Taking anecdotal evidence of SOME bad homeschoolers relative to the overwhelming education gap that REALLY exists, is just utter BS.
Posted on 09/10/2014 10:27:41 AM PDT by Faith Presses On
My interest in homeschooling was first sparked nearly 20 years ago, when I was a socially awkward adolescent with a chaotic family life. I became close to a conservative Christian homeschooling family that seemed perfect in every way. Through my connection to this family, I was introduced to a whole world of conservative Christian homeschoolers, some of whom we would now consider “Quiverfull” families: homeschooling conservatives who eschew any form of family planning and choose instead to “trust God” with matters related to procreation.
Though I fell out of touch with my homeschooled friends as we grew older, a few years ago, I reconnected with a few ex-Quiverfull peers on a new support blog called No Longer Quivering. Poring over their stories, I was shocked to find so many tales of gross educational neglect. I don’t merely mean that they had received what I now view as an overly politicized education with huge gaps, for example, in American history, evolution or sexuality. Rather, what disturbed me were the many stories about homeschoolers who were barely literate when they graduated, or whose math and science education had never extended much past middle school.
Take Vyckie Garrison, an ex-Quiverfull mother of seven who, in 2008, enrolled her six school-age children in public school after 18 years of teaching them at home. Garrison, who started the No Longer Quivering blog, says her near-constant pregnancies – which tended to result either in miscarriages or life-threatening deliveries – took a toll on her body and depleted her energy. She wasn’t able to devote enough time and energy to homeschooling to ensure a quality education for each child. And she says the lack of regulation in Nebraska, where the family lived, “allowed us to get away with some really shoddy homeschooling for a lot of years.”
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
"Take Kelly Hogaboom, a secular “unschooling” mother who maintains a popular homeschooling blog called Underbellie, and boasts of having “two terminally truant children.” Hogaboom is an advocate for homeschooling and “unschooling,” a type of homeschooling that often foregoes curriculum in favor of more child-directed education. She is dismissive of the cases of neglect that I bring up, saying, by way of shutting down my inquiries: “Like yourself, I too had…a deep fear of religious fundamentalism and an erroneous belief state institutions could and should stamp it out.” " Of course, her response misses the mark; the issue of “stamping out” religious expression isn’t the point here. The issue at stake is educational neglect — which is, as the anecdotal evidence shows, an actual problem. My hope is that by looking to homeschooling 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."
As a Christian, I certainly have come to believe secular humanists are eager to "stamp out religious expression" whenever they're given the opportunity.
And this is the article's conclusion:
"It’s an important point, and I conclude with it because it is one of the more incisive analyses I’ve heard on this topic yet. There is simply no justification for allowing cases of educational neglect – wherever it exists – to go unchecked. We need not imprison more parents to make sure this happens, but improving state and local oversight of those who opt out would be one step in the right direction. As Garrison, Diegel Martin and Palmer acknowledge, better checks on their own home education would have made a vast difference for them. This is why, they say, they will continue to speak out."
Well, thats big of you.
... but improving state and local oversight of those who opt out would be one step in the right direction.
No.
The intentionally unwashed are eager to end all righteousness and Godliness. They share that goal with their Islamist terrorist bretheren.
Taking anecdotal evidence of SOME bad homeschoolers relative to the overwhelming education gap that REALLY exists, is just utter BS.
As though public school education and university education aren’t riddled with gaps. Have you ever watched the college students answer ridiculously easy questions on Fox’s “Water’sWorld World?”
The Left views Christians as threatening because they have a deep fear that Christians may be right about life and death.
Gee,,seems we are going to have to go into the sleaze pit that is Salon and counter that BS
But that is what every liberal craves. Cattle cars, barbed wire, and mass burials.
I’ll take 100 home-schooled children chosen at random to form my society over 100 public-schooled children chosen at random to form my society.
I’ll take 100 “Christian fundamental” home-schooled children as well.
Both pools will have their problematic data points.
This is Salon generalizing from the extremes of data.
So this author admittedly uses anecdotal evidence to paint a broad picture of the failure of homeschooling. The problem is that legitimate research has shown that homeschoolers are actually better prepared for college than their public school peers: http://www.usnews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2012/06/01/home-schooled-teens-ripe-for-college
The author tries to soften her erroneous conclusions by stating “that’s not to say there aren’t many homeschooling parents who are doing an excellent job...”. This however still is designed to leave the impression that such parents are a minority. The evidence in reality shows the vast majority of homeschooling parents do an excellent job, not some dedicated minority.
This is simply a hit piece that really fails to acknowledge that more kids as a percentage fail in the public school system than in homeschooling.
So that’s why those social services related departments and agencies need SWAT teams. They may have to raid evil Fundamentalist home school bunkers in the suburbs.
Taking anecdotal evidence of SOME bad homeschoolers relative to the overwhelming education gap that REALLY exists, is just utter BS.
*What is not on this list is negative socialization skills learned in public schools vs positive socialization skills learned in homeschooling.
I can’t find it off the top of my head. But I could swear I read a very similar article 10 years ago. I think the article is fiction.
Darn....you have to have either a Google or FB account, to comment at the linked article. I have neither.
I’d love to suggest that lefties continue sending their kids (if they have any!) to public schools and the righties can continue homeschooling their kids. And, they can leave each other alone.
‘This is simply a hit piece...’
Exactly what it is, nothing more or less.
I wonder just how much of this narrative is made out of whole cloth?
These anecdotes about these imperfect homeschoolers are just too perfect. God and an (insensitive husband) kept allowing this poor woman to become pregnant repeatedly in spite of major issues with each pregnancy? Come on. Spreading on the pathos with a trowel, is the first sign of a lie.
I agree. The fact that the writer starts off commenting on people she knew in the quiverful movement, which actually makes up a small percentage of homeschooling parents, was intended to paint a negative and extreme picture of homeschoolers as a group to her readers.
Considering the state of affairs in the public school system, I have a lot of respect for parents who home school. Besides, where else can one graduate at the head of their class.........
Hey. Don’t confuse this head full of mush libidiot with facts! /sarc
Really the replies at the Salon article are full of Christian haters who just want to pretend they care about the education of all children.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.