But what if...?

“If I don't force or motivate or bribe my kids, they'll never learn the basics.”

Most of us adults were carefully taught not to trust ourselves or our children. People who make their living providing "education" want us to believe that learning is difficult and unpleasant and it can only happen in their buildings and under their supervision. But learning is what we humans do constantly, naturally, joyfully -- unless we've spent a lot of time in those buildings. The difficult part is letting go of our years of schooling and trusting that we are all learning all the time.

For the sake of argument, let's just suppose the “experts” (and our worst nightmares) are right -- kids have to be forced or tricked or entertained or coerced into learning or they'll grow up illiterate, lazy bums who can't balance a checkbook or hold a job. We're gonna have to “teach them the basics.” How long will it take? John Taylor Gatto taught in public schools for 25 years and determined that the ENTIRE curriculum for grades 1-12 could be learned in 50 to 100 hours at most.

Math seems really mysterious to a lot of people, including me in my school days. But John Holt said you can learn it all in a morning -- when you're ready. It seems difficult and/or boring because we were force-fed in a classroom with 30 other kids. Maybe five of us were ready and interested one day and we got it. Five got it last year, five got it last week, five will get it next week and five next year and five in two years. But we all had to sit through it over and over again every day ready or not. Same with reading. And the thing is, it doesn't really matter if you learn it when you're five or when you're fifteen -- despite what some "experts" tell us.

Grace Llewellyn in the Teenage Liberation Handbook: how to quit school and get a real life and education says that the “experts” in charge of the GED (high school equivalency) exams recommend 30 hours of studying to prepare for them.

So. You do the math. You could afford to relax for a year or two and let your kids “learn absolutely nothing” and you'd still have a few years to get in those 30 to 100 hours if you must. But I'm betting you won't have to.