Harvard Attacks Homeschooling in USA Amidst Worldwide Pandemic

4/22/20

While nearly the entire nation is schooling their children at home, Harvard University is launching an attack on homeschooling with their summit to discuss severely regulating the practice. 

This is ultimately an attack on parental rights; who gets to decide what is best for children, their parents or the government? Should parents be forced to put their kids in a school they disagree with? Think about these scenarios: Catholics must send their children to a Protestant private school; atheists must send their kids to a Christian school...Christians should not be forced to send their children to government schools, but that is essentially what is being promoted by Elizabeth Bartholet of the Harvard Law School. 

Homeschooling: Parent Rights Absolutism vs. Child Rights to Education & Protection is the original article. (love how she says we do this with very little scrutiny...we test ANNUALLY and submit those tests, we are in church 3 times a week, piano weekly, tennis weekly, Civil Air Patrol weekly, work WEEKLY, and they see friends...we're just one family, and we tend to do less than others we know. Question science? My oldest finished with a top score while in 12th gr. college A&P I and II, microbiology...we don't agree with secular humanistic thinking is what she is complaining about, which is POOR science, so she seeks to regulate people she disagrees with...)

The Risks of Homeschooling-Harvard Magazine (agrees with and heavily cites the original article and is being more widely circulated)

The comments at the bottom of this post were in response to the article linked to directly above (The Risks of Homeschooling) and were quickly closed. There is no doubt as to why when you read them--not a single comment agreed with the article and several people listed compelling information as to why the topic is irrelevant. 

I realize there are families home schooling is not right for; I'll be the first to tell someone not to home school in certain circumstances. For those who must rely on government-funded education, being aware of the pervasive worldview is critical to helping your children steer clear of it. We cannot pretend there isn't an active agenda in the educational area. Bartholet seeks to be seen as some sort of expert, but one can't help wonder if she would say the same things if the public schools taught from a Christian perspective. Is she interested in rounding out her kid's education by putting them in a Bible teaching church 3 times a week? Why should her worldview trump my worldview?

If you like to read, consider John Taylor Gatto's tome: The Underground History of American Education. Ken Ham's The Relevance of Genesis videos, which can be found on YouTube are also helpful as well as Voddie Baucham's The Children of Caesar. I've linked to part one of each of the videos and you can also view part 2 free on YouTube.

Al Mohler's rebuttal to Bartholet is excellent. Worth reading.

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  Kim Cheney Wayman • 2 days ago
  
  

  This article is sad in its total inaccuracy. First of 90% of homeschoolers are not Conservative Christian. I have homeschooled for 8 years and we are atheists. In my state of NC only 60% of homeschoolers are christian and only a small percentage are Conservative fundamental christian homeschoolers. The reason they do not have lots of regulations on them is because homeschoolers have proven over and over again that the majority are above in academics, social skills and life skills of public schooled children. You can get around the mandates if states wanted to by asking every homeschool to turn in a well visit dr visit every year honestly. I believe you know nothing honestly about homeschooling or homeschoolers and i would happily invite you to my state and introduce you to the world of homeschooling. You might also want to look at statistics on how many homeschool children not only go to college yes including Harvard but get scholarships thrown at them because they are so advanced.Your knowledge in this area is so bad that i could do an equally bad article on Quantum Physics because my knowledge in that area is about as extensive as yours is in homeschooling.

• Cait Blakley • 2 days ago
  
  

  This article and others like it stun me and show a true lack of understanding of what homeschooling is. It's sad to see such a one-sided, uninformed article on Havard's website.

  
  

   TJ • 2 days ago
• Um. Ok. I was homeschooled from pre-K through highschool graduation. Went to college and got double degrees. Homeschooling is amazing. The kindest, most intelligent people I know were homeschooled. I loved it. Every other homeschooler I've known/met loves/loved it. Way to intolerantly attack a minority group here though.

  And what's with the picture? Contradictory. It clearly shows a kid imprisoned in their public school while the homeschoolers run around having fun. Doesn't fit the article.

  
  bdbaugus • 2 days ago
• Fascinatingly out of date. I would urge the author and the professor to do some research and homework and check their internal inconsistencies. Putting a government bureaucrat called a teacher in charge of the children is also authority figure with much poser (see numerous teacher student sex scandals as exhibit A). But the research shows that a) home school students do better academically, b) home school students are more community and politically aware and active, c) are more likely to involved in the arts, politics and entrepreneurs. This is nothing more than a desire for government to extend its reach into the family and home, an area it has proved incompetent to manage as various public relief programs have destroyed families over the last 50 years.
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  David E. Shellenberger • 2 days ago

  
  

  Government school-prisons are the worst means of education. They should be abolished and a free market achieved.

• Larissa • 2 days ago

  
  

  This is, by far, the most vapid and poorly researched article I've ever read. I am a public educator. Children in public schools are penned in for 8-9 hours a day with MAYBE a 20 minute recess built in with another 25 minutes for lunch. Time is constantly wasted trying to corral and transition from one arbitrary class to another. They MAYBE experience 1 or 2 field trips a year. Homeschool children, on the other hand, are often doing their school outside. They are active. They are given specialized instruction instead of a one size fits all curriculum. Field trips take place as often as they want, many once a week or more. When a child is sick, they don't miss instruction. They are given the time to recuperate and pick up where they left off. Co-ops offer group learning atmospheres where they can learn from specialized experts in certain fields. When a child masters a concept, they can move forward instead of sitting around waiting for their peers. When a child is struggling, they can slow down without feeling like they are holding everyone back or worse being forced to just trudge ahead without the skill. Children have more time to participate in activities like 4H, music lessons, team sports, and internships since their life is not dictated by a government institution. Furthermore, homeschool students outperform public school students on the ACT, SAT, and in areas of college readiness. They are better at discussions, better at asking questions and providing analysis.This idea that homeschool children are isolated and under authoritarian rule is antiquated and shows a lack of research by this author. Public schools dictate the way a child should dress, the way a child behaves, the way a child eats, the way they play, and the way a child should learn. They dictate who gets to be successful and who gets left behind. They funnel children into groups based upon arbitrary quantifiers of potential. They dictate the number of hours a child must sit. They dictate what a child should say. They dictate what days are school days and what days are for family. The public school system literally has control of a child and his family from age 5-18. And you say they provide freedom? Absolutely tone deaf and an embarrassment to this publication.

  
  

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• Daina Ball • 2 days ago
  
  

  In the image picturing one child locked up while others play freely outdoors, please realize that the child locked in the house is most definitely representing a child who attends school and not a homeschool child as you may first assume.
• aikimoe • 

  This is really tired stuff. And thoroughly illiberal. In the utter absence of any evidence whatsoever that kids who are homeschooled are more likely to be abused or less likely to enter adulthood ready for college or trade-school, there is no logical or even ethical reason to suggest that homeschooled kids face more "risks" than kids who attend public school.

  I'm a secular liberal and secular liberals are increasingly choosing to homeschool their kids. Lazy attempts (I can only hope they're not dishonest) to create an impression that the vast majority of homeschoolers are religious fundamentalists indicate the kind of desperation one sees from conservatives warning against the dangers of sex education and gay marriage.

  You should know and strive to be better than this.
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  Russ Westbrook • 2 days ago
  
  

  So..... The State can't have spies in the family structure, and can't force feed children what to think? Sign me up for homeschooling.5