Parenting & Family Quote by Ernest Istook

Istook’s line is doing quiet political work: it takes the most persistent knock on homeschooling - “but what about socialization?” - and flips it into a reassurance wrapped in demographic inevitability. “Frequently,” “many purposes,” “interact well”: the diction is soft, almost managerial, meant to sound empirical without getting pinned to evidence. He’s not romanticizing kitchen-table education; he’s normalizing it, sanding off the idea that homeschoolers are isolated or eccentric.

The subtext is a reframing of what counts as “real” schooling. By stressing that kids are “learning together,” Istook borrows the communal legitimacy of public education while rejecting its institutional setting. The phrase “just not in a traditional classroom” is the hinge: it concedes the norm (classrooms are standard) and then politely declares that the norm is optional. That’s a libertarian move in tone even if it isn’t labeled as such - authority is relocated from systems to families, from credentialed professionals to parent-led networks.

Context matters because a politician isn’t merely observing a trend; he’s making space for policy. Casting homeschooling as a “movement” suggests momentum and constituency, a bloc that deserves recognition, funding mechanisms, looser regulation, or protection from scrutiny. The appeal to collective interaction also anticipates criticism about civic cohesion: these children aren’t opting out of society, he implies, they’re building a parallel society with its own schedules, co-ops, and informal institutions. It’s a pitch for legitimacy that sidesteps the harder questions: quality control, unequal resources, and what a democracy loses when “learning together” no longer requires a shared public room.