Yesterday I wrote about a very sad case in Washington D.C. where a mother murdered her children. They were being “homeschooled” and now there is somewhat of an ‘outcry’ because there are no regulations that watch over homeschoolers in Washington D.C. Today, I thought I’d devote some time to arguments I’ve heard about regulating homeschoolers and my answer to them.
Regulating homeschoolers will prevent abuse and neglect. If those kids were in school someone would’ve noticed.
This simply isn’t true. It’s a sad fact that kids slip through the cracks all the time. Sometimes after the fact, people come forward and say they thought something was wrong. But more often than not, warning signs only become such in hind sight.
Regulating homeschoolers will prevent abusers from pulling their kids out just to hide the abuse.
I don’t think that homeschoolers do this. Some may call me naive, but I really cannot fathom a parent pulling their child out of public school to escape the scrutiny of the public school system.
I do think that parents who are abusive don’t believe they’re being abusive or don’t recognize that there’s a problem. Consequently, I suspect that their reasons for homeschooling aren’t altogether that different from mine.
Homeschoolers need regulation to make sure parents actually school the kids.
If this is true than all parents need regulation. Let’s regulate parents who feed their kids junk food. Then let’s regulate parents who let their kids watch to much television which by the way, is linked to poor grades in school. (Couldn’t that be contributing to educational neglect?)
Homeschoolers need regulation to make sure they teach their kids properly.
Three of my children have learned how to tie their shoes. They each learned a different technique and while two of my children learned to do it the way my spouse does it, one learned my way. The end result is still that all three children tie their shoes.
Often times in learning, there are several roads that lead to Rome and the NEA doesn’t own all of them.
I have said before that a case of homeschooling gone wrong is really bad parenting. If we’re going to start regulating all the bad parents in the world, well, then I suppose I have to concede to regulating homeschoolers too. However, I shouldn’t have to be subject to increasingly invasive regulations because my neighbors don’t know how to take care of their children.