From the horse's mouth: homeschoolers and government

[treehugger]

There is so much WTF in this article I hardly know where to begin: smockityfrocks.com/2013/08/why-do-homeschoolers-resist-government-oversight.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+smockityfrocks%2Fkjrc+%28Smockity+Frocks%29

A homeschooling mama informs us why she doesn't want the government involved in any aspect of homeschooling:

I can only speak for myself and my family, since those are the only opinions I know for certain, but I suspect the real root of why homeschoolers don’t want the government all up in our Kool-Aid is that we are really mavericks at heart.

Translation: I'm a rebel and I like it :nenner: . It's no one's business but my own how I raise my kids. :disgust: Take that government! (an awesome Christian attitude, btw :roll: ).

She then uses a logically void argument:

Add to that the fact that homeschooling families are not participating in government schooling, so why should we report our statistics or conform our education model to them? As one friend put it, “That would be like turning in an attendance record to a church you do not attend.â€

All I can say is, "What?" That comparison doesn't even begin to make sense. The government isn't a church that you can pick and chose from, sweetie. :cray-cray:

And her pièce de résistance is this gem:

Public schools and their employees/programs are required to account and report things, and stay accountable, because they are using public dollars and are essentially employees to public money. As such, they do and ought to provide all kinds of accountability to pretty much everyone and their mother/neighbor/tax paying citizen for their choices in manner and method of providing educational services. Parents using their own dollars to educate their children (who, let’s remember, they’re entitled to execute in utero should they so choose!) don’t owe accountability to the state or anyone else.

I don't find it at all comforting that there are parents out there who don't feel they need to be at all accountable to anyone. This isn't exactly something I would brag about.

[docmom]

I wish these people would understand that the reason the government is interested in what you teach your children isn't so that they can personally persecute you, but rather to ensure that the CHILD is developing the basic skills they need to survive in our society. You know, with over 300 million people in the US, the government just doesn't have the desire or the means to target everyone individually! The fundies overinflated egos would have them believe there is a special unit of the government carefully monitoring their every move! I've worked for the government- we weren't that good!

[lizziesmom]

The deliberate dumbing down of future generations scares the hell out of me.

[Rachel333]

Ugh, I know a lot of homeschoolers who will brag about ignoring the government requirements and skipping the standardized tests. My parents were meticulous about all of that, so those families really drove them nuts..

[Shoes Grace]

It's a state government on a state level, though. That's hella lenient, at least in my state, where they're working to make it more so. Now, I am absolutely in favour of homeschooling (for the purely selfish reason that I do not want it to go away if I ever have kids), but if these people are whining and complaining that it's too hard, put your kid back in school and teach them to put their fingers in their ears on evolution day. God told you to do it this way, so, no whining, these are just tests of faith, don't give in to Satan. Or whatever.

[ThatSnark]

Have a look at Erika's latest post regarding WA state mandatory testing: largefamiliesonpurpose.com

It starts out somewhat reasonable (as do many of her posts) and then goes all :shock: -- apparently they have switched from written tests to online tests, which is fine, but the online ones are tests that were written in the 1970s. WTF? They can't find a company with current tests? I'm sure they exist, but they're probably secular. :roll:

[Childless]

I'm sorry, but when your poorly homeschooled kid grows up and either a) turns to crime to survive or b) has to go on welfare to survive because you did not give them the basic skills to be a productive adult, then what you teach your children does become my business. All of society pays a price if a child grows up not able to handle being an adult. We don't live in a bubble where others' poor choices don't affect us. A little oversight not only protects a child, but also everyone else who lives in their community.

[anjulibai]

What I don't think these people get is that their kids have rights that government has an obligation to protect. One of those rights is a decent education. The government doesn't care if the parents provide it or the it does, as long as it is provided*. When the government requires accountability, it's entirely to make sure the rights of homeschooled kids aren't violated.

The saddest part about accountability for homeschooling families is that there isn't enough of it in certain states.

*Obviously some in areas public education is not stellar, but that doesn't change the fact that every child has a legal right to an education nor the fact that the government is obligated to make sure that education is provided someway. It just means the public providers aren't doing the best job.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

What I don't think these people get is that their kids have rights that government has an obligation to protect.

Bingo. I don't think they ever conceive of their kids as individual people who are citizens of the state in their own right, and who might actually have different interests from those of their parents.

It sounds good to say that parents have the freedom to raise their kids without undue interference from the government. But by the principle of "my right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins," certain issues pretty much require the parents to not have ultimate authority, simply because certain actions by the parents can actually harm the child's future rights (making it so that the child will not become an adult with full rights).

Medical care is the obvious one - if you let your kid die of neglect because you only believe in faith healing, you are depriving your future adult child of his/her own rights to life as a citizen. But I'd argue that schooling is another one, because if you deprive a kid of a BASIC education, you really are shutting off all sorts of doors in that future adult's life, too. People say "oh they can catch up" but realistically the odds of that ever happening can be very, very low.

The requirements probably don't have to be onerous, but occasionally you hear of horrific stories where teenagers were never even taught to read. That's hard to catch up from.

And yeah, yeah, someone will say "but kids fail to learn to read in the public schools too sometimes" - obviously I also think that's a problem for the same reason.

[anjulibai]

Bingo. I don't think they ever conceive of their kids as individual people who are citizens of the state in their own right, and who might actually have different interests from those of their parents.

It sounds good to say that parents have the freedom to raise their kids without undue interference from the government. But by the principle of "my right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins," certain issues pretty much require the parents to not have ultimate authority, simply because certain actions by the parents can actually harm the child's future rights (making it so that the child will not become an adult with full rights).

Medical care is the obvious one - if you let your kid die of neglect because you only believe in faith healing, you are depriving your future adult child of his/her own rights to life as a citizen. But I'd argue that schooling is another one, because if you deprive a kid of a BASIC education, you really are shutting off all sorts of doors in that future adult's life, too. People say "oh they can catch up" but realistically the odds of that ever happening can be very, very low.

The requirements probably don't have to be onerous, but occasionally you hear of horrific stories where teenagers were never even taught to read. That's hard to catch up from.

And yeah, yeah, someone will say "but kids fail to learn to read in the public schools too sometimes" - obviously I also think that's a problem for the same reason.

I agree with all of this. Children aren't possessions to be owned by their parents. You are guardians of an individual, not a master to a pet.

[Brittany15]

In a perfect world the government would not have to keep tabs on homeschoolers because all homeschool families would do a great job. Unfortunately there are far to many SOTDRT type homeschools that need to be checked up on...