This is the first of a two-part review of Randall Curren and J. C. Blokhuis, “The Prima Facie Case Against Homeschooling” in Public Affairs Quarterly, 25, no. 1 (January 2011): 1-19.
Curren, a distinguished philosopher of education, and Blokhuis, a recent graduate student of Curren’s who is now Assistant Professor of Education at Renison University College in Canada, here build on earlier work, especially Blokhuis’ doctoral dissertation, to argue that in the abstract common schools do a better job of preparing children for public life than do parents. The term prima facie in the title is crucial for this argument. It means that they are not claiming that public schools are actually better or that homeschooling parents are actually incompetent to teach. They’re just saying that in principle a common school with professionally trained teachers at first blush seems like a better set up than homeschooling. (more…)
A second, fully revised edition of my 2008 book Homeschool: An American History, was published in March of 2017. 
.
Homeschooling Research Notes 