They don't, but there's stuff like TuneCore that let's indie musicians put their stuff up. For about $30 a year, you can have a full length album out on iTunes US, CA, EU, and throw in Rhapsody + Spotify as well. You get yer 70%, modest sales reports, etc. Pretty easy hoops to jump through.

Dunno if you've been there, but that's how it is the US. Well, except for the knowing what sort of country they want to build, and what skills are necessary part.

Yeah, we do homeschool (er, well, the autodidactic learning variation, anyway). My daughter went through kindergarten before we pulled her out, and my son hasn't been to a day of school in his life. They both know they have the choice to go to school - it's up to them, really - but so far they're both emphatically choosing to learn on their own agenda.

The stranger danger thing is really funny. My youngest, 7, walks to his grandmother's house regularly to garden and cook with her. She lives 8 blocks away, and sometimes he takes a buck or so from his change jar to buy a candy bar on the way. He has some friends up to 5 years older who can't navigate a few blocks, and have difficulty making change and small purchases. I do get tired of the "what about real life" questions, because at age 7, my son is doing real life significantly better than school kids almost twice his age.

Heh, but "don't you want your kids to be adjusted to the real world?" You know, that artificial age-segmented force-fed prison system where all the answers are multiple choice?