Why is home schooling still legal? Isn’t it in the child’s best interest to attend an accredited school?
Lauren asked:
If a child is home schooled how can we be sure they aren’t being abused? How can we be sure they are learning what is necessary? How can we be certain that the child is not being indoctrinated with hate and intolerance?
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If a child is home schooled how can we be sure they aren’t being abused? How can we be sure they are learning what is necessary? How can we be certain that the child is not being indoctrinated with hate and intolerance?
December 15th, 2009 at 10:27 am
You learn to trust people, I am home schooled, I have not been told to hate people of a certain ethnicity or anything! I learn on a level far beyond that of anyone in my same grade! D
December 18th, 2009 at 4:17 am
How can you be sure children won’t be abused in public schools? I know a woman who was gang-raped in a public school she had attended. Some children are bullied and tormented, and they learn all sort of filthy language and things that their parents wouldn’t want them to repeat. One mother told me that gang members would try to recruit her children, and they held others down and scratched gang symbols into their skin to force them to join . I have heard teachers who work in public schools say that they spend more time with discipline and paperwork for discipline than they do for actual instruction in the classes. There are a lot of home-schoolers here in Oklahoma. One of them in my town scored a perfect score on his SAT. Home-schoolers are exceeding the national average on those SAT scores too. Patti
December 20th, 2009 at 7:55 am
there are several organizations which help homeschooling perhaps you should look into them. on that note. whats there to say kids are not being abused at good ole public schools. And to me it Sounds a bit intolerant that you would think that all people being forced into one kind of education is just that. do your research about home schooling before you go off and accuse everyone who is home schooled is being taught by ignorant hatemongers. American public and some private schools have plenty of them already. chicken
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:55 am
I’m considering home schooling as almost all of the public schools in our area have been in the local newspaper with stories of really bad bullying. playground fights, girls dragged into male toilets & boys exposing themselves, fights at the bus stops, fights before & after school & many more & I can’t afford private or want my children getting religion stuffed down their throat at the private schools. My town isn’t small but we have limited choices to public schooling.
What makes you think all home schooled kids are being abused? In Australia the person doing the home schooling still have a list of what subjects have to be covered & send away the completed school work so the education dept know the child is getting the appropriate lessons.
If a child is going to be indoctrinated with hate & intolerance going to normal school will not stop it as the child will get taught at home anyway.
So do I home school him in a safe environment or send him to a school where he will be bullied everyday as he is very sensitive & doesn’t stand up for himself & that’s against his own sisters what chance does he stand from bullies. Once bullies find an easy target they don’t stop. purplebell
December 24th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
No it isn’t in every child’s best interest to attend an accredited school. In fact it rarely is, and that is why homeschooling is legal.
As for your other questions… You can’t be sure if a child isn’t being abused, learning what is “necessary”, or not being indoctrinated with hate and intolerance no matter what way they are educated. You just can never be sure about any of this. It happens everywhere.
Homeschooling offers more opportunities for children to grow and develop in the world outside of the traditional classroom. That is in the best interest of the child. More options for learning, more people to interact with, more places to go, basically more everything.
Hope this answers your questions:) curly
December 25th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
How can we be sure they are not being abused at school?
Who has the right to decide what is necessary?
Hate and intolerance are rampant in public schools.
Maybe home schooling is not always a good plan BUT unless you have a perfect one then why should your criticize it…
I can only imagine you a comparing it to a public school and those have a vast number of flaws so what is your solution. DunstonChecksIn
December 27th, 2009 at 1:37 am
Homeschooling kids are taught a higher level of education then ANY public school anywhere in the country…the test scores prove it to be a Pure fact
Homeschooling kids are given a test and they MUST pass it to qualify to remain Home schooled…..how many public school systems do that ? NONE
Home schooled kids for example in middle school are already at college level learning before they enter high school grades….
Their test scores show that actual fact….
They surpass all degrees of learning skills and master them , not just are on the average as public school test scores show most children in public schools are average to most below average learning for their grade level……..
And 9 out of 10 public school kids have been abused in public schools either by another student and or a teacher or faculty member….
Test scores show the learning and reality of the individual student not a set country or state test that shows an average overall score…
THus the Board of Education in which ever State the home schooled child is in sets the guidelines and maintains them in yearly set tests and laws of the State and must be given to the Board of education at the end of every school term .
Any that are failing and or not rising in learning skills and abilities is inspected and are not allowed to home school if the childs learning does not increase year upon year and or that child has shown any loss of skills and are not maintained in their proper grade levels…..
And the ONLY hate thats taught is in Public schools where we see shootings and rapes and murders and abuse recorded by the media on an almost Daily basis……….. TRUTH Speaker
December 29th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Hello.
Your question about whether it’s the child’s best interest to attend an accredited school first assumes that we (parents, society, homeschoolers + non-homeschoolers) are seeking what’s best for the child, which I firmly agree and support. So I believe that’s a point that we (you and I) both agree.
However, I think that assuming that an accredited school is in the best interests of the child is a dangerous one. Let’s just take one state in our nation, California, for example. In California, during 2006-2007, less than 70% of high school students graduated. Specifically, 24% dropped out - 127,292 kids didn’t get their diploma. Utterly depressing.
Do you think that an accredited school (all public schools are accredited by the state in which they are located) was best for those 127,292 kids?
Now, I know that California has one of the worst public school systems in the nation, and it won’t be fair to extrapolate California’s drop out rate across the 49 other states, but I just want to make my point that an accredited school is NOT in the best interests of the child, in each and every case.
What IS in the best interest of the child is to provide an academic curriculum and environment that the child CAN realize her potential - that’s no secret.
Home schooling then, is just an attempt to provide that customized academic curriculum and environment to best fit the needs of the child.
Accredited schools, on the other hand, is an attempt to fit a child into a standardized academic curriculum (read: no flexibility in pacing the student’s learning, no flexibility in changing social environment if there are bad social factors that is undermining the child’s learning ability (i.e., drugs, gang violence, etc.)).
In fact, I like to draw the analogy that home schooling is like getting a custom-tailored suit while public school is like purchasing a suit off-the-rack…Given a choice between the two, which would you choose? I think the answer is obvious.
But you raise another excellent point - how do we know that home schooling is better for the child if there’s no way to verify that abuse or something “bad”, such as hate and intolerance, is being taught?
In all reality, we can’t. At least not these days.
The fact that you would choose that tailored-made suit depends on a critical assumption that the tailor has the SKILLS necessary to make a bunch of fabric into a great fitting masterpiece. And the states just don’t have enough resources to monitor EACH and EVERY home schooled family.
But, can you say that it is any better at public schools, where the states ALSO do not have enough resources to make sure that abuse isn’t occuring? Have you read, or even better, talked to some kids in the Los Angeles Country School District, the second largest school district in the United States, and asked them whether they were not abused by kids and/or teachers?
Believe me, abuse happens in accredited schools.
Also, don’t forget that hate and intolerance cannot only be taught by teachers…they can also be taught on the school playgrounds by kids. Ask any kid in public school whether they have witnessed or participated in, or even been a victim of discrimination and I’m sure a majority of them would raise their hands.
Believe me, hate and intolerance happens in accredited schools.
At least in home schooling, there is more control around these things that we would assume that parents would enforce and monitor.
As for your concern on how we can be sure that the home schooled children are learning what is necessary, I can assure you here that home schooled children are learning what is necessary (and then some). But don’t take my word for it…look at the statistics:
1) Home schoolers outperformed their public school peers by 30% - 37% across all academic subjects based on standard academic achievement tests,
2) On average, home school students in grades 1-4 perform one grade level above their public and private school peers,
3) By 8th grade, the average home school student performs at 4 grades above their public and private school peers,
4) 98% of home schooled students are involved in at least 2 activities outside the “classroom”. In fact, the average number of activities is 5.2 per student (I threw this last one in for those concerned about socialization).
These statistics above were gathered from “The Scholastic Achievement and Demographic Characteristics of Home School Students in 1998”, Lawrence A. Rudner, PH.D., Director of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment, and Evaluation and from Strengths of Their Own—Home Schoolers Across America: Academic Achievement, Family Characteristics, and Longitudinal Traits, Brian D. Ray, 1997.
In summary, if you still have some burning questions about home schooling in your mind, I recommend that you visit my website
Hope this clears some stuff up for you.
Sun Bae Sun Bae
January 1st, 2010 at 3:43 pm
I do understand your concerns but to be fair– how do you explain all the students that graduate public schools and can barely read or write? I agree that some people homeschool because they are lazy or don’t care about education but they really are few and far between. I also believe that if people like you would look at the true statics of public school graduates and drop outs you would see your time would be better spent fighting to better the public school system than trying to destroy those of us that care about educating our children. Candys mom
January 3rd, 2010 at 10:08 pm
Your question had to make me laugh…….indoctrinated?? Isn’t that what happens when children are no longer allowed to be educated in the way they and their parents choose and they are forced to attend a public school and be taught what the state wants them to learn? J F
January 4th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
I sincerely hope it becomes illegal soon, there is no reason for it. Well, perhaps clingy ,overbearing, controlling moms who have no lives. carrie
January 4th, 2010 at 11:57 pm
If you want to raise sheep, send your kids to school. If you want to raise leaders who will be able to think for themselves, apply critical thinking skills and utilize their creative abilities, educate your kids at home.
Note to Carrie:
What gives you or anyone else the right to decide what is *best* for the children of other people? What gives you the right to decide what is *necessary* for all children to learn? Maybe if there were MORE mothers and fathers who were truly invested in the education of their kids, and who truly enjoyed the company of their children, the world would be a much safer and better place for all children.
I am so very glad that my home educated daughter will grow up with the ability to dissect the closed-minded thinking patterns of people like you and see them for what they really are. Forest Faerie
January 6th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Home-schoolers have to meet the state standards on tests. Their parents and teachers have to give monthly presentations to a board to show what they are teaching and to see if it correlates with the districts curriculum. You’d find out by talking to home schoolers that they are some of the brightest, happiest kids in the country. manser
January 9th, 2010 at 7:15 am
You can’t be sure of any of those things regardless of whether they are homeschooled.
All kids are different. Some kids do better when homeschooled. Just because it wasn’t for you, or for your kids, doesn’t mean it isn’t for everyone else either. cathrl69
January 10th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
All of those things can be happening to your child in public school just as easily as at home. Google ‘teacher’ and ‘abuse’ and see how many horror stories you find. Are you seriously trying to tell me that all public school students learn what is necessary? (If so, why the dropout rate? Why the prevalent functional illiteracy?) Do you really believe they are free from hate and intolerance, or that public school teachers never try to shove their own bigoted and intolerant views down kids’ throats?
It is most emphatically not in the child’s best interest to attend public school in some cases. My son is profoundly gifted but with severe learning disabilities and visual and motor deficits. His verbal IQ was measured at 150+ (he hit the ceiling on the SB IV at 5 years old), while his performance IQ (visual-spatial) was a mere 86. The school psychologist who evaluated him was unequivocal about her opinion that a public school classroom was probably not the best educational option for him since he required extreme acceleration to accommodate his giftedness, high levels of accommodation and OT for his visual and motor deficits, and intensive academic support in his areas of cognitive disability. All this would have been very difficult to provide in the context of a school classroom, but has been a relative breeze at home. The IEP that his public school proposed was essentially that he sit down and shut up until someone could be bothered to get around to teaching him what he needed. They initially indicated that since his combined IQ was 116, he was normal and needed NO special services whatsoever, in spite of a five-page report from their psychologist detailing why this was not the case.
At home, we don’t need special permission to let him use a keyboard for all his written assignments. His school was very resistant to this idea, even though it was specifically recommended by their own psychologist. At home, we don’t have to make up the work he missed while he was at his OT and PT appointments, because he didn’t miss anything. He gets instruction and therapy on a schedule that best meets his needs. At home, he can study college level literature and middle school math in the same year without having to be bussed to two different campuses. At home, he can adjust the lighting to the level that is optimal for his vision without worrying about whether the other 25 kids in the classroom can read in that kind of light. And so on…
Homeschooling allows for individualized instruction with a very low-student teacher ratio - the very conditions that educational research shows provides the optimal learning outcomes. You really should check out the statistics on how well homeschool students perform in comparison to their public school counterparts.
I have a big problem with the idea that a stranger is going to care more about my son and do more to protect him than I would. He is evaluated every year by a certified teacher, in compliance with Florida law, and I can tell you that none of his evaluators has ever had a single qualm about recommending that he remain in homeschool. Jeannette W
January 11th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
I live in a rural area, but I can name off several schools that I would not want any child of mine to attend. We could start the list with two public schools where there was a teacher sexually involved with one or more students.
There was a public school guidance counselor who let me know that even though a student may have a label of Dyscalculia and not understand math processes, they will have the student go through a geometry book. When I pointed out that the student in question is working on multiplication and doesn’t understand division, the guidance counselor stated that they know that they are graduating high school students who cannot do basic math but as long as the student has gone through the geometry book then they will meet the no child left behind.
As far as the accreditation issue, if every student in the USA were required to attend an accredited school then there would be a problem. Not all public schools are accredited, it is an expensive process, and some school districts do only certain schools in their district. I guess if accreditation would be required, it would eliminate some of the public schools, but that is ok because most Catholic schools are accredited and some of the other private schools. Perhaps you are wishing to see homeschoolers to send their children to the Catholic schools, so that they are attending an accredited school.
If you really think about it, public schools offer virtual schools for students to learn from home. Colleges, also, offer online education.
If homeschooling is harmful, why are colleges offering scholarships to homeschooled students and actively recruiting homeschool students. Kathleen
January 13th, 2010 at 2:56 am
Some home schools are accredited.
Home schooling is legal because it is classified as a private school. How can you be sure they are learning what they need in public school? There is very little discipline in some (probably many) public schools. Disruptive students are left in the classroom because of the “no child left behind” stupidity. Cheating is rampant and the teachers can’t do anything about it because they have no back-up. Parents take up for whatever their kids do. Many home-schooled students score high on college entrance tests.
I don’t know why some states don’t monitor home schools more than they do. In Texas, sometimes it seems that if a student is home-schooled, the state is no longer concerned about that student. supertop
January 13th, 2010 at 7:28 am
~ If a child is public schooled how can we be sure they aren’t being abused?
The bathrooms at my school were not at all safe. Eventually the administration removed some of the doors. I also have met adults who, as children, were molested by public school teachers.
~ How can we be sure they are learning what is necessary?
I did not learn what was necessary at my public school, well, except for the ‘how to keep your head down’ part. I never mastered my simple math facts in school because it was more fun to sit and daydream. No one cared as long as I did not cause trouble. I was still counting on my fingers in algebra class. Besides, the important things to learn are love and kindness, which are not in the textbook.
~ How can we be certain that the child is not being indoctrinated with hate and intolerance?
Public schools teach intolerance all the time. They are intolerant of intelligent design theory. They are intolerant of of abstinence programs. And where, exactly, did you learn to be intolerant of homeschools? It surely wasn’t at a public school was it?
~ Isn’t it in the child’s best interest to attend an accredited school?
No, it is in the child’s best interest to grow to adulthood knowing how to learn. Attending an accredited school doesn’t make you a scholar any more than sitting up on blocks makes you a pick-up truck. SlimJim
January 16th, 2010 at 6:37 am
Home school is still legal because anyone who has a child has the responsibility for that child. We are not required to get certified or get a license to have a child.
The child’s best interest is determined by the person responsible for that child: the parent(s).
I am going to turn your 3rd question around a bit. If a child is public schooled, how can we be sure they aren’t being abused? If we have an idea that abuse is happening at home, it is very difficult to prove it and to remove that child from the abuse. Abuse also happens in the public school.
The 4th question has several answers. I think we can be sure they learn what is necessary by knowing what is necessary. Again, I want to compare to public school and say that even with ’standards’ set by the government, it is very difficult to encourage and even attempt to force every child to learn.
The 5th question is easy. We can’t be certain just as we cannot be certain that children in government institutions will not be taught hate and intolerance. The only solution would be to give the students 24 hour and 7 day a week confinement with government certified and trained guards.
As long as having children is not controlled by the goverment, then education choices should be the parents’ decision. Janis B
January 19th, 2010 at 5:34 am
The purpose of school isn’t to check for abuse or to curtail hate and intolerance. It’s SUPPOSED to be to educate the kids, but that’s entirely questionable. The average score for our particular state’s many, many accredited public schools lies at the 35th percentile.
I don’t care what grading scale you use, that equates to an F. Those kids absolutely are NOT learning what they need to.
Have you noticed the incredible recent rise in suicide and murder in schools connected to the bullying factor? Try Googling news stories that pertain to school violence; where’s the protection? I’m talking way beyond Columbine (I attended school in the same school district where this happened), I’m talking much more recent stuff.
Schools can’t erase hate and intolerance any more than the military forces have been able to in regard to their recruits.
Homeschooling is still legal because…so far…parents have been given responsibility for their kids instead of the state. If you go far enough down this rabbit hole, why aren’t all newborns immediately taken away from their breeders (parents) and placed into safe institutions run by accredited, licensed nurses and early childhood educators? Why not sterilize everyone at about 12 years old and allow the state to later on select who may or may have the procedure reversed and reproduce based on the results of mandatory intelligence and aptitude tests? Why not let the government take your test scores from school and determine your career path, USSR-style? Why not let them supply and select your clothing, your music, your home, your income….
…because we don’t want the state to exercise that much control over you and your family. It isn’t in anyone’s best interest to have bureaucrats making their decisions for them. You deserve to have the freedom to choose both for yourself and your children what’s right for you & yours. We respect and trust you enough to handle that in a thoughtful and responsible manner…and we even allow you to do it when we think it might (?) be a mistake.
Your post might make one think you’ve become a small-minded bureaucrat yourself, one who hates those who hold different opinions and values and who thinks they should be criminalized. Isn’t that hate and intolerance? K
January 22nd, 2010 at 12:37 pm
My child attended school until the middle of fourth grade and was abused by two teachers. She was then almost murdered by a classmate. No one made sure she was safe except us, when we removed her from the school.
What is necessary to learn, out of all the millions of things a child can learn? The state certainly isn’t doing a good job deciding this.
If you look at the teasing and violence in schools, you can see that many children in school ARE being indoctrinated with hate and intolerance.
In short, what makes you think that the government can and should raise our children?
All the best. ozboz48
January 24th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Let’s take your questions one at a time.
How can we be sure that aren’t being abused? — Attending public or private school is no guarantee against abuse. If it was, the number of children abused in this country would be almost nonexistent (since the vast majority of children still go to mainstream schools) and the only cases of abuse would be coming out of homeschooling families (which we already know is not the case). Banning homeschooling would not end child abuse.
How can we be sure they are learning what is necessary? — Many children in mainstream school aren’t learning what is necessary (who decides what is and isn’t necessary, anyway). I spent two and a half years teaching college students of all ages, all of whom had attended mainstream schools, and I eventually lost count of the number of students who struggled with basic tasks like writing a standard 5-paragraph essay, understanding the importance of citations in their work, calculating their own approximate grades-to-date in the course (even when they had all the information they needed to do it), comprehending basic geography, and understanding that classroom rules applied to them too and not just their classmates. I have heard stories about similar situations from teaching assistants across the country and in a wide variety of disciplines, and I saw it with my classmates when I was an undergrad in college too. The mainstream school system serves a few students well, but too many others get through with a mediocre education or fall through the cracks completely. Some schools might be doing a good job, but overall the mainstream school system is not doing anything to ensure that children are learning.
Indoctrination and intolerance — As with the abuse issue, attending mainstream school is no guarantee that children will not be indoctrinated in bigotry and intolerance. In fact, I would argue that in many cases school can serve to solidify certain prejudices in children through behaviors like bullying, teasing, and ridiculing certain student who are thought to have certain uncool or unpopular traits (e.g. they’re fat, they wear glasses, they actually like studying, they prefer X subject or activity to Y, etc.). Homeschooling is not necessarily a way to escape such behaviors, but it’s certainly no guarantee a child will turn into an intolerant bigot either, any more than attending mainstream school ensures children will be paragons of tolerance. For an extreme example, look at the Phelps family that runs the Westboro Baptists Church. They’re some of the most hateful bigots in the world…and if my memory serves me right, every single one of Fred Phelps’ grandchildren attended mainstream school. I believe his children did too, but I’m not sure.
One factor that anti-homeschooling advocates often fail to understand is that the mainstream school environment is not the best learning or social environment for everyone. It doesn’t matter if a school is the best in the world, if it’s built and run like a mainstream school, many children will fail there because that is not their optimal learning environment. Until mainstream schools are actually able to handle and cater to a wide range of academic and social needs, and until they actually provide a good way of answering your questions, homeschooling should be a legal choice for every family. Shiori_hime
January 25th, 2010 at 2:32 am
Who put you in charge of deciding what is good for all children?
My kids were in public school and we had a situation with both of them. My oldest repeated second grade and half way through the second round we decided to start home schooling. Why? She still could not understand basic subtraction. Is she stupid? No! Just a visual learner. She doesn’t understand things as easily unless she can see it. Having the “teacher” talk at her doesn’t work.
My son was in preK, had just turned 4, was developmentally delayed, and had a speech delay, all of this caused by a birth defect. His teacher had him for 2 months before she decided he was ADHD and told me to have him put on meds. She also told me that they couldn’t have him tested for speech therapy until April. We ended up having him tested and starting therapy in 2 weeks at a private facility. Thank you Medicaid!
As for the rest of your questions they are ludicrous!
How can you be sure they are not being abused? Who in the public school was there to stop the 2 years of abuse my sister went through? No one! She suffered in silence for 2 YEARS until she finally told someone.
How can you be sure they are learning what they need to know? Well there is a wealth of information out there. Curricula designed by educators. The Internet has tons of information for the kids to search. More choices than we could consider. Most peoples problems when starting home school is where to start. There are simply too many choices.
How can you be sure they are not indoctrinated? Well let me explain to you the definition of indoctrination. Indoctrination is to imbue with a usually partisan or sectarian opinion, point of view, or principle (definition 2). If that is the definition of indoctrination our public schools are GUILTY. After all the only thing they teach is evolution. Is evolution a proven fact? No it’s a theory. If it is a theory then are there other viable theory’s?
What about Intelligent Design? Oh yeah separation of church and state. The state is not allowed to teach it because Atheists will have a fit. We can teach it, public schools legally can teach it no one said we had to name a creator, just allow that there might be one.
The schools are only teaching one side not both. If they are not indoctrinating our kids then why are they only teaching one side?
All in all it is none of your business how we choose to educate our kids? We have the Constitutional RIGHT to choose the education for our kids. We get to choose for our family not you.
ETA: 26 answers and only one person agrees with you. Maybe it says something about home schooling and parental rights! renee70466
January 25th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
First off homeschool is the original form of education. Second, outlawing it is not really in anybody’s best interest.
** I’m not even going to touch the whole accredited scenerio***
There are checks and balances for homeschool and each State has their own rules which can be seen at ( Homeschool Legal Defense Association ). Some states are so easy going it is truly sad, while other states make you want to pull your hair out at every turn.
Many times when a family homeschools, they have to go for an evalueation ( sorry can’t seem to spell that right), where the progress of the student is checked. The family has to provide all the work that the student(s) have done for the year and the student(s) answer questions relating to things that they did and learned throughout the year.
Now depending on the course of action you take for homeschooling, this can be vary. You have CyberSchool ( school done over the internet) which is still technically going to regular school and thus you have to follow set rules and courses and such; Distance Education ( work is sent to the student and they must return it within a set time for correction and credits ); Parent directed Homeschool ( the parent(s) choose a program from which to teach OR the parent can create their own program according to the needs and level of the student); Religious Homeschool ( this one can get tricky as it takes the family OFF the radar of the school district completely. This is how the Old Order Amish ( most Amish districts ) and most Conservative Christians along with many other groups do their schooling. It allows for the family to teach according to THEIR beliefs.)
In many cases, the students will need to sit for certain tests ( again varies by State rules), and the family is under the thumb of their local school district. The religious route is the only one that really has no checks and balances but again it is subject to State rules and not every State allows for religious homeschool.
The comment about children being ‘indoctrinated’ with hate and intolerance is something that you need to sit back and rethink. The public school system is NOT lily white by any means when it comes to the teaching of our children and children will more often than not get their ideas of hate and intolerance from both their peers and the teachers ( perhaps you have forgotten how colored children were not allowed in white schools?). Hatred and intolerance are ideas that are taught with even the smallest of comments or gestures at both home and school and public life.
For the record, if you are a parent then you ‘homeschool’ your child(ren) every day. Whether it is by ‘teaching’ little Johnny how to tie his shoes or showing little Susie how to bake her first cake, you are essentially HOMESCHOOLING. Every single thing that we teach our children to do on a day to day basis, everything that our parents taught us to do is homeschooling in its most basic form. HistoryMom
January 26th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Many states have requirements for home schoolers. I am home schooled in Pennsylvania, here home schoolers have to take their work to an accredited evaluator who looks at their work from the year and then passes or fails them. Then, the home schoolers have to take their work to their local school district to review it. Pennsylvania has some of the more strict laws, but every state has certain requirements. Also, to graduate you have to fulfill the requirements of a diploma association. Whether children are homeschooled or not, their parents can still teach them hate and intolerance. Just because a child isn’t home schooled doesn’t mean that their parents don’t teach them about life, including their own individual views. The same goes for abuse. A parent can abuse a public schooled child as well as a home schooled child. Home school also often teaches children different points of view than the bias of government controlled public schools. rdclark92
January 28th, 2010 at 9:21 am
There are accredited distance learning schools that is home-schooling, but with teachers and record keeping on the company side and not on the parent. Research Alpha Omega Academy or Abeka or some others. Ashley H
January 30th, 2010 at 8:46 am
I strongly doubt that a parent who would sacrifice so much to home school their child would be willing to stuff their children with hate and intolerance. I would be far more worried about my child going to public school and getting abused, mistreated, and not taught anything but “hate and intolerance.” I see nothing wrong with homeschooling, the childen still need to take the tests to get a high school diploma, and the tests of knowledge will be configured then. Loves her cupcake<3
January 30th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Of course homeschooling is legal… shouldn’t people have the rights to make their own choices?
Not all children thrive in the average school environment, so no, attending school is not in the best interest of every child.
How can we be sure any baby we send home from the hospital isn’t going to be abused for 5 years before they’re old enough to go to school?
If parents having their kids home is such a concern, shouldn’t parents all get checked out and investigated long before school age?
Going to school is no guarantee kids are learning…. Do you have any idea how many college students can’t pick out major countries on a map or calculate the area of a space?
The school system is doing okay– but not spectacular. Kids have a bigger chance of falling through the cracks at school than if they are homeschooled.
Kids who go to school can still learn to hate and be intolerant, from parents, neighbors, friends… sometimes even teachers.
Sorry but there is absolutely no evidence that schools are a solution to anything you are concerned about here. MSB
January 31st, 2010 at 6:53 pm
How does being in school prevent children from being abused? How does it prevent indoctrination in anything?
Answer: It doesn’t. Lots of kids in public schools are abused. Maybe it is found out eventually. Maybe not.
The schools in our area are lousy. Don’t know if you’ve been in a school recently. Ours are full of bullying that isn’t really addressed by administrators who sweep it under the carpet because they don’t want the bad P.R. that comes from officially dealing with it. Standards sink lower and lower. Teachers aren’t allowed freedom to teach much of anything that doesn’t show up on the test.
The homeschoolers that I know are involved in homeschool support groups, scouts, 4-H, youth groups, religous groups, sports, and much more. They aren’t hiding in their homes and never coming out. They are seen more in the community than the school children who are hidden away in schools most of the day.
Homeschoolers tend to get better educations, are more polite and respectful, and are more curious than those who are dumped in public schools. hsfromthestart
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:50 am
Most of the homeschoolers I know homeschool not because of religion but because the public school was failing their kids- failing them due to learning disabilities, or bully problems.
I used to think as you do, but now we homeschool and I know my son gets a better education than what he received in the school system. I also know of several teachers who admit they are frustrated with how the system is so screwed up, and one admits to homeschooling her son rather than public education.
Plenty of kids who go to public school are abused, and already indoctrinated in hate and intolerance. Frootbat31