It is all over the news: Thirteen people, a mix of adults and children, were found captive in their home. They were tortured by their parents, who claimed they were homeschooling.
Every couple of years a family that claims to be "homeschooling" will be discovered to be abusive, horrible people. They will have used homeschooling as an excuse to hide the abuse. In the case above, the oldest victim was twenty-nine. The youngest was a small child. And the blame lies with, according to the news, the lack of regulation on homeschooling families.
It's a crock. I’m not alone in feeling this way. There is no proof that homeschooling puts children at more risk of suffering abuse. In fact, just the opposite is true, as pointed out by Israel Wayne in this blog post.
Using the logic that random cases of abuse show a pattern, we would have to assume that all public school teachers are pedophiles. In the news, on a much more common basis, are reports of sexual abuse by trusted teachers against students. Look here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here for a small sample. This report actually blamed the students. In fact, According to the Washington Post: "In 2014 alone, there were 781 reported cases of teachers and other school employees accused or convicted of sexual relationships with students."
Public schools have the regulations and accountability that homeschools are accused of being able to circumvent, and yet the rates of sexual abuse by trusted adults in public and private schools are astronomical. This doesn't include assault, bullying, drug abuse, and other crimes that occur at public schools.
There are millions of homeschooling families, and a report every year or two comes out that parents were abusive and claimed to homeschool.
Would these children have been saved if there more accountability was mandated? I have watched a pedophile claim the children he abused were lying for years and years, and to this day he is a free man because there was no physical "proof." It needs to be understood that abusers will find ways to hide the abuse, to discredit the victims, and to do whatever they can to protect themselves and still keep perpetuating their actions. Does anyone honestly believe that these manipulative, sociopathic parents wouldn't have found ways to hide what they were doing, even if they didn't claim to be homeschooling? The oldest victim was twenty-nine! This means that a legal adult, not considered a child or student, was abused year after year, and it was hidden. Children in public schools go home to horrific situations all the time. Many times, it is years and years before the truth is out and proven.
Every time a family that claims to homeschool makes the news for something bad, homeschooling is cast as the reason the bad occurred. Homeschooling is not the reason. Historically, the greatest scientists, teachers, writers, inventors, and thinkers of the last several hundred years were homeschooled. Public schooling, especially compulsory schooling, is only around a hundred years old. Homeschooling is a schooling choice that often gives incredible benefits to students. And yet, the negative seems to be the focus. All we hear about is the very, very small percentage of parents that don't teach their children, that say they are homeschooling, but their children are fifteen and can't read. The news blows up stories of abuse discovered in a homeschooling family, as if homeschooling is to blame and the abuse is common.
When a child is abused at school, everyone but the school is to blame. A teacher abuses a child, and the school is not held accountable. The teacher is the one wrong. A student is bullied, and the school is not held responsible. The bully is wrong. A child is dealt drugs and the school is not held responsible. The drug dealer is the criminal. But children are abused at home by parents claiming to homeschool, and somehow homeschooling contributed.
Um... NO.
Homeschooling is an educational choice. Until the public schools are protecting every child from predators in their own buildings, it seems irrational to think that they are the example that should be followed. All the protections that are cited as a reason for homeschool oversight is available at public schools.... guidance counselors, other adults around, other students around, rules, policies, laws... and I still found more news posts than I could link to about abuse in schools. And that doesn’t include the cases that aren't proven, that never make the news.
It's a similar reasoning in educational standards. Studies have been completed repeatedly. The statistics are public. Homeschooling students on average perform much better academically than public school students. The public schools in the United States score near the bottom of the industrialized countries in the world, and yet homeschooling families are the ones accused of not doing a good job.
Really?
Seems the public schools play the blame game well, and the students are paying for it. The teachers blame the parents, large-class sizes, and lack of funding. The parents blame the teachers. The schools blame the government and apathy in homes. The government tests more and more, and bases funding on test performance. Standards are changed over and over. Crime rates in schools increase. Suicide rates and the number of children on medicine for anxiety and attention issues have skyrocketed. And yet, homeschools are the problem?
Really?
Because there are a few psychos that abuse their children? Or aren't as responsible as they should be in educating their children?
What about the fact that most college freshman can only read at a seventh grade level? Who is responsible for that?
What about the fact that "nearly half of entering students at two-year schools and a fifth at four-year schools were placed in remedial classes." These are students entering college, not ready for college material.
Homeschooling is not to blame for the abuse that happened to these children. The parents are to blame. This is not a common occurrence in homeschooling families. It is much less common than the abuse that occurs in public schools across the nation.
Before we over-regulate homeschool families, and use the rare news events as a reason to go after a small group of people, perhaps the focus should be on raising the standards in our public schools so that our children feel safe. When every child is safe from the teachers that abuse them, from the bullies that target them, from gangs that intimidate them, then we can look at the parents that removed their children from these environments. When public schools have found ways to place the student first, to change education policies and standards so that we aren't near the bottom of industrialized nations, to ensure that students that wish to go to college can enroll without remedial classes being the norm, then we can look at homeschooling to see if they meausre up.
Would these children have been saved if there more accountability was mandated? I have watched a pedophile claim the children he abused were lying for years and years, and to this day he is a free man because there was no physical "proof." It needs to be understood that abusers will find ways to hide the abuse, to discredit the victims, and to do whatever they can to protect themselves and still keep perpetuating their actions. Does anyone honestly believe that these manipulative, sociopathic parents wouldn't have found ways to hide what they were doing, even if they didn't claim to be homeschooling? The oldest victim was twenty-nine! This means that a legal adult, not considered a child or student, was abused year after year, and it was hidden. Children in public schools go home to horrific situations all the time. Many times, it is years and years before the truth is out and proven.
Every time a family that claims to homeschool makes the news for something bad, homeschooling is cast as the reason the bad occurred. Homeschooling is not the reason. Historically, the greatest scientists, teachers, writers, inventors, and thinkers of the last several hundred years were homeschooled. Public schooling, especially compulsory schooling, is only around a hundred years old. Homeschooling is a schooling choice that often gives incredible benefits to students. And yet, the negative seems to be the focus. All we hear about is the very, very small percentage of parents that don't teach their children, that say they are homeschooling, but their children are fifteen and can't read. The news blows up stories of abuse discovered in a homeschooling family, as if homeschooling is to blame and the abuse is common.
When a child is abused at school, everyone but the school is to blame. A teacher abuses a child, and the school is not held accountable. The teacher is the one wrong. A student is bullied, and the school is not held responsible. The bully is wrong. A child is dealt drugs and the school is not held responsible. The drug dealer is the criminal. But children are abused at home by parents claiming to homeschool, and somehow homeschooling contributed.
Um... NO.
Homeschooling is an educational choice. Until the public schools are protecting every child from predators in their own buildings, it seems irrational to think that they are the example that should be followed. All the protections that are cited as a reason for homeschool oversight is available at public schools.... guidance counselors, other adults around, other students around, rules, policies, laws... and I still found more news posts than I could link to about abuse in schools. And that doesn’t include the cases that aren't proven, that never make the news.
It's a similar reasoning in educational standards. Studies have been completed repeatedly. The statistics are public. Homeschooling students on average perform much better academically than public school students. The public schools in the United States score near the bottom of the industrialized countries in the world, and yet homeschooling families are the ones accused of not doing a good job.
Really?
Seems the public schools play the blame game well, and the students are paying for it. The teachers blame the parents, large-class sizes, and lack of funding. The parents blame the teachers. The schools blame the government and apathy in homes. The government tests more and more, and bases funding on test performance. Standards are changed over and over. Crime rates in schools increase. Suicide rates and the number of children on medicine for anxiety and attention issues have skyrocketed. And yet, homeschools are the problem?
Really?
Because there are a few psychos that abuse their children? Or aren't as responsible as they should be in educating their children?
What about the fact that most college freshman can only read at a seventh grade level? Who is responsible for that?
What about the fact that "nearly half of entering students at two-year schools and a fifth at four-year schools were placed in remedial classes." These are students entering college, not ready for college material.
Homeschooling is not to blame for the abuse that happened to these children. The parents are to blame. This is not a common occurrence in homeschooling families. It is much less common than the abuse that occurs in public schools across the nation.
Before we over-regulate homeschool families, and use the rare news events as a reason to go after a small group of people, perhaps the focus should be on raising the standards in our public schools so that our children feel safe. When every child is safe from the teachers that abuse them, from the bullies that target them, from gangs that intimidate them, then we can look at the parents that removed their children from these environments. When public schools have found ways to place the student first, to change education policies and standards so that we aren't near the bottom of industrialized nations, to ensure that students that wish to go to college can enroll without remedial classes being the norm, then we can look at homeschooling to see if they meausre up.
Homeschooling doesn’t occur in a bubble. It would be a challenge to completely isolate my children. We go to the store. We go to church. We go to the doctor. We have family and friends. We are at the library. We have delivery men come to our door. We don’t hide. And if we did, if my family thought I was abusive, they would put my kids first and turn me in. They might not all agree with every aspect about homeschooling, but my kids aren’t hidden away, chained to a bed. It would take a determination to hide my children from the public eye so I could abuse them. We would have to live in the middle of nowhere and never talk to anyone.
Are you telling me that no one suspected anything ever about the psycho parents that chained and starved their children? That seems far-fetched.
It isn't appreciated by anyone linked to the public schools when an entire system is held accountable for the flaws of a few. No teacher would want to be called a pedophile because there are teachers that abuse students. No school system wants to be held accountable for the lack in an entire nation. And yet, homeschooling families have to defend themselves from unfair accusations. Clean up your own house, please, before you equate mine with the nut-job family that made the news.
It isn't appreciated by anyone linked to the public schools when an entire system is held accountable for the flaws of a few. No teacher would want to be called a pedophile because there are teachers that abuse students. No school system wants to be held accountable for the lack in an entire nation. And yet, homeschooling families have to defend themselves from unfair accusations. Clean up your own house, please, before you equate mine with the nut-job family that made the news.
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