I'll tell you why others supposedly care: first, they don't want to see kids abused, and it's widely [and falsely] believed that homeschoolers are at greater risk than others. Second, people love power, and the potential to exercise power over another by turning them into the police (e.g., for alleged abuse) is very tempting. When "for the children" is used, such abuses of power are often excused.

Vox' retort falls short. Answering with facts serves far better. For the seekers, those who want to know about homeschooling even if they can't bring themselves to say so, the facts can show them the way. For the idiots--the scoffers who only want to make trouble--the facts will most often shut them up. The facts overwhelmingly demonstrate homeschoolers' superiority in every virtue. Use them to shut down the scoffers before they even get started. As homeschooling parents also tend to be far better educated (usually autodidactically) than those who turn God's smallest over to incompetent strangers, it should also be easy enough to demonstrate your superiority as parents, too. Don't be defensive, timid, or emotional. Go on the intellectual offensive; it's very easy to show how such scoffers are foolish for their parental failures, so they're easy to shut down.

If you're asked why you choose to homeschool or what its advantages are, start with some of these answers... We can teach to the level of our student/child, rather than "dumbing her down" to whatever is typical for her age. We are able to teach Biblical morals without being countermanded daily. We are able to teach two to three times the material in half the time. We are training up the next free thinker to lead this country out of the hellhole it's dug for itself. We are obeying God's command to train up His children according to His ways, refusing to shirk our duty and privilege as parents. We can provide proper [Godly] social skills rather than having our child pick up poor habits from immature peers. We can customize her curriculum to meet her learning style. We can teach to mastery rather than to the next standardized test requiring only the lowest common denominator. We avoid bullies, drugs, gangs, bombs, and murders--at least until such time as she's able to properly defend herself. Last, but not least, we are vastly more capable than almost any certified teacher (let alone the average one) to educate our own.

Again, seekers should be given the opportunity to find truth when you respond. Scoffers, though, exist merely for our entertainment. Vox' response--when used against scoffers rather than seekers--has only the mildest of entertainment value by blowing off their insignificant "concerns" about homeschooling. A trouncing, factual response is a bit more entertaining in that you can watch them squirm while they deny reality in order to maintain their illusion of parental competence. Another entertaining response might be to go smug and condescending toward them, overtly laughing at their immense yet apparently unrecognized stupidity. Still another form of response would come from Rush Limbaugh's bag of tricks: demonstrate absurdity by being absurd. When you learn of their use of government indoctrination prisons--er, public schools--call CPS (in front of the scoffers, of course) and turn them in for gross negligence and parental abuse, not to mention educational neglect. Be sure to sound frantic and desperate for the kids' safety, urging them to "rescue" the scoffers' kids immediately by kidnapping them at gunpoint. If they prefer private schools to government ones (on the whole, they're no better), then call their pastor and turn them in for spiritual abuse and sinful neglect of their parental duties, asking that they be brought before the whole assembly to publicly repent.

If entertainment is not your bag, and you just want the scoffers to go away, you have at least two choices: first, you can simply ignore them (this can also be entertaining); second, you can tell them what they do with themselves. If they were your friends (how could they be, if they don't know why you homeschool?), it's a good bet they'll go away and not come back. If they weren't your friends, you've lost nothing.

I tend to respond factually, trouncing their idiocy quickly. As I strive to become a curmudgeon, though, I think I'll start looking for better entertainment in my responses to idiots--I mean, scoffers.