The Parable of the Grocery Store

A friend wrote a beautiful post about home education and another one on her love of public schools. Both have their reasons and stated them with feeling, thought, and purpose. I am always extremely thankful for the freedom of choice in educating our children...whichever way you choose for your family, at least the freedom of choice is there. Here is a parable I started as a comment at one of the blogs mentioned above, but decided to post it in it's entirety here.

The Parable of the Grocery Store
Let's say the government made a law that we are assigned our closest grocery store to shop at. We can only shop at our assigned store unless we want a boundary exception, which are scarce. At first, we think, "OK, I like my local Albertson's so I'm happy with this new law."

A few weeks later, you discover that a couple miles down the road, your friends tell you that Wal-mart has cheaper canned goods than Albertson's. You are frustrated that there is a difference in what you are getting. Shouldn't they all be the same if they are operated by the government?

Two months later, you realize the produce at your Albertson's is rancid all the time. You can never get good, fresh produce. At the Fry's however, everyone boasts of the best, freshest produce they have ever had! You LOVE fresh produce and would rather drive a distance and pay more to shop at Fry's for the fresh produce than at Albertson's. You apply for a boundary exception and you are told there is a two year waiting list. What? Two years to wait until you can get good produce? But, your family needs good produce now.

You want to sell your house and move closer to Fry's so that it would be your assigned store, but you cannot afford any of the houses in that area.


You are discouraged, but your neighbors seem fine with not having fresh produce. They accept canned vegetables in place of fresh produce and make the best of the situation. They apply their time towards trying to help Albertson's acquire better produce. They volunteer to help and see some improvements at times. They encourage all of their neighbors to not go anywhere else, but to stay with Albertson's so that they can improve their situation.


A woman next door is frustrated and decides not to even bother with boundary exceptions or the assigned grocery store. She decides to grow her own food and plants a garden. She raises chickens and a pig. She works all day long on raising her own food. You and your neighbors are stunned. The work she puts into her own food seems ludicrous to you. You would never put in that time and effort for your own food. The grocery store saves you a lot of time and effort. Plus, almost everyone you know, except the woman next door, uses the grocery store.

The woman next door toils all day long on her food production. Sometimes her carrots are small, her tomatoes eaten by worms, and her lettuce wilts before she can use it all. The neighborhood laughs saying, "You should just stop wasting your time! The grocery store is so much more convenient." The woman next door is saddened that no one encourages her in her efforts. She feels lonely and judged for being different.


Over time as you get by with canned produce even though you would prefer fresh, the woman next door has perfected her food production skills. Her tomatoes are getting plumper and wormless, her carrots are turning out better, even though they are still smaller than the ones at the grocery store. Sometimes, she even has extra zucchini to share with her neighbors. Her zucchini is really the best you've ever seen.

This is the same as education. One family may value a certain sports program (canned food) or academic program (produce) than what is offered at your school. Some may even choose to grow their own (educate their children at home).


Shouldn't we have the choice? Shouldn't we stop judging each other for their choices and uplift and encourage each other?

I do not want anyone's choice taken away. I want all to have what they feel is best for their family. I hope everyone will respect the need for choice and support boundary exception, open enrollment, charter school and homeschool laws that allow these freedoms.


By Celeste Batchelor  -- February 8, 2011