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The governments in most (all?) civilised countries do regulate schooling, for the well being of the pre-16 children. As a way of ensuring they are actually taught to spell and add, and whatever else the government requires. So that the child will be able to interact with society when he/she/it eventually emerges from their protective cocoon.

That's why.
Actually, I'm not sure that's quite right, though I guess motivations can get murky. But I figured the reason we have a public education system is because a country with educated citizens is going to be stronger than one without. So public shool is not really for the welfare of the children specifically, but for the country and its future. Following this logic, since home schooling tends to lead to very well educated people, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to regulate it. If people were taking their kids of out school to educate them at home and they turned out to be complete idiots, then it'd be a different question altogether.

But I really didn't mean to imply there should be NO regulation, only that it should be very light as to the content of what is being taught.

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But there's still lots of play for specific slants to what is taught, and I suppose that's what is of concern to the original poster here.
Well yes, and that whats what I was getting at. There should be a lot of play for specific slants. What a person believes about the world shapes who he or she becomes, and much of this is taught in school. And make to mistake, school reaches far beyond just learning to spell and add. There are definitely patterns of thinking emphasized in a public school that are not consistent with what I believe. This is no great conspiracy- at certain points a decision has to be made about what to teach, and sometimes the decision doesn't go my way. But as a parent, it seems to me that I should have the freedom to teach my children in the way of my beliefs, not just what society has agreed upon. This can be done by explaining to my children that not everything they are taught in school is necessarily correct (which is the avenue my parents took) and constantly evaluating what their teachers are telling them, or by putting my children in a private school or home schooling. Of course, even in a private school there's going to be some parent regulation over what is being learned by the child, and that's a good thing. Parents SHOULD be that invovled and children do need to learn that there are times to question even what teachers tell them.
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-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.