There is a situation going on in Keyser, West Virginia right now where three homeschooled students were removed from public school classes on the second day of the spring semester. For those of you who wonder what homeschoolers were doing in public school in the first place, the fact is that homeschoolers in West Virginia have a great deal of access to public schools.
West Virginia is one of those states that allow homeschooled children to participate in extra curricular activities and sports. In order to participate in those optional activities, a homeschooler must also partake in school courses. For homeschooling parents whose children want to participate in the extra curricular activities in the public school system it is not too much to ask that the kids take a couple of classes. In fact, many of them take full advantage of this access.
In this case, the children in question embraced the public school system too much for the comfort of the school superintendent who removed the children from their classes. The matter is currently under discussion with the county Board of Education.
While I feel bad for the children who were turned away from classes they relied on to get their education, I cannot help but feel surprised that the family in question were relying so heavily on the public school system to educate their children. It is obvious to me that this family did not homeschool for many of the reasons I do which is a lack of trust in general that the school systems will do what is best for my child. It is likely that they homeschool to have more control over their kid’s education and to give them more freedom. It is also obvious that they feel that they pay school taxes, so they have every right to take advantage of school services.
Still, as these families found out earlier this month, there is a difference between using state services and relying on state services. When you remove yourself from oversight of the public schools, you also remove the public schools responsibility to look out for your best interest.
While I would never try to tell anyone how to go about homeschooling their kids, especially since I don’t like people taking exception to my kids taking private classes, I would caution homeschoolers to use non-public resources as much as possible even when public school services are available. I find that when a great horde of homeschoolers flock to public school services, it leaves the rest of homeschoolers with no other choice than to do the same as they don’t have the combined power a large local homeschooling community. With this happening, when the school systems decide to yank the resources from homeschoolers for whatever reason, the homeschoolers are caught off guard. In the case in Virginia, if any of the students were seniors and relying on these classes to complete their high school portfolio, they have some serious setbacks to deal with.
Read about Equal access laws for homeschoolers
*Have a question about homeschooling? Just ask.
* Have you seen the homeschooling curriculum glossary?