Horrific crimes and violent acts tug at our collective heartstrings. When other humans are harmed, we rightfully feel empathy and anger. We should use these moments as opportunities for reflection and conversation, but we should be careful to not make policy based on emotion. Some are using the egregious case of alleged child abuse by a California family charged with starving and torturing their children in a so-called private school to call for greater regulation of all homeschooling families.
Author: Kerry McDonald
Kerry McDonald has a B.A. in economics from Bowdoin College and a Master’s degree in education policy from Harvard University. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and four never-been-schooled children and writes about education choice, parental empowerment, homeschooling, and self-directed learning. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and at her blog, Whole Family Learning.
There’s a Due Process Problem with Homeschool Regulations
The biggest problem with the often-cavalier way citizens and lawmakers suggest regulating homeschoolers – who receive no public money but still pay local property taxes to fund schools – is that it is an invasion of privacy and a violation of due process.
Education Needs to Be Uber-ized
The possibilities for education without conventional schooling are almost limitless, and we are already seeing many of these models gain popularity and presence.
Factory-Like Schools Are the Child Labor Crisis of Today
There is mounting evidence that increasingly restrictive schooling, quickly consuming the majority of childhood, is damaging children. Rates of childhood anxiety, depression, behavioral problems, and other mental illness are surging.
What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
With unschooling there is no after. There is only now. My daughter is a baker because she bakes. She is also many other things. To ask what a child wants to be when she grows up is to dismiss what she already is, what she already knows, what she already does.
Why Homeschoolers Love To Read
I saw the headline in Monday’s Harvard Gazette: “Life Stories Keep Harvard Bibliophile Fixed to the Page.” My first thought was, ‘I bet he was homeschooled.” He was.
Public Schools Were Designed to Indoctrinate Immigrants
The myth we have been told about the history of American public schooling as a national treasure that nurtures our democracy is untrue. The reality is that 19th-century politicians and citizens were fearful of and overwhelmed by rapid societal change, as thousands of immigrants streamed into American cities in the mid-1800s.
Is Mass Schooling Behind The Anxiety Epidemic Among Teens?
While the Times article describes various tactics schools and therapists use to address mounting teenage anxiety and depression, one question not asked is this: If schooling is causing these serious problems for teenagers, then why are they going?
This Town Wants to Rob Disadvantaged Students to Build a School for the Rich
Every time I see a new government school under construction, it reminds me of the significant burden local taxpayers bear to pay for that coercive new institution. In the town of Brookline, Massachusetts, an affluent community adjacent to Boston, this form of government coercion has reached new heights. Last week, town officials contacted the president of a private college there to say that they were planning to take seven acres of college land by eminent domain to build a new public elementary school.
My Homeschoolers Love Worksheets, Because They’re 100% Voluntary
Unschooling, or Self-Directed Education, means giving young people the freedom and opportunity to direct their own learning, following their own interests and passions, using the full resources of real and digital communities, without coercion.