Before I go
ahead and just start ranting, I’m going to acknowledge first and foremost that
it is only due to my own privileged situation that I was able to homeschool my
son for 6 years. I feel that I was very lucky to not only have the opportunity
given by the state in which I lived, but also that our family was financially
able to support our mutual decision to homeschool my son. I do realize how
lucky we are to live when and where we live.
That said, I’m
all riled up this morning about this story:
And my consequent
tweets:
I read the WHOLE
article and now I’m going to get out my soapbox.
And to be fair,
I’m not so much riled up by the idea that there are some fundamentalist
religious people who choose to homeschool, who’s views I staunchly disagree
with. I am disturbed by families being plagued with the fallout of mental illness
while our health care industry does nothing. I am, in fact, righteously
outraged that people use the bible as a way to justify abusing children. And
once again, I am riled up because anytime homeschooling is mentioned it’s
always about the crazy people. Those crazy damn homeschoolers! What are they doing
to those poor children? Think of the children! The children, who
are being forced to stay home and ruin their lives! I am SO. TIRED. of
this argument.
Homeschooling
families are as diverse as families who choose public education. I am going to
venture a guess that even families who are choosing to homeschool because of
religious reason have a wide range of diversity. There is not One Kind of
homeschooler. This article mentions other types of homeschooling briefly, but
then quickly disavows homeschooling on any level.
I am also tired
of reading about the “frightening” statistics of homeschooling.
“Homeschooling now exists in a virtual legal void; parents
have near-total authority over what their children learn and how they are
disciplined. Not only are parents in 26 states not required to have their
children tested but in 11 states, they don’t have to inform local schools when
they’re withdrawing them. The states that require testing and registration
often offer religious exemptions.”
Firstly, and most importantly, whether you homeschool or not, you live in a country where abusing a child is not legal. Period. And I'm pretty sure we are all clear on what types of "discipline" are actually abusive behavior. As for the "legal void" mentioned in this article, homeschooling
families of all sorts wish for this void every September. If only! I have lived in three
different states and have home schooled in each and the rules are varied, but
there is hardly a “void”. If it were a matter of parental choice, you would or
would not send your child to school as you saw fit for your own family. You
would homeschool at whatever level you choose to homeschool, you would not be
required to take a class (Washington State) or prove how many college credits
you have (North Carolina), or declare in any way your decision to homeschool
(Oregon). However, we are required by law to announce to the state and the
school district what are intentions are, not just once, but every fall that our
children are of “school age”, and individually for each child. The only benefit
I can see is to the school and the funding that each child represents in
their budget. It certainly has nothing to do with the welfare of the children
in question. I submit that instead of some "legal void" that homeschoolers are reaping the benefit of, instead there is a startling lack of legal rights if you choose to enroll your child in the public education system.This argument is made only in favor of compulsory, public education. I have
done both, and I can tell you that my rights as a parent were pretty much
negated – we were told when and where our child was supposed to be while school
was in session and if we dared to fall outside that box, we were threatened
with being sent in front of a judge in a county court where we would have to
defend our parental “rights”. Where’s the legal void when you really need it??
But,
I digress. My whole point is to ask why is it that we only ever hear about the
horrifying stories of homeschooling? Certainly, there are as many ways of
parenting as there are families to decide how to parent, and homeschooling is
no different. Would you want to be told that you must feed your baby
formula? That you are absolutely required to use cloth diapers? That you
have to buy a particular model of vehicle if you planned on transporting your
child? Ridiculous! Abuse is abuse and while I see the correlation between the
fundamentalist homeschooling movement and child abuse, is it any different than
the correlation between poverty and childabuse? From the motion
picture Horton Hears a Who to the latest media blitz on the horrifying story of
Hana Williams, over and over what people hear
is the term “homeschooler” linked with some nightmarish situation. It’s
what made people look at me sideways and take two steps back after I mentioned
that I was a homeschooling parent. You’re one of those people.
Can
we please just start addressing the issue of child abuse, and leave the
homeschooling out of it? The only reason I see to keep making an issue of
homeschooling is to pave the road to removing that right altogether. Is taking
away basic rights a highway that anyone really wants to drive down?
In the words of Tod from the 1989 movie Parenthood,
“you
need a license to buy a dog, to drive a car - hell, you even need a license to
catch a fish. But they'll let any butt-reaming asshole be a father.”
And
there’s the real root of the issue for you. Damn humans.
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