Replying to studied ignorance

A fellow homeschooling mother recently shared with me an article by Georgetown University law professor Robin West titled "The Harms of Homeschooling." The piece was published in the Univ. of Maryland's Institute of Philosophy and Public Policy quarterly this past fall.

Rife with generalizations, lack of statistical backup, and downright fantasy (the "homeschoolers who live under tarps in parking lots" remark comes to mind), the article at first left me unfazed. After all, it was obviously just another attempt to stir up a mistrusted and largely misunderstood minority.

But then it dawned on me that said minority included MY family and ME, so I went back and re-read West's piece. I came away with a new appreciation for those who say our legal system is going to hell and fast. If Prof. West's failure to present a reasoned and well-substantiated observation of a cultural phenomenon -- in the era of the internet with its easily accessible data -- is any indication of things to come, our courts might as well shut down now. And to think she actually teaches.

The original article is available online, just Google it.

My original reply to Prof. West is below. Pardon the weird typeface changes. I can't fix them:

Professor West,

I was recently given a copy of an article, "The Harms of Homeschooling" you wrote for the Summer/Fall 2009 edition of the University of Maryland's Philosophy and Public Policy Quarterly. After reading your piece thoroughly, I was surprised to find so many statements that did not appear to be supported by facts, at least none that I could discern.

First, you maintain that tighter regulation of homeschooling will do much to prevent cases of child abuse. Your assertion is difficult to reconcile with data readily available via a simple internet search. In 2007, according to federal statistics on child abuse, 75% of child abuse victims who died from their mistreatment were under the age of four. www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/canstats.cfm This age group does not include school-age children, thus it would seem incorrect to claim that any significant reduction in child abuse cases would be obtained by more closely regulating homeschooling.

Further, since the overwhelming majority of school-aged children in the U.S. attend traditional public or private schools, it stands to reason that the majority of child abuse cases in the school-age population will not be found among those being homeschooled.

The case of Chandler Grafner, a seven-year-old boy in Colorado, is a prime example of why your argument regarding the need for greater homeschool regulation to prevent child abuse does not hold up. In 2007, Chandler was enrolled in a Denver-area public school when signs of physical abuse were observed by his teachers. Their suspicions were reported to authorities who investigated but took no action. The child was subsequently withdrawn from school and when this was reported to authorities, again they took no action. Shortly after, Chandler was found dead as the result of starvation and physical abuse. He had been kept in a closet, made to sleep in his own excrement, and given virtually nothing to eat or drink in the days before he died.

I am curious to know how his enrollment in public school benefited him in terms of alleviating his suffering or preventing his death. Teachers reported a problem, authorities investigated, nothing happened. The child died.

Now, Chandler's case is just one of many out there and, yes, I'm sure if you dig deep enough you can find instances of parents who homeschooled their children solely for the purpose of being able to abuse them in secrecy. But the fact is that these cases are going to be far and few between simply because the population of homeschooled children is a mere fraction of all the children in the United States, and the vast majority of parents who choose to homeschool their children are also willingly visible in their communities, local civic organizations, and places of worship. In short, they have nothing to hide and no reason to hide it.

Your remarks seem based in part on the myth that homeschooled children spend most of their time isolated from the outside world and subjected to mind-numbing authoritarian rule. Homeschooling and child abuse are two separate issues with no de facto connection between them, and I'm surprised you presented such an unproven relationship as fact in your article.

I'd next like to address your assertion that, "children who attend public schools are required to have immunizations," ergo, children who are homeschooled pose a public health threat because their parents may not vaccinate them. Again, you provide no statistics to back this up. In Texas, where I live, parents whose children attend public school may legally exempt their children from any or all vaccinations and their children may not be prohibited from attending class. These exemptions may be granted for religious, personal philosophical, or medical reasons and all public schools are required to honor them. Texas is in good company. All states except Mississippi and Virginia have religious exemptions from immunizations. Eighteen states also allow exemptions on personal philosophical grounds.

Again, it would seem that since the majority of children in these states are publicly schooled, the majority of vaccination exemptions would be found among that particular population. Homeschoolers are a minority in all states, and within this minority population it is doubtful that most of them are unvaccinated since, as you point out, a preponderance of homeschoolers come from fundamentalist Protestant faiths. Most such faiths do not explicitly discourage parents from seeking conventional medical care, including vaccinations, for their children.

Your third asserted harm -- that children who do not attend traditional schools are somehow inappropriately or incompletely valued as individuals by virtue of being with their families much of the time -- is, quite simply, breathtakingly bizarre.

You write that, "(P)ublic and private schools provide for many children . . . a safe haven in which they are both regarded and respected independently and individually."

A safe haven? Are you sure?

According to the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence, during the 1999-2000 school year approximately 71% of elementary and secondary schools in the U.S. reported at least one violent event. (Violence in U.S. Public Schools: 2000 School Survey on Crime and Safety, October 2003)

In May 2003, a Texas newspaper reported on the prevalence of registered sex offenders employed in Texas public schools. More than 500 men and 77 women had been disciplined for infractions related to inappropriate sexual conduct with students and yet many of them were allowed to remain on the job. Most of the victims were in middle school or high school.

The list of abuses against children in public school goes further. Do an internet search for information about special needs children abused by their public school teachers and you'll come away nauseated. The list of horrors includes being tied to a chair, verbal humiliation in front of classmates, beatings, verbal assaults, and confinement to dark, locked rooms.

So much for safe havens full of high regard and respect for children as individuals.

Along these same lines, you describe the "ideal teacher" as someone who "cares about the child as an individual, a learner, an actively curious

person—she doesn’t care about the child because the child is hers."

Why is this type of caring superior to that of a parent? You don't say, but I suspect it is rooted in the notion that the State, rather than the family, is best equipped to raise our children. I find this not only chilling but offensive, seeing as how the State didn't volunteer to carry each of my children for nine months, birth them, feed them, spend countless sleepless nights worrying over every little sniffle or cough, shop for their clothes, books or toys, provide them with a house in which to live, answer their millions of questions, clean up their spills, do their laundry, or pay for their teeth cleanings, medical checkups, speech therapy, or ballet lessons. The State has not spent long hours researching and procuring educational supplies and materials to ensure my children receive a well-rounded education. The State has not chauffered my children to scout meetings, museum trips, music concerts or plays.

No, the State hasn't done any of that for me or for any other homeschooling parent I know. And until it does, it has no right to claim that its authority should take precedence over mine.

I also find it interesting that you dismiss the possibility that parents who educate their own children are incapable of caring about them in a more objective way -- as individuals, learners, actively curious people. On what do you base this? The very nature of homeschooling provides for the coveted opportunity to learn and be taught as an individual rather than as just one of 20+ students in a classroom (or 2000 students in a school). Nowhere is the individuality of children more highly regarded and accommodated than in a homeschool setting where every book, learning tool, and lesson plan can be tailored specifically to each child's learning style and developmental level.

Institutional settings, no matter how well-funded, expertly staffed, or beautifully decked out, cannot possibly honor a student's individuality. How can they, when your child is one in a sea of many, many more?

Your next "harm" has to do with the political ramifications of homeschooling. You write that this model of education sacrifices "some children's knowledge base, literacy, and numeracy."

I guess you haven't kept up with the statistics over the past 20 years that repeatedly show U.S. students underperforming in math and science compared to their peers in other countries. Or what about the 2007 report from the Alliance for Excellent Education that reports just 31% of America's 8th grade students -- and roughly the same number of 12th graders -- meet the National Assessment of Educational Progress standard of reading proficiency for their grade level? The AEE also notes that roughly 23% of high school graduates are not ready for introductory level college writing courses, and that about 40% of high school graduates "lack the literacy skills employers seek."

Here in Texas, nearly half of all college freshmen require remedial courses before they can continue their college careers. Wasn't public school supposed to prepare them before they got to college?

Next, you speak of the lack of exposure homeschooled children have to "diverse ideas, cultures, and ways of being." Exactly how do you know this?

My local homeschool association is just one of many in South Texas. It has about 155 member families from all walks of life. Its members are Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, athiest, agnostic, and pagan. They are black, white, Indian, Asian. They span the economic spectrum with some families living quite comfortably while others are struggling or are unemployed. The children are biological and adopted. Some are bi-racial. Some were born in the U.S., others came from various nations overseas. Our association, like many others, hosts various events throughout the year designed specifically to expose member families to a variety of ideas, cultures and traditions. We host our own international festival. (I wish you could have seen our association's children this past fall as they shared their studies of, and personal experiences with, countries as diverse as Ethiopia, Haiti, Poland, Japan, Holland, Kenya, Israel, Egypt, and Madagascar.)

Our children of all ages play together, attend social functions together, participate in scouting together, and learn together in a teaching cooperative run by parents of all races, religions, and countries of origin. They also join together for community service projects to benefit local and global charitable programs including assembling care packages for children in developing countries as well as boxes for our own soldiers stationed in the Middle East. Our children are having rich, meaningful experiences and are learning about life in real-time. This contrasts sharply with the superficial, fabricated, age-segregated world found in the institutional school setting, where children are expected to be quiet and to follow orders, and are generally tolerated rather than deeply valued. (I attended 12 years of public school, so I speak from personal experience.)

Exactly how is it that these homeschooled children are being deprived of the diversity experience?

In conclusion, you note that, "The educational harm is the most immediate, direct risk of unregulated homeschooling. It is also the only one in this litany of possible risks adamantly denied by homeschooling advocates. There is indeed no credible evidence that homeschoolers as a group do worse on standardized tests, but contrary to their claims, there is also no credible evidence that they do better."

Because homeschoolers cannot prove they can do "better" than public schools, they should be regulated? The logic simply doesn't follow. Public schools in America are some of the most highly regulated institutions in the country, yet they are routinely plagued by student violence, drop-outs, illiteracy, and sagging test scores in math and science. How, then, would regulating homeschools ensure greater academic success? You don't say.

Further along you write, "(I)t is clear from both anecdotal accounts, memoirs, and trial transcripts that some homeschoolers are suffering educational harm which would be avoided or minimized were they either in public school or were their homeschool subjected to decent regulation."

The same can be said for public schools, so I have to ask, "What's your point?"

Also, any mention of homeschooling found in trial transcripts is not going to be representative of home education as a whole and is likely there as part of a dispute in a child custody case, an acrimonious divorce, or other aberrant event.

You claim that all homeschooled children and their parents would "not be hurt and would likely be helped by decent state regulation" of homeschooling. Your statement implies that homeschooling is now a free-for-all in all states, but this just isn't true. Many states have reporting and testing requirements. Those that don't, such as my home state, make it clear that parents can find themselves in a lot of trouble should they be asked to provide proof that homeschooling is taking place in a bonafide manner but be unable to do so. Penalizing the many fine homeschooling parents through cumbersome or intrusive reporting practices on the off chance you'll weed out one or two who are homeschooling in name only doesn't make good sense, nor is it economically or logistically practical.

Your call for more regulation of homeschooling is without justification. Greater regulation at a tremendous cost has done little to ensure academic success or student safety in our nation's public schools. There's no empirical evidence to suggest it would be any different for those who choose to teach their children at home.

I have yet to hear back from the professor. Either she's too busy teaching to let facts get in the way of speculation or else she's been so inundated with email from irate homeschoolers seeking only to set the record straight that she just hasn't gotten around to mine.

No matter. The truth is out there and available for anyone who really wants to know.

Justice is supposed to be blind, not the ones charged with teaching about it.