What do you value?

I recently had a conversation about school/homeschooling with a friend who is very involved in the local school district and who plans to send her children to the neighborhood school.

I realized that we valued many, if not all, the same things.  The difference was in how we prioritized that list.


I value time with family over what I would call a “need for affiliation” with friends.   Yes, my children have friends and we do value those friendships, but less than the relationships with members of our own family.

I value the academic success of my children over the academic performance of the children in my community.   In our family, sometimes one child’s needs do take precedence over another child’s needs for a season, but I don’t expect any of my children to perpetually work below his/her capacity for the benefit of another child.

I value my children’s moral and character development over academic achievements.

I value the control over my children's education more than my "alone" time.  I value my "alone" time quite a bit



I value teaching respect for my country over political correctness.  (I don’t value politically correctness at all.)  I do value good manners.

The next time you discuss education with a friend in the public school system, remember that you probably do value the same things, just in a different order of priorities.