Jesse M.: “Some of these things would most likely not have been done if they were not required”
“I am grateful that a minimal amount of planning was required at the beginning of the school year and that some type of assessment was required at the end of each school year. I’m also grateful that medical checkups were required. Some of these things would most likely not have been done if they were…
Rebecca A.: “I feel I have been denied the opportunity to live up to my potential”
“My days revolved around taking care of my siblings and our home. Our mother would leave her bedroom periodically to yell at us for being too noisy and messy. I spent most of my teenage years being overwhelmed and depressed.” I attended Christian (Protestant) schools through most of my education, having been homeschooled in 4th…
Maria M.: “I’m still playing catch-up”
Ultimately, it is me who pays the price. I’m now 25 and I’m still playing catch-up. My Math and Science skills are at an 8th grade level and I’ll have to spend a few years in remedial classes that government aid won’t cover. Homeschooling in our family didn’t start off as a choice at first;…
Lillie S.: “I was never once asked if I felt safe at home”
“I was never once asked if I felt safe at home. I was never asked if lessons frequently degenerated into screaming and tears. I wasn’t asked if my sister and I were hit on a semi-daily basis. No one asked if we had a fear of government workers or if my sister and I had…
Sarah M.: “These assessments turned out to be easily avoided”
“Although Pennsylvania had homeschooling oversight on the books, they failed to reliably enforce it. Even within my local school district I knew families with vastly different experiences with the district office” I‘m the oldest of six children, raised in a conservative Christian family that homeschooled until I was sixteen. My home state of Pennsylvania was…
Alex H.: “I often wonder at what cost”
“The goal was lofty, but our secular home education was primarily based on a fear of negative outside influence. What my parents did not understand is that safety by isolation has many consequences long into adulthood.” While I have had both positive and negative experiences with homeschooling, I strongly believe in homeschool reform. I was…
W. S. Hunter: “Parents are flawed people, like all of us”
“Now that I am a parent myself, I recognize the pride and naivety of any parent—no matter how loving and well-meaning—who thinks they can be the sole adult and authority in their kids’ lives
Emilie Huffman: “This has been a love letter to my mom”
“Mathematics education is a very important focus area in homeschooling, as there is evidence for a homeschool math gap, and many anecdotal accounts of homeschooled girls in particular receiving subpar mathematics education.”
Jessica A.: “Homeschool is an abusive parent’s dream”
“I support homeschool oversight because most child abuse is committed by parents against their own children. I believe people oppose homeschool oversight because most people only worry about their own kids. They won’t admit it, but as long as their own kids aren’t at risk, even “good” homeschoolers just don’t care.”
Lynne A.: “I wasn’t protected at all”
“If not for the Religious Exemption clause, my parents would have had to, at the very least, turn in my standardized test scores to the county officials. I think it would have strongly encouraged my parents to educate me better.”