Mary T.: “Homeschooling tends to attract parents who value control”
“I was terrified to make my own decisions, unsure of my ability to survive outside of my parents’ controlling framework.” I was my family’s “first.” The first to learn to read at home. The first to complete K-12 without ever attending school. The first to fully benefit from this great experiment full of boundless potential…
Sage N.: “My parents were clearly unprepared to be teachers”
“Some level of oversight would have really helped me because I think my parents would have felt compelled to keep up with my education far more than they did, and it may well have prevented my experience from also happening to my sibling.“ I was home educated by my parents from birth to age 16….
Hope M.: “I don’t even know how many people knew we existed”
“There were certainly several years in which we didn’t take any sort of test. There was no way for me, as a child, to connect with anyone outside of my household. There was no way for anyone to even see that I existed.” I am the middle child out of five sisters (I’m smack in…
Danielle C.: “The state never followed up on my education”
“Enforcing the current requirements that Indiana has in place could help to prevent children like me from slipping through the cracks.” As Gloria Steinem said, “The final stage of healing is using what happens to you to help other people.” In 2019, I was diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and PTSD stemming from the years of…
Amy W.: “Supporting homeschool oversight is the least we can do”
“I lived in a continuous state of fear and learned helplessness. I was afraid to make even the smallest decisions for myself.” My family began homeschooling in 1991, the year my older sister was set to enter kindergarten. Our local public school had a terrible reputation, and my mother believed she could provide us with…
Reanna G.: “Homeschooling was not in MY best interest.”
“My goal one day is to help give children a voice about whether or not they wish to be homeschooled or go to public school.” I was homeschooled. It has to be the worst aspect of my childhood. I was raised by a relative, whom I called mother, and who ended up homeschooling me because…
Kelley Richey: “My mom let her mental health issues seep into every aspect of our lives”
“Mom would tell me that I was refusing to learn how to read because I didn’t love her. That really triggered so much anxiety in me as a youngster trying my very best to understand new concepts that weren’t easy.” The following story is my own experiences as a product of homeschooling. I have taken…
Elizabeth B.: “I begged my mother to help me come up with a transcript and diploma”
“When I was 18, I begged my mother to help me come up with a transcript and diploma, so that I could attempt to pursue a higher education. She would refuse each time and tell me that she didn’t want to ‘limit me’ by defining what my education was.” I was homeschooled by my parents…
Joan T.: “My dysfunctional and emotionally abusive home was my school.”
“I believe to this day—as I did in childhood—that I should not have been homeschooled, at least not all the way through high school as I was.” For fifteen years, I was a princess in a tower. I was homeschooled for my entire childhood and adolescence. My parents, as they proudly told everyone, picked their…
Sarah: “The school never did anything to enforce their regulations”
When I was growing up, I was badly abused by my parents, to the extent that it meets the current definition of intrafamilial child torture. Solitary confinement (being locked in my room for days or weeks at a time) was a significant part of my torture, and when I was locked in my room I…