Austin bombings cast unwelcome spotlight on homeschooling

San Antonio Express ^ | 4/8/2018 | Alejandra Matos and Andrea Zelinski

[Skywise]

And the Parkland school shooter was publicly educated. In fact... all the public school shooters were products of the public school system.

Do we want to go there? Or is the writer a product of the public school system and not capable of basic logic?

[cicero2k]

I would lol if were it not sad.

Government schools got us Sandy Hook, Parkland and Colombine. Where is that spotlight? Not to mention the school to prison pipeline, and the carnage in Chicago.

[virgil]

This is political opportunism by teacher unions. Who knows if that kid going bizerk had anything to do with home schooling.

[This I Wonder32460]

Haven’t the majority of school and other shooters and other violent crazies been school educated like Nikolas Cruz? Any one have a comparative list?

[Mrs. Don-o]

Any bad stories about homeschooling could be multiplied 10,000-fold by bad stories about public schooling, including kids being socially isolated by bullying, and graduating after 12 years of public schooling as functional illiterates.

Check the research (google Dr. Brian Ray) and you will discover that on standardized tests, homeschoolers consistently score 35-40 percentile points above the national average, and score way below national averages for antisocial indicators such as addiction, self-harm, and criminal behavior.

Our parish had a horde of homeschool kids at a special Mass today (Sunday) and you never saw a more engaged, better-behaved bunch of kids. Just a joy to behold.

[sodpoodle]

This article was not posted to slam homeschooling, but to illustrate how a wonderful, Christian tradition has been deceptively used as a cover for evil parents/caretakers. i.e.The most flagrant child abuse cases- the Turpins and Harts.

Yes, Public schools have bad teachers and disruptive students, however, the presence of other employees, parents and classmates provides awareness & reporting of problems/abuse.

While children are not 'owned' by the State, their wellbeing, education, health etc., in homeschooled environments should meet certain criteria and registration. JMHO

[freeandfreezing]

This is just another left wing attempt to control the only group of students the leftists don't get to indoctrinate. Statistically students in public school are exposed to far more deleterious influences than home schooled students.

Teachers and their leftist friends in New Hampshire have tried over and over again to impose tighter restrictions on home schooled students than public schooled students. And yet 60% of public school students in some districts report illegal drug use in the previous month, and dozens of high school age kids die of drug overdoses. And in many districts the majority of students are not proficient in any academic area.

Plenty of kids in terrible situations attend public schools and the school does nothing about it, or makes the situation worse. And remember, the press always characterizes a kid as "home schooled" if possible when they do something bad.

Adam Lanza spent most of his life as a student in public schools. So did Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, and Nikolas Cruz.

A good starting point for public schools and their unionized liberal teachers would be for them to justify why they should not be subject to additional oversight, both in terms of drug use by students, fostering violent criminals, and in terms of their failure to teach many students successfully.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

They have the freedom to work at their own pace, explore outside the classroom and avoid the pitfalls of traditional school life.

Such as gangs, drugs, bullies, molesting teachers, leftism, etc.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

The group advocates for increased oversight of home-schooled students, such as requiring that each be registered and meet yearly with a certified teacher for annual testing and with a doctor for a physical checkup

So the teacher can find out whether the student adheres to global warming doctrine and the doctor can find out whether there is a gun in the house? No thanks.

[freeandfreezing]

Yes, Public schools have bad teachers and disruptive students, however, the presence of other employees, parents and classmates provides awareness & reporting of problems/abuse.

You sound like you are a teacher, or someone who blindly believes what the education industry says. Sure, somebody might notice a problem, but that is true for any family, homeschooling or not. But the reality is that evil parents, or teachers, or coaches, or doctors, or religious leaders sometimes decide to prey on children. If you look at the worst instances of abuse they are often in environments where a lot of employees, parents, and even classmates are present.

Think about what happened to the girls and young women who participated in gymnastics at the top levels. Even when they were on the US Olympic team, they were molested, or more bluntly, raped, by a doctor who was considered by nearly everyone to be a paragon of virtue. In fact the police declined to investigate complaints made against him by at least one victim. And the doctor raped one girl while her mother stood watching, by putting a towel so that it blocked her view. Imagine how the poor girl felt when even her mother was tricked into supporting the doctor.

The situation with Jerry Sandusky at Penn State was similar.

So how exactly does the presence of "employees, parents, and classmates" solve the problem? It doesn't.

Why should parents need to "register" their children in order to homeschool? If you want to follow that line of logic, why not require people to be authorized to have children? After all, if registration is good wouldn't it be better to test people ahead of time to make sure they would be good parents?

You have identified two examples where something went terribly wrong. Probably some kind of serious mental illness was involved. But the remedy for that kind of situation is not to take away the rights of everybody else.

Why don't you suggest that every teacher be subjected to an extensive investigation of the personal sexual activity on a yearly basis so that teachers that sexually abuse students could be found? How come that suggestion isn't put forward? After all, there is a steady stream of arrests of teachers who have sex with students. Why aren't you advocating for yearly polygraph interviews for teachers, or requirements that they log all sexual contacts they have?

Because for some reason you are biased against homeschoolers.

[SoFloFreeper]

Home schooling is a great idea. hslda.org is the site to go to if you want to know more.

The media is full of crap.

[PsyCon]

This article makes little or no sense. This was not a someone being home schooled,nor was this a student.

The authors and the Coalition seem to be promoting a theory without any relevant facts.

[freeandfreezing]

It is worth reading about the Coalition for Responsible Home Education. They look like a classic example of a left wing organization, even down to the concern trolls who say they had a perfect homeschooling experience, but are worried that others don't.

They have taken a page from the SPLC and maintain a database of children who had terrible things happen to them - and happened to be homeschooled. As if no child who is not homeschooled was ever subject to abuse or violence.

I doubt the real motivations of the founders of the coalition are anything like they say they are.

[boop]

"This article makes little or no sense. This was not a someone being home schooled,nor was this a student."

THANK you!

The perp was 23 or 24.

He was long out of school.

[kalee]

How many of these “homeschooled” students involved in crimes were originally products of public or private schools? When I was fascilitator of our county’s homeschooled association, I occasionally received calls from parents who had been advised by public or private school administrators that “homeschooling might be a better option for your child”.