More increasingly, the value of education is becoming more important, but also more political. Rising prices, lost of jobs, and lost of tax revenue, is causing cut backs in cities and towns across the nation. Unfortunately, many of the cuts will affect those who need education the most.

While the country struggles to get the economy back on track, parents need to take a much more active role in the education of their children and the children in their neighborhoods.

Parents should use the resources at hand, such as personal knowledge, the internet, the public library and community experts. Parents can ensure that the education of their children will not suffer as schools cut back on expenses, such as the number of teachers, the purchasing of books and other learning materials. We can expect cutbacks in programs, such as music and job related training, and even Physical Education.

The cost of gas and travel will cause many parents to focus on things a little closer to home and by building up the entire community, it help to protect the neighborhood from being overtaken by undesirable elements.

Difference between Home schooling and Schooling at Home

In the last twenty years are so, Home schooling has received much bad press, so much so that many parents have come to believe that all of their child’s learning should take place at school and be managed and conducted by the education system. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The attack on home schooling was mostly political, many people in educational circles felt that if too many parents started to home school their children, the monies supplied by the Federal government would dry up and jobs and funding would suffer.

Many of the stereotypical claims against home schooling, such as the child would not know how to function in the “real world”, that the religious based materials used by many of the commercially available materials would produce religious zealots that were closed minded and anti-social, or that in the case of minority groups, that the children were being indoctrinated into some militant force that wanted to see the downfall of the government. Most of these views were extreme, and has served to cripple learning in the home of many families that were often mis-informed or pressured into turning the education of their children over to the school system, because they believed that only trained teachers were able to teach properly, Ironically, we now find society screaming out for parents to take a more active part in the education of their children.

So how can parents answer that call? How can parents ensure that their child will get the education that they need and deserve? Well thankfully, technology makes this easier today than it was just ten years ago.

· The Internet – the Internet offers a wealth of information, good and bad, but instead of being afraid, parent need to take the opportunity to teach their children how to view that information critically. Not surprisingly, a lot of the so called accepted resources are the main ones providing information that is little more than scripted sales pitches masquerading as news and information.

· Reading aloud – this is one of the easily things parents can do, that will have a profound impact on children. In this day of cell phones and blackberries, texting plans, and Instant Messaging, rudeness runs rampart. Reading aloud teaches the mush neglected skill of listening.

· Writing – I recently had the opportunity to view the penmanship of a few young high school children and was simply amazed at how good my penmanship looked, compared to theirs. Writing is a skill that parents can teach and help to build the self-esteem of their child in the process.

· Problem-solving – this is fast becoming the determining skills that set the smart kids apart from the other kids.