Quiverfull Movement Child Abuse and Homeschool Reform

[Χά�ων]

Anyone else read this? Thoughts? 

 

I had no idea until this came up on my facebook page that this was even a movement. I am of two minds. I do not think more oversight will help but I do know families who homeschool to control their children to an extreme (including withholding education) and use punishments that are very abusive, but not outright illegal. 

[maize]

Wasn't there a big thread about all this recently? The Coalition one...

[maize]

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/498473-coalition-for-responsible-home-education/?hl=%20coalition

[abba12]

It's wonderful to see they are NOT protesting against homeschooling altogether. Many kids from abusive homeschooling homes seem to completely reject homeschooling, so it's wonderful to see this group understands the difference between homeschooling being abusive, and homeschooling being neutral but a powerful tool when used by abusive people.

 

DHs family was quiverful and as a homeschooler, though my family was not, I grew up around lots of other quiverful kids. My husband and I agree with SOME of the beliefs (we hope to have a large family, and we do have a model of wifely submission in our household, though it looks nothing like MIL/FILs relationship or any of the other quiverful families I know. Believe me, DH knows my, usually very strong, opinions on things!) but we outright reject the label of quiverful and we are very against most of the 'leaders' in the movement. I'm glad to see both Gothard and Vision Forum falling apart.

 

Some quiverful families do homeschool and are not abusive. There is also a fine line regarding when physical dicipline becomes abuse which complicates matters, since most of them do use spanking, but the degree and severity varies from 'normal' (which is a whole other debate) through to very obviously abusive.

 

More or less oversight isn't necessarily the issue though. It's a hard one. In Australia, or at least in my state, it is still not unusual to remain unregistered and homeschool 'illegally', and it was certainly very common when I was a child because the laws were extremely restrictive. For a number of reasons I am seriously considering keeping my kids unregistered (don't judge, the legal situation is different here) but those reasons have nothing to do with worrying someone from CPS is going to come in and see my child beaten and bruised. A huge increase in oversight will, I think, just cause those families with something to hide to go into hiding and put normal and healthy families in a situation of more stress and possible discrimination and issues (families with 4 or more children will immediately be 'red flagged' for example, and the paperwork requirements can get pretty bad) 

 

There's no easy answers. I tend to think community awareness of abuse, seperated from homeschooling, is more likely to be helpful and effective without hurting genuine homeschooling families, but I also know the tricks such families use to hide their abuse from outsiders.

[a27mom]

One problem with these two women is their "Homeschooling's Invisible Children" website. While there are a few actual cases that involve abuse and homeschooling, many if the cases homeschooling is completely incidental. There are several kidnapping cases listed, such as the famous Elizabeth Smart case. If a kidnapper on the run from the law tells a random convenient store clerk that the child with them is homeschooled, said child makes the list of "Homeschooling's Invisible Children". I also saw cases of acts of sudden random domestic violence, murder/suicides that had nothing to do with the families educational status. IMO including those types of cases as "homeschooling abuse" really damages their credibility. Although it does serve to support the idea that many of these homeschool abuse cases involve people who are already breaking the law, hiding from authorities, and are willing to break additional laws - so creating more laws likely wouldn't help.

 

It is too bad, I think there is a numerically small, but significant on an individual level, issue with abuse in some homeschooling families. But once you try to tell me that Elizabeth Smart was an abused homeschooler, I am going to have a hard time believing to the rest of what you say.

[Hikin' Mama]

If people are homeschooling to cover up some wrong they are doing, they are probably going to keep trying to fly under the radar if homeschooling is regulated. That just leaves a big headache of regulation for the rest of us homeschoolers, who are trying to do the best for our kids.

 

If the highly regulated public school system was doing a better job at turning out well-educated people or preventing child abuse, then I might say, sure, give us some regulation. But I haven't seen a whole lot of proof that regulation is very effective.

[Jenny in Florida]

I struggle so much with this kind of thing. On one hand, I respect these women for trying to address a problem they see, to save kids. On the other hand, I am concerned about linking homeschooling and abuse.

 

I don't wish to dismiss their concerns. We all know -- because the media love to report them -- that there have been too many cases of kids whose families used "homeschooling" as a cover for abuse. But that doesn't mean there is more child abuse among homeschooloers than there is among families who send their children to school. It may just mean that, because homeschooling is still something of a novelty, that's the "hook" people remember from certain news stories.

 

Sadly, children are abused and mistreated by their families all over the world. Many of those kids go to school. I have never yet seen any convincing evidence that abuse is actually more prevalent in homeschooling families than in the general population.

 

 

[BrookValley.]

I haven't read enough about their coalition to have an informed opinion, but I do wholeheartedly agree with this (from the linked article):

 

The best-case scenario for homeschooling is for it to truly become an educational option rather than a political statement. Children are people and should not be used for grandstanding. They deserve access to education methods that make the most sense for them, which is sometimes, but not always, homeschooling.