Homeschool "abuse"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind that in many states, "unschooling" is perfectly legal. There is no education beyond what children learn simply by daily activities and being curious.

I homeschooled for a year in MOCO because I hated MOCO County Schools. I pulled my youngest out after three months and finished the year with him at home. Their requirements are very simple to meet. All they require is a yearly review. It took less than 10 minutes. The caseworker just looked at a few work samples. When we found a home in Fairfax County, I put my youngest back in public school.

Many states have no accountability requirements beyond registering the child as a homeschool student.

This makes me depressed.

But do these particular parents know and not care or just not know how behind their kids are? I think its one thing to consciously "unschool" your kids, but its another to think your kid is learning academics at the right pace but just be totally wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind that in many states, "unschooling" is perfectly legal. There is no education beyond what children learn simply by daily activities and being curious.

I homeschooled for a year in MOCO because I hated MOCO County Schools. I pulled my youngest out after three months and finished the year with him at home. Their requirements are very simple to meet. All they require is a yearly review. It took less than 10 minutes. The caseworker just looked at a few work samples. When we found a home in Fairfax County, I put my youngest back in public school.

Many states have no accountability requirements beyond registering the child as a homeschool student.

This makes me depressed.

But do these particular parents know and not care or just not know how behind their kids are? I think its one thing to consciously "unschool" your kids, but its another to think your kid is learning academics at the right pace but just be totally wrong.

They are clueless. Like I said, they teach trivia and are amazed when their children memorize this information. They can't do basic math and struggle with reading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind that in many states, "unschooling" is perfectly legal. There is no education beyond what children learn simply by daily activities and being curious.

I homeschooled for a year in MOCO because I hated MOCO County Schools. I pulled my youngest out after three months and finished the year with him at home. Their requirements are very simple to meet. All they require is a yearly review. It took less than 10 minutes. The caseworker just looked at a few work samples. When we found a home in Fairfax County, I put my youngest back in public school.

Many states have no accountability requirements beyond registering the child as a homeschool student.

What was it that you disliked so much about Moco schools? How is fairfax better in your mind? I know people who don't like their kids in public school for a variety of reasons, but I am surprised to hear such a disparate opinion about what I would have thought are broadly similar school systems.

[Anonymous]

There have been quite a few scenarios of abuse. Look at the Rembis family:

https://www.facebook.com/rembisfamily/
https://homeschoolbase.com/rembis-family/

Then there are sites like Homeschoolers anon that cover the dark side:
https://homeschoolersanonymous.org/stories/

[Anonymous]

OP, before you jump to calling CPS or something drastic, make sure you know the FULL story. My almost 9 year old barely reads, and can't do any math but he has some severe learning disabilities. I don't tell many people and usually spout off how smart he is because he knows history (and some other subjects) better than most middle schoolers. But it's because we talk to him about it and don't require him to read it.

We are fortunate to have him in a good school and he has a great IEP, but some parents may not think their schools can cater to the specific special needs of their kids and decide to homeschool. They may be "showing off" about their kids' smarts but are really struggling to work with their kids' LDs and don't want to share that personal information.

Obviously, that may or may not be the case, but just wanted to share my own personal struggles (anonymously) since I don't talk about my son's disabilities and to an outsider they may think I don't see it. If I homeschooled, I could see someone thinking I'm not teaching him when it would be furthest from the truth.

[Anonymous]

There are so many homeschoolers that are behind, not to mention being overly secluded from the world. It's kind of frightening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are so many homeschoolers that are behind, not to mention being overly secluded from the world. It's kind of frightening.

And there are public schools full of kids in DC and elsewhere, where the kids graduate functionally illiterate, unable to do basic math and with minimal knowledge of science and history.

There are also scores of homeschool children who are well educated, accomplished, well socialized and higher achieving than the majority of their public school peers.

Homeschooling when done well can produce exceptional results. The internet and homeschool coops make homeschooling a very different beast than the stereotypes you are spouting off

I can imagine very few situations which woukd lead me to decide to homeschool my children, but ai know enough about homeschooling to know that what you state is not the norm and far more likely to occur in a poor performing public school than most homeschool situations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are so many homeschoolers that are behind, not to mention being overly secluded from the world. It's kind of frightening.

And there are public schools full of kids in DC and elsewhere, where the kids graduate functionally illiterate, unable to do basic math and with minimal knowledge of science and history.

There are also scores of homeschool children who are well educated, accomplished, well socialized and higher achieving than the majority of their public school peers.

Homeschooling when done well can produce exceptional results. The internet and homeschool coops make homeschooling a very different beast than the stereotypes you are spouting off

I can imagine very few situations which woukd lead me to decide to homeschool my children, but ai know enough about homeschooling to know that what you state is not the norm and far more likely to occur in a poor performing public school than most homeschool situations.

This actually is not true anymore at least for public schools - don't know about charters since they aren't all accountable. Federal regulations flag kids now. The majority of these kids you talk about are immigrants who come in partway through the school system and don't speak English and are behind from the education in other countries. Also special needs students who cannot keep up. If you take these kids out of the equation, there are very few in public school who are functionally illiterate. They may not be competing at the same level of other countries but they are not unable to do basic math, science, history, and reading. We have I think a national 85% high school graduation rate? Something like that. These kids can all pass a 5th grade test. No one was saying homeschoolers are all behind. It's just that they are not flagged by anyone except the parents as being behind so we don't know how many are falling through the cracks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would be neglect and not abuse. CPS is not going to do anything about that.

hello? where are you living, in the 1930's?

For a long time neglect has been classified as a form of abuse, and yes, CPS IS going to do something about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on what state they live in. Some states have some accountability (testing requirements or portfolio) and some have none.

Unfortunately, they live in a state that does not.

They are actually in town visiting (minus ANY and ALL school supplies) for an extended visit (think before Christmas), and they haven't been doing any schooling (other than the occasional store-bought activity book) since then.

I truly feel for these kids.

So just to be clear they are not doing any formal schooling for nearly 9 months? Are they unschooling?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there a way to anonymously report parents who may be doing their children a disservice with their "homeschooling" techniques?

We have a close acquaintance who homeschools, but the children are really suffering acedemically. One parent is in med school, the other works from home all day (and works on home renovations.) We have noticed for years, but had an interaction with them over the weekend, and their almost-8yo couldn't comprehend our 1st graders homework assignment, and he struggles to read. Their 1st grader struggles with 3-letter words still. I truly feel the children's schooling suffers because of the busy schedules of the parents. They have two more kids behind their youngest in "homeschool".

As homeschool parents yourself, tell me what we should do? I can't look the other way anymore. They claim they are bright because they know useless trivia about space and dinosaurs and Egyptian times, but it is really starting to show that they are really behind.

Honestly, you sound like a judgmental busybody. First, you assume they are behind, but you might be surprised at one an assessment would actually discover. You also assume that what you see as "behind" would not be the case in regular school. A lot of assumptions, and based on your original post, not a lot of solid information.

Finally, you dont actually know how much they connect their "useless trivia" to other knowledge.

In short, what you appear to not know far exceeds what you could possibly know, and the notion that you would threaten this family's choice, which is their right, by reporting them shows that you are not a good friend to them. "Close acquaintance". YIKES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, before you jump to calling CPS or something drastic, make sure you know the FULL story. My almost 9 year old barely reads, and can't do any math but he has some severe learning disabilities. I don't tell many people and usually spout off how smart he is because he knows history (and some other subjects) better than most middle schoolers. But it's because we talk to him about it and don't require him to read it.

We are fortunate to have him in a good school and he has a great IEP, but some parents may not think their schools can cater to the specific special needs of their kids and decide to homeschool. They may be "showing off" about their kids' smarts but are really struggling to work with their kids' LDs and don't want to share that personal information.

Obviously, that may or may not be the case, but just wanted to share my own personal struggles (anonymously) since I don't talk about my son's disabilities and to an outsider they may think I don't see it. If I homeschooled, I could see someone thinking I'm not teaching him when it would be furthest from the truth.

This was my thought as well.

[Anonymous]

Your expectations of their education may also be off base. Reading and math skills have been pushed earlier and earlier in the school systems in the last 40 years, but there is research that indicates the natural age for those skills to be developmentally appropriate is a couple years older. Just because we can skill and drill kids into learning a skill earlier doesn't mean that's when their brains are ready for it.

Not a homeschooler, but wanted to point this out -- we're not talking about an 11 or 12 year old who can't read, and comparing home-schooled kids at their young ages to your community-schooled kids is a bit premature.

[Anonymous]

It's okay for a K'er to learn ABC's and letter sounds. In first would be learning to read 3 letter words. It's only recently that kids are expected to be reading a little before even going to K.

[Anonymous]

parents who may be doing their children a disservice with their "homeschooling" techniques?

many are borderline