So at least my perspective in the UK is rough: endless burnt-out teachers resorting to escalating punitive measures to control kids being raised on landlordism, misogyny, etc. that makes me fear the kind of environment id be exposing a future kid to.
Of course, homeschooling and alternative education is stigmatised across the political sphere, whether it’s for legitimate reasons or otherwise. As socialists you also get exposed to a lot of critiques of so-called traditional school systems.
Do any parents here (or otherwise) have experience with homeschooling, or stuff like montessori, democratic schools, etc?
Without access to good curricula and pedagogical theory, it will be difficult to prepare enough material for a substantive education. Teachers benefit from institutional support, communities of knowledge, and (however bad or politically dodgy) pre-made curricula. You’ll have the benefit of working 1 on 1 but finding the time to consistently research and prepare material will probably be exhausting.
Also, children’s brains grow and develop so quickly. One of the benefits teachers have is getting to teach the same age or age range consistently so they are able to adapt their methods to be developmentally appropriate. Working with your child year after year, you don’t get the same clarity on development.
But traditional schools are sort of inherently violent. I’m an early elementary teacher in a public school in the US.