it was a desire. Their hearts were in it more. I would also say that's true of many homeschool teachers.
On one of our bookshelves sits a knicknack my oldest wanted to get for my wife when she was about 5. She wanted it, mainly because it was cute, I wanted it because it gave my wife recognition for a role society refuses to recognize. The knicknack is a bear holding a slate that reads "#1 Teacher".