Giselle Palmer: “Good home schools will show progress”
“In a country where education is compulsory and all schools and teachers face extreme levels of accountability for their teaching, home schools (while having some degree of curricular freedom) should also demonstrate that they are, in fact, educating children. If parents are providing sufficient education for their kids, this should not be a frightening prospect.”
Holly S.: “If there had only been some protection in place”
“Many of my friends and I do not have high school diplomas or transcripts. In the states in which we were homeschooled, there was little oversight and no requirement that parents provide such documents to graduating home school students. In addition to the rampant educational neglect that occurred in homeschool circles, the lack of proper documents made it difficult for many of us to access higher education.”
Ryan Stollar: “Not everyone had parents like I did”
“That moment made me realize that, while my parents were highly invested in us jumping through all the hoops to make sure we succeeded, not all parents are like that. Not all homeschool parents know how to educate their children — let alone educate them well. Not all homeschool parents care about the quality of their children’s education. Even the parents that co-existed with mine, that went to all the same meetings and conventions that mine did.”
Kieryn Darkwater: “It’s so easy for people like me … to fall through the cracks”
“If my parents had been unable to write off the validity and necessity of subjects based on theology or gender, if it had been harder for my parents to circumvent the rules, if I had been required to have an evaluation done by a teacher unrelated to my family, I think I would have had a better chance at a decent and well rounded education.”
Kathryn Brightbill: “I’ve seen how wonderful homeschooling can be”
“I support oversight of home education not because I had a bad homeschooling experience, but because I had a good one. I’ve seen how wonderful homeschooling can be when it works because I’ve lived it. When I hear the stories of homeschooled students who experienced educational neglect or abuse, or the formerly homeschooled adults who are struggling to overcome the deficits in their education, it saddens me to know how much the system failed them.”
Rachel Coleman: “Good homeschooling … is not something that happens automatically”
“I was homeschooled in Indiana, a state with no oversight of homeschooling. My parents did not even have to file notice of homeschooling. All of the things my parents did—creating curriculum plans, putting together annual portfolios, having us tested—they did in an effort to homeschool us effectively and responsibly. My parents would not have found oversight of homeschooling an inconvenience or burden because they already voluntarily did everything effective homeschool oversight generally requires.”
Amanda Smith: “I want a professional looking at what I’ve done”
“As a licensed civil engineer, I would not think twice about my superior evaluating me. It simply wouldn’t be safe for the public if I were to design something without that design being checked by my superior. I think about accountability and oversight of home education in the same way.”
LaDonna Sasscer: “We home educators should welcome accountability”
“The homeschool community should be leading the way in demanding accountability in home education. We who are not abusing our children, we who are providing a quality education, we who want to be accepted participants in community life, should demand politicians put in place a process that differentiates between quality home education and child neglect, and in the worst cases, abuse.”
Lara Kondor: “I had never actually intended to homeschool my son”
“Christian believes homeschooling did benefit him. He was allowed to explore reading, math, history and science at his own pace and to develop a great passion for learning. However, he worries that this may not be true of all homeschooled children. He especially worries for the girls he knew that were being told as young as five that they would not go to college because their duty was to be a good wife and mom.”
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Stoughton, MA 02072
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The Coalition for Responsible Home Education is a 501(c)3 nonprofit.
© 2013-2024
Stoughton, MA 02072
info@responsiblehomeschooling.org
media@responsiblehomeschooling.org
(617) 765-7096
The Coalition for Responsible Home Education is a 501(c)3 nonprofit.
© 2013-2024
Last Updated: 10 July, 2019 by CRHE
Elizabeth W.: “I am a survivor”
“My mother informed me that from now on we were all going to be “homeschooled” so that no more nosy teachers would be interfering in “our” (her) lives. One of my youngest stepsiblings had made some mention to a teacher of the rampant domestic violence that routinely rampaged through our home. . . . Homeschooling was the first step my mom took to make sure no one could get involved through children’s loose tongues ever again.”