I’ve been preparing an outline for a podcast about “Where Are All the Good Men?” and I only get to have like 7 questions. But one of the issues that gets a question is my obsession with homeschooling. I didn’t always like homeschooling, but the more I studied it, the more important it became. In my opinion, good men will insist on homeschooling out of a candidate wife, because it’s critical.

Here’s a story about a new study that I found in The Federalist:

A recent report from the Cardus Education Survey analyzed educational, economic, mental health, civic, family, and faith status for American adults who were homeschooled and found a range of outcomes within a diverse population.

[…]The most notable differences between homeschoolers and the survey respondents who were never homeschooled are seen in the mental health outcomes. The report states, “Compared to the other respondent groups, long-term homeschoolers exhibited the highest levels of optimism, gratitude, and life satisfaction. Long-term homeschoolers were also the least likely to ‘feel helpless dealing with life’s problems’ and to report symptoms associated with depression and anxiety.”

In the area of spirituality and faith, the report found: “Homeschooled adults were much more likely to report that they believed in God and life after death and regularly engaged in religious practices. The prevalence of religious belief and practice increased with the number of years spent in the homeschool sector.”

This is pretty good, but even better if you pair it with another recent study on homeschooling that was written up in the Wall Street Journal.

With that said, here is a report from the Wall Street Journal about a new study that you might be able to use to be bold with people who oppose homeschooling. (Full text of the article here)

Parents want their kids to be well-educated and professionally successful, but they also want them to be healthy, happy and virtuous. By this broader measure of success, home schooling has advantages.

Among the students we examined, home-schoolers were 33% more likely to volunteer, 31% more forgiving and 51% more likely to attend religious services in young adulthood than those who attended public school. (“Levels of forgiveness” were measured on a self-reported four-point scale, which other research has shown predicts some subsequent health and well-being outcomes.)

The difference in religious participation has public-health implications, since those who attend services regularly have substantially lower risks of alcohol and drug abuse, depression and suicide. They also have a lower risk of premature death for any reason than those who never attend.

So, again, for a good man who is data-driven in his search for a wife, homeschooling emerges as the best option for educating the children. It’s just not a good idea to give your children to unionized, government-run schools for 6 hours a day. Those schools are not neutral. And as we’re seeing in the news, the people who work at those schools don’t view the parents who pay their salaries as customers. They’re more likely to see you as “domestic terrorists” just because you don’t agree with them on politics.