Article on homeschooling/educational neglect

[Jen in PA]

Has this been posted yet? I'm sure this will stir up a whole bunch of unpleasant anti-homeschooling sentiment. I have to make dinner -- discuss amongst yourselves.

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

It seemed like she was trying to make a point about there isn't persecution even in "California, one of the most highly regulated states." But CA is one of the most free states when it comes to homeschooling. That seemed misrepresentitive. (Is that a real word /spelled correctly?)

[Jean in Newcastle]

The comments are disturbing.

[tristangrace]

The author had too many axes to grind--are we talking about homeschooling neglect? warped Christianity? reduced roles for women? It's all jumbled together, and that, plus the fact that the author relied so heavily on anecdotes from the lives of friends, made it hard to take seriously.

 

I think it's appropriate for the government to take an interest in the education of its citizens, but with government schools being such a mess, it's just really hard to imagine how government oversight would improve the situation for "neglected homeschoolers."

 

The woman quoted at the end of the articles, whom the author admired for her practical solutions, said, "When kids are far below grade level, it should raise red flags, and someone should be looking into it.†. . . and all I can think is, um, how many thousands of public-schooled kids are falling far below grade level and the government can't seem to do a darn thing about it!

[Sugar Plum]

It seemed like she was trying to make a point about there isn't persecution even in "California, one of the most highly regulated states." But CA is one of the most free states when it comes to homeschooling.

 

I noticed that as well. I live in CA, and by the time I hit that point in the (very long) article, the author had done such a good job of fear-mongering, I wondered what regulations I was neglecting in my ignorance. ;)

 

I am not against all regulation all the time--I think it's an appropriate conversation for states and local communities--but I think this author used some extreme examples to make broad generalizations about the correlation between homeschooling and educational neglect.

[AvasMom]

I wonder what the author would have to say to those of us whose children suffered educational neglect in the public school? That was our main reason for homeschooling again.

[Slipper]

The author had too many axes to grind--are we talking about homeschooling neglect? warped Christianity? reduced roles for women? It's all jumbled together, and that, plus the fact that the author relied so heavily on anecdotes from the lives of friends, made it hard to take seriously.

 

I think it's appropriate for the government to take an interest in the education of its citizens, but with government schools being such a mess, it's just really hard to imagine how government oversight would improve the situation for "neglected homeschoolers."

 

The woman quoted at the end of the articles, whom the author admired for her practical solutions, said, "When kids are far below grade level, it should raise red flags, and someone should be looking into it.†. . . and all I can think is, um, how many thousands of public-schooled kids are falling far below grade level and the government can't seem to do a darn thing about it!

 

I agree. Everytime I thought the article was about to end, the author would talk about how a friend had to milk cows rather than learn to read or how girls were not allowed to get GED's since they wouldn't go to college in another family. It was a jumble.

 

I was pleased that the author mentioned that it's possible for homeschooling to be done correctly. But it was almost condescending about the child with special needs going to school because the parent understood she wasn't capable of teaching her child. I'm not sure why, but that part annoyed me.

[Ellie]

:blink:

 

I don't even know what to say.

 

Pick a paragraph--any paragraph--and I can find misrepresentations, half-truths, bias, prejudice. ::facepalm::

 

California "one of the more tightly regulated states"? Seriously? Even if I had sort of been tracking with her up to that point--which I was not--she would have lost me there.

 

Does she think that the "quiverfull" movement represents all homeschoolers? Seriously?

 

Has she never heard of children graduating from 12 years of public education and being functionally illiterate? Seriously?

 

Does she have such a small circle of friends that she can't find homeschoolers who have excelled in life as well as in school? Seriously?

 

Perhaps we should all chip in and send her $1 to buy a clue.

[melissad2]

Oh my! What a mess of opinions she has. Maybe she would like to come hear my 5yo read "The Cat in the Hat." She is talking about a minority in the homeschooling world where 11yo's don't know how to read and girls don't go to college. The mom she referred to didn't seem like she wanted to homeschool in the first place much less be dedicated to it...IYKWIM.

[mom2scouts]

After reading this article and the equally clueless comments, I don't know whether to scream or laugh. People who comment on these types of articles must think we are all clueless about public education and putting our kids in public school and being involved will solve all of our problems. I've had children in the public schools for the past 16 years. That's exactly how I know that I can't change it for my children no matter how involved I am. My youngest son tried public school and he was extremely unhappy. He doesn't ever want to go back!

 

Even my public schooled children are starting to see the advantages of homeschooling when they observe the education of their much younger siblings. My oldest son is doing well by every measure of success right now and, every time he sees me, he asks why I didn't homeschool him and prevent him from wasting so much time in school. My second son, who graduated from public school at age 16 said yesterday, "Why don't you take [younger brother] out of school for his senior year so he can actually learn something before he goes to college?"

 

The other thing I dislike about the article is the implication that homeschooled children are unhappy and really just want to go to school like other children. I've met many homeschooled children with intelligent, hardworking parents and most of them are very happy being homeschooled.

[Kathleen in LV]

The woman quoted at the end of the articles, whom the author admired for her practical solutions, said, "When kids are far below grade level, it should raise red flags, and someone should be looking into it.†. . . and all I can think is, um, how many thousands of public-schooled kids are falling far below grade level and the government can't seem to do a darn thing about it!

 

:iagree:

 

And I found this quote even more disturbing:

 

" . . . and just as public schools are obligated to educate children who fall behind, so are parents who opt out of the system."

 

Are public schools actually meeting this obligation? Sadly, we don't have to rely on "anecdotal evidence" to know the answer.

[Wheres Toto]

The author had too many axes to grind--are we talking about homeschooling neglect? warped Christianity? reduced roles for women? It's all jumbled together, and that, plus the fact that the author relied so heavily on anecdotes from the lives of friends, made it hard to take seriously.

 

I think it's appropriate for the government to take an interest in the education of its citizens, but with government schools being such a mess, it's just really hard to imagine how government oversight would improve the situation for "neglected homeschoolers."

 

The woman quoted at the end of the articles, whom the author admired for her practical solutions, said, "When kids are far below grade level, it should raise red flags, and someone should be looking into it.†. . . and all I can think is, um, how many thousands of public-schooled kids are falling far below grade level and the government can't seem to do a darn thing about it!

 

:iagree:

If I was keeping track correctly, she attempted to talk to exactly one person who wasn't a personal friend, and that person was an unschooler.

[MusicMama]

home-schoolers who were barely literate when they graduated, or whose math and science education had never extended much past middle school.

 

Because, ya know, this never happens in public school. :glare:

 

I hate it when people only expect perfection, or at least above average performance from homeschoolers! Yes, unfortunately, sometimes we fail. But that doesn't mean that homeschooling itself is flawed. Do we condemn an entire public school system of education because some schools are complete and total failures? I don't. I feel that homeschooling will offer my children the best education possible, but don't frown upon those sending their children to the stellar PS's we have in our area.

 

Recently, my husband expressed concern that we would adequately provide a high school education. While I graduated and went on to a full-scholarship college education, some of my younger siblings are attending a community college, and have taken a remedial course or two. This, in his mind, was proof that the education modal itself was wrong. I reminded him that those siblings are average to struggling in many subjects, and would likely have performed the same after graduating from a public school. I also pointed out that his younger brother who graduated from a top-ranked PS also had much poorer college grades, finishing his freshman year with a 2.5 GPA. I asked if that meant that the school was a bad one, and that his brother's natural abilities and drive had nothing to do with his performance. He blinked, and acknowledged that he somehow felt that homeschoolers always should be above average. He also said he felt silly for thinking that. Somehow society expects us to always be above average, but claws us to death for daring to sometimes turning out a product that resembles plenty of Public Schoolers!

 

:rant:

 

*Getting off my soapbox, and going out for a breath of air* :tongue_smilie:

[MidwesternMom]

She's right that as a homeschooler I am tired of defending people who claim to be homeschooling but are actually practicing neglect.

 

 

It's because of people like the ones she is writing about (with 11 year olds who can't read because they haven't been taught) that I constantly have to be faced with new people in my kids' lives "testing" them when they find out they're homeschooled. From the mail carrier who can't clap eyes on my first grader without asking "Quick, what's 12 plus 5?" to the college admissions reps who hem and haw about accepting homeschoolers and what kind of transcript they will accept. . . sigh.

 

My kids HAVE been tested every year. Not for the state's information, but for mine. I have no patience with people who are so afraid of interference that they won't put their methods to the test.

[Aelwydd]

I have said it in threads here before, and I'll say it again: deflecting the real problem that a certain subset of the home schooling community has with educational neglect does nothing to solve the problem, and is a purely defensive and self-centered tactic. Yes, the hs'ing community is self-centered to a large degree. I feel that's a good thing and also a bad thing.

 

It's good, because it means those of us doing this for our children aren't willing to sacrifice our families, our kids' education, and our goals to the system just to make other people happy.

 

It's bad when, out of a desire to be held above scrutiny, we act churlish or defensive whenever real, documented cases of educational neglect are brought to public attention. We are willing to excuse or ignore or deny the existence of illiterate hs'ed children because we seek to protect ourselves from any outside observation.

 

I do not believe hs'ing neglect is a mere blip on the radar, any more than I think illiteracy or semi-literacy is just the problem of a few public schooled graduates. I won't pretend that either case is rare or uncommon.

 

Here's my opinion: I think as a society, we have real problems educationally, because as a society, we don't value objective learning, or education, for education's sake. We value it as a means to something, a way to accomplish a goal. For every hs'ing parent that is educating his or her children according to a rigorous, comprehensive curricula, there are another two or three educating their kids according to biased, carefully culled sources, to produce someone "educated" to think and hold a certain world view. That goes for both conservative and liberal families, BTW.

 

The point is, when education is regarded as a tool to wield social influence or promote a certain world view, instead of something that is a value in and of itself, simply as a means to its own end, then education is no longer really the final goal. Indoctrination is.

 

Therefore, educational standards and rigor are considered negotiable, in the sense that it is acceptable to compromise these for the sake of dogma. Most hs'ing parents will still instill a level of educational competence that fits within their sphere of acceptable knowledge in the scheme of their beliefs, but some see acquisition of knowledge, itself, as something pointless, or a waste of time, and sometimes, even dangerous.

 

THAT is the truth I have observed, and why I think it's hypocritical of the hs'ing community to bristle at criticism leveled towards some in its wings, as if the failure of the public schools to accomplish these standards is excuse enough for a certain subset of the hs'ing community for failing to have any standards at all.

 

Well, I don't defend those hs'ers, and I do condemn, in the strongest terms, their willingness to deprive their children of an education. Their failure means my choice to hs, and everyone else's, gets called into question. Every. single. time.

 

I understand others will take exception and strongly disagree with me. That's fine. I am sharing MY observations of prevalent attitudes among hs'ers, from the groups in my area, from printed materials from various hs'ing "authorities," to even some of what I've read here on this board. I really don't think educational excellence is as much the goal as assuring an unfettered ability to inculcate one's progeny as the parent sees fit.

 

That is the right of a parent, but that doesn't make it automatically an educationally superior choice. And in the case of a certain number of hs'ing families, it's disastrous when it manifests in extreme forms of educational neglect.

 

I also think that unless we start owning up to these cases among our ranks, and show that we have a certain degree of self-awareness and proactiveness among our own communities, it's just inviting the state to step in and do the job for us. With much harsher and stricter penalties for all of us.

Edited March 15, 2012 by Aelwydd

[Aelwydd]

She's right that as a homeschooler I am tired of defending people who claim to be homeschooling but are actually practicing neglect.

 

 

It's because of people like the ones she is writing about (with 11 year olds who can't read because they haven't been taught) that I constantly have to be faced with new people in my kids' lives "testing" them when they find out they're homeschooled.

 

 

I agree.

[melissad2]

I simply cannot read any more of those idiotic comments on that article because they are making my blood boil. GRRRRRR :cursing: :banghead:

[whitestavern]

:iagree:

The comments are disturbing.

 

 

:iagree:

[2cents]

Just another article written by someone who clearly didn't research and had an ax to grind about various topics. It was way too long and an absolute drudge to read through. A load of nonsense.

[elizabeth]

She's right that as a homeschooler I am tired of defending people who claim to be homeschooling but are actually practicing neglect.

 

 

It's because of people like the ones she is writing about (with 11 year olds who can't read because they haven't been taught) that I constantly have to be faced with new people in my kids' lives "testing" them when they find out they're homeschooled. From the mail carrier who can't clap eyes on my first grader without asking "Quick, what's 12 plus 5?" to the college admissions reps who hem and haw about accepting homeschoolers and what kind of transcript they will accept. . . sigh.

 

My kids HAVE been tested every year. Not for the state's information, but for mine. I have no patience with people who are so afraid of interference that they won't put their methods to the test.

 

Thank you. It is true that there are many non compliant families in the system in my state and I too grow tired of having my daughter "tested," by well meaning professionals who have only witnessed the failures. They are not shortcomings but epic faiilures who should not have had children much less tried to educate them. I am all for yearly standardized testing. Not repeated throughout the year as it is a waste of time but once a year is perfectly reasonable. Now who oversees the testing , what tests are used and how is progress measured are all crucial issues that reasonable minds can debate for days.

[PentecostalMom]

Perhaps we should all chip in and send her $1 to buy a clue.

 

:lol::lol::lol:

[elizabeth]

Obviously written by a poorly educated homeschooler who knows nothing about statistics, random sampling, variables and logic. Sorry but she proves the point by her abysmal attempt to paint all home educators and all christian homeschoolers with the same brush. Quiverfull is fringe and then some.

[Mergath]

THAT is the truth I have observed, and why I think it's hypocritical of the hs'ing community to bristle at criticism leveled towards some in its wings, as if the failure of the public schools to accomplish these standards is excuse enough for a certain subset of the hs'ing community for failing to have any standards at all.

 

Well, I don't defend those hs'ers, and I do condemn, in the strongest terms, their willingness to deprive their children of an education. Their failure means my choice to hs, and everyone else's, gets called into question. Every. single. time.

 

:iagree: Yes. Exactly. The failure of public schools to properly educate children doesn't somehow negate our responsibility to provide a thorough education for our kids.

[WIS0320]

My first thought was maybe the author had a line in on Tibbie Dunbar's friend that she posted about awhile back.

 

My opinion never changes about this. Educational neglect is wrong no matter the venue - homeschool, public school, or private school. The bottom line is that homeschooling families can get away with it much more easily in some states that public or private schools. Say what you will about public schools - yes there are failing public schools and students who graduate functionally illiterate - BUT - there is testing, multiple teachers involved over years and more of a chance for that student and their struggles to be identified than in a homeschooling family in a low report state.

 

Some homeschooling parents stink. They suck. They have a bizarre agenda that doesn't realize the best interests of their kids. Or they are lazy. Or they haven't the tools to really educate their kids adequately at home. No matter the circumstance it is unfair to the kids.

[FO4UR]

I've got a late reader. I've got a read-at-3yo kind of kid also. (Same home, same materials, same teacher-mom...different kids.) A late reader is not necessarily better off in a PS. Putting a child in PS is not a magic pill that will cause kids to read, write, and math.:glare::lol: These kids need one-on-one intensive tutoring...the kind of teaching that is impossible for PS to give with excellence and consistency (day to day AND year to year!!!)...the kind of teaching that is inherent in *most* homeschools.

[Jen in PA]

:blink:

 

I don't even know what to say.

 

Pick a paragraph--any paragraph--and I can find misrepresentations, half-truths, bias, prejudice. ::facepalm::

 

 

 

Ellie, that's exactly why I posted then went off to make dinner -- if I had tried to pick apart all that was problematic with this article, my family would still be waiting to eat.

[KathyBC]

It's bad when, out of a desire to be held above scrutiny, we act churlish or defensive whenever real, documented cases of educational neglect are brought to public attention. We are willing to excuse or ignore or deny the existence of illiterate hs'ed children because we seek to protect ourselves from any outside observation.

 

Can you link to any real, documented cases? I'm still waiting for a real, documented case, I guess; one where there are no extenuating circumstances, with some absolute proof that this wouldn't have been the outcome regardless of educational models.

 

Just as I don't see it as my role to fix the public education system, neither do I see it as my role to fix the deficiencies of other homeschoolers. If I knew them first hand, I would be happy to point the way to good resources if they were interested... just as I would to any families I know with kids in public school. Since these articles are about complete strangers, I take them with a grain of salt. There is no way to verify their validity. And I suppose that could look churlish or defensive. It's hard to treat an article written with such bias in any other manner.

[catz]

Just another article written by someone who clearly didn't research and had an ax to grind about various topics. It was way too long and an absolute drudge to read through. A load of nonsense.

 

:iagree: blah blah blah .... stereotype .... blah blah blah ... another stereotype .... blah blah blah. Same garbage in the comments. :sleep: zzzzz ....

[pdalley]

I've got a late reader. I've got a read-at-3yo kind of kid also. (Same home, same materials, same teacher-mom...different kids.) A late reader is not necessarily better off in a PS. Putting a child in PS is not a magic pill that will cause kids to read, write, and math.:glare::lol: These kids need one-on-one intensive tutoring...the kind of teaching that is impossible for PS to give with excellence and consistency (day to day AND year to year!!!)...the kind of teaching that is inherent in *most* homeschools.

 

I've got a 15 year old with dyslexia that the school system INSISTED he did not have. So instead of almost getting to a 9th grade reading level because I pulled him out and home schooled him, got him the proper testing and a tutor - he would be a ninth grader in the public school system passed through even though he's had reading struggles since 2nd grade. (We pulled him in Grade 4 and they claimed he never had reading issues though they were the cause of a lot of his meltdowns.)

 

There are always going to be cases of educational neglect in any schooling model for various reasons. It's like child abuse - it is never going to be completely eradicated. It's just not possible. I don't think it's any more rampant in home schools than it is any other schooling model.

 

I quite clearly remember Lawrence Taylor and many other football players that could not read or write but wound up with a college degree.

 

An article full of the same old same old stereotypes isn't going to change a thing.

[Mrs Mungo]

The author had too many axes to grind--are we talking about homeschooling neglect? warped Christianity? reduced roles for women? It's all jumbled together, and that, plus the fact that the author relied so heavily on anecdotes from the lives of friends, made it hard to take seriously.

 

I think it's appropriate for the government to take an interest in the education of its citizens, but with government schools being such a mess, it's just really hard to imagine how government oversight would improve the situation for "neglected homeschoolers."

 

The woman quoted at the end of the articles, whom the author admired for her practical solutions, said, "When kids are far below grade level, it should raise red flags, and someone should be looking into it.†. . . and all I can think is, um, how many thousands of public-schooled kids are falling far below grade level and the government can't seem to do a darn thing about it!

 

I totally agree.

[kalanamak]

The comments are disturbing.

 

I thought it was a troll-fest. And one was mocking the mentally ill by her trolling as one. ;)

[AmyontheFarm]

Wow. Yikes, that wasn't easy to read.

[KungFuPanda]

"The government cannot tell you — and there is no systematic state-by-state record of the percentage of truancy convictions (possibly the best measure of educational neglect at present) that involve home-schooling families versus those involving enrolled students and/or their parents."

 

What does that even MEAN???

 

 

“You can do home schooling right if you’re very careful,” she acknowledges. “Know all the ways it can go wrong and guard against these; have outside interaction; get help with what you need help with and use a decent curriculum.” But most home-schoolers, Palmer points out, “are woefully lacking in every area” of their education."

 

WHERE does she live that she knows so many of this one type of homeschooler? I've heard they exist, but have yet to meet one IRL in the ten years I've been officially homeschooling in an area with a VERY diverse homeschooling population.

Edited March 16, 2012 by KungFuPanda

[hsbaby]

The picture of the sad little girl sitting alone on her mattress cracks me up!! There were so many fallacies in this article I don't even want to get started!

[kitten18]

Somehow society expects us to always be above average, but claws us to death for daring to sometimes turning out a product that resembles plenty of Public Schoolers!

 

:rant:

 

*Getting off my soapbox, and going out for a breath of air* :tongue_smilie:

I never thought of it that way but I think you are right about that.

 

"The government cannot tell you — and there is no systematic state-by-state record of the percentage of truancy convictions (possibly the best measure of educational neglect at present) that involve home-schooling families versus those involving enrolled students and/or their parents."

 

What does that even MEAN???

:001_huh: I read that sentence 3 times and I still have no idea.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

My first thought was maybe the author had a line in on Tibbie Dunbar's friend that she posted about awhile back.

 

 

 

Me, too! But I'm pretty sure the people I know are not the only homeschoolers totally dropping the ball. To be perfectly honest, I'm not convinced it's even rare.

 

I have to agree with the others that children do fall through the cracks in public school, too, and do graduate without basic skills. We all know those stories.

 

Every child deserves a proper education and a good home, but not every child is going to get it, no matter where they go to school and no matter how the government intervenes. That's reality, even if we don't like it.

[La Texican]

Did she forget to pay her google bill?*

. *But because home schooling is such a highly politicized issue, it is often difficult to get a clear sense of what is happening from home-schooling parents themselves.*

 

 

 

 

And

 

 

 

 

. *My hope is that by looking to home-schooling parents for insights, they will be able to provide an honest assessment of their own successes and failures — in order to paint a more textured picture of the actual potential for neglect

 

 

I was homeschooled. *Another homeschool family nearby was slackers. *My mom was strict. *A friend of mine intentionally unschooled her littles half way through elementary. *I asked her, "What about the standardized test. *Do you have to put your kids in school if they don't pass?" She said, "You don't because what do they do when the public school kids fail, send them to homeschool?" She did say that many of her local die-hard unschool friends wavered and crammed for homeschool close to the time for the state tests. *That's as much as I know about homeschoolers. *But google knows. *How many anecdotal homeschool stories can she find here, play by play, with extended blogs for further details. *

 

Off to read the comments. . ,

[Mrs Mungo]

Two related articles with opposing views - and the fur is flying....

 

Homeschooling Needs Either Tighter Regulation or To Be Banned

 

Ugh....Title says it all:glare:

 

Anecdotes About Horrible, Sexist "Quiverfull" Families Probably Proof That Homeschooling Needs More Government Oversight

 

ALL of those people should read books like Savage Inequalities and get back to us when they have fixed the problems in the public school system. The graduation rate from public school in NC is less than 60%. The same system that produces such poor results has no business complaining that some percentage of homeschoolers might fail or actually be truants or whatever.

[Mama Geek]

"The government cannot tell you — and there is no systematic state-by-state record of the percentage of truancy convictions (possibly the best measure of educational neglect at present) that involve home-schooling families versus those involving enrolled students and/or their parents."

 

What does that even MEAN???

 

 

“You can do home schooling right if you’re very careful,†she acknowledges. “Know all the ways it can go wrong and guard against these; have outside interaction; get help with what you need help with and use a decent curriculum.†But most home-schoolers, Palmer points out, “are woefully lacking in every area†of their education."

 

WHERE does she live that she knows so many of this one type of homeschooler? I've heard they exist, but have yet to meet one IRL in the ten years I've been officially homeschooling in an area with a VERY diverse homeschooling population.

 

If this were truly the case, which I don't think it is then whose fault is it that the parents didn't get an education. I would say that it mostly falls on the public schools. Homeschooling just wasn't all that popular when most of us were kids.

[MrsBasil]

ALL of those people should read books like Savage Inequalities and get back to us when they have fixed the problems in the public school system. The graduation rate from public school in NC is less than 60%. The same system that produces such poor results has no business complaining that some percentage of homeschoolers might fail or actually be truants or whatever.

 

:iagree:

 

There's an estimated 2 million homeschooled students throughout the US. There are an estimated 49 million public school students.

 

I am sure there are problematic homeschools and parents who don't care, but that happens with public school students too and that is on much a much bigger scale.

[FaithManor]

Well, there is just nothing like someone taking out of their behind, putting it on paper, and publishing it.

 

Where is the author's documentation?

 

Those states that have tracked standardized test scores for homeschoolers have been forced to report that as a group, homeschoolers out perform p.s. Since bubble tests are the end all, be all evaluation of education according to the government, then what leg does this author have to stand on?

 

Oh, that's right...she doesn't have a leg and can't recognize red herrings, logical fallacies, etc. aren't taught in the ps. anymore and the author is likely a product of such educational environment.

 

Seriously, it is amazing the stuff that makes it into print these days. Unfortunately, the general public is rather lacking in logic training and is prone to accepting conjecture and unsubstantiated opinion as fact. :glare:

 

Faith

[happyhomemaker25]

I wonder what the author would have to say to those of us whose children suffered educational neglect in the public school? That was our main reason for homeschooling again.

 

THIS! This is what I hate about the whole educational neglect argument that seems to be popping up in my face more and more lately. What about the freaking kids graduating from government schools that need remedial classes in english and math just to get a job???

 

For the record out of my group of homeschooling friends which grows every year we are the farthest behind in grade level. We have addressed this and are working towards fixing it. A lot of it had to do with emotional delays my two older girls had due to being in foster care for so many years. The rest of my friends' kids are working above grade level in most areas. I seriously can't think of one family in my circle, made of mostly conservative Christian types who are lagging as far behind as a lot of kids in public school. Even my kids when put up against their public school peers are not as behind as they seem when put up against their homeschooled peers.

 

I HATE this argument more then I ever hated the socialization argument and I was never a fan of that dumb argument.

[stripe]

Well, I think this is a concern, but it seems to be exclusively about worn out Quiverfull mothers. That is not exactly the entirety of hsers. Also, I know women who aren't necessarily quiverfull but they do have a lot of kids, and they use things like K-12 or Calvert, rather than trying to do everything by themselves, which might require more energy than they have.

 

And the second half of the article makes it clear that this is not all homeschoolers. I do think there was more of an outcry over that article about Pakistani Muslim families supposedly not educating their daughters than examining any such phenomenon among conservative Christians (esp since there is a Taliban leader who is American who was HSed, except his family is Christian so citing him was weird).

Edited March 16, 2012 by stripe

[Butter]

When I was homeschooled we did know a couple families who were definitely neglecting their kids education. They were ultra-conservative Christians and I guess they were quiverfull, but we never used that term and neither did they. They do exist, but, honestly, I think they were pretty few and far between back then and I think they are fewer and farther between today. Perhaps the author of this piece just knew a lot of people like her family rather than homeschoolers in the general population. Even in the 90s we were kind of underground and quiet. Today I only know one homeschooling family that I would consider to be neglecting their kids' education. They are radical unschoolers. At 12 their son could not do simple math because he "didn't like math" and they didn't push anything their kids didn't want/like to do or that really even looked like school. I can't think of any quiverfull types around here anymore. Maybe they are just staying away from the rest of us.

[TheHomeScientist]

ALL of those people should read books like Savage Inequalities and get back to us when they have fixed the problems in the public school system. The graduation rate from public school in NC is less than 60%. The same system that produces such poor results has no business complaining that some percentage of homeschoolers might fail or actually be truants or whatever.

 

Exactly.

 

If a foreign country imposed our current public education system on us, we would rightly consider it an act of war.