1KHO 819: You Are the Expert of Your Child | Mandy Davis, The Homeschool Bible

**Ginny** (0:00)
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And this is your second book, The Homeschool Bible. And we're going to be talking about your new book, The Homeschool Bible. And this is your second book, The Homeschool Bible. And this is your second book, The other book talked about your journey from being a principal, a school principal, toward home education. So welcome back and huge congratulations on The Homeschool Bible. It is beautiful.

**Mandy Davis** (1:39)
Oh, thank you so much. I'm so glad to be back on.

**Ginny** (1:42)
Yes. Okay. So The Homeschool Bible, everything you need to build a thriving home education, the backstory we've talked about before, so you can keep it kind of as brief as you want. People can go back and listen a little bit more. This is, I would say, a somewhat common thing that happens where someone is actually in the school system. Now, you're a principal, so you have, I think, even more insight into processes and administration, and how do edicts get passed down, and how to implement these things schoolwide, more so than a teacher in a classroom.
But people that are in the education field end up home educating.

**Mandy Davis** (2:25)
Right.

**Ginny** (2:26)
I did.

**Mandy Davis** (2:27)
Right.

**Ginny** (2:28)
So tell us about that path. You know, you talked, if people read your other book, you talked about, you know, like, like, oh, well, I see that there's some problems, but I'll be the principal, so I'll just be able to fix those.

**Mandy Davis** (2:39)
Sure. You know, my life looks so different than I ever imagined it would, you know. Having my master's in education, being a former teacher, a former school principal, there were so many years that I truly believed that career path, that choice, even having my children a part of the school system, would be our lives forever.
And so now as a homeschool mom of three, it's always surprising to me the amount of parents that still today trust the school system more than those inside the school system. And I feel like that should be a red flag in itself.

**Ginny** (3:20)
Huh, that's very deep. Okay, so can you give some insight as to why someone who has been in the system, so you're a teacher and then a school principal, I was a teacher, why some that are in the system don't trust it?

**Mandy Davis** (3:37)
There's the educational side. There's the just straight, let's look at the facts, let's look at the research on the educational side. And that is how much formal instruction a child needs, and whether or not the school system, as it's set up in classrooms of 25 plus kids, one teacher is able to deliver that. And so we are sending kids for seven and a half hours a day. They're receiving less one-on-one attention and instruction one-on-one than a commercial break. And their whole day then, coming home and having more homework and more, you know, I'll use that buzzword of rigor. When the educational, the academic side isn't there. And we know through research, okay, kids need one-on-one support. They need one-on-one instruction, but a school can't provide that. We know the research on kids need movement to retain information. They need movement to learn and enjoy what they're doing and for their small bodies. But we can't provide that in our schools.