Child abuse in the guise of homeschooling

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This reference is used to annotate "I would never send my kids to school" (2017) by Piotr Wozniak

Homeschooling has a well-documented record of excellent academic performance and fantastic mental health of enrolled children.

Socialists often do not like homeschooling because it makes it hard to shape a socialist without a bit of indoctrination at school. Lawyers often do not like homeschooling because they like societies well-regulated and this requires a lot of "teaching" of the rules and the law. Atheists may oppose homeschooling because it provides sheltered condition for promoting religious fundamentalism. All those cases of prejudice come from ideologues who want to shape society to their own liking in accordance with their ideology, philosophy or religion (see: Ban on homeschooling). However, criticism of homeschooling does not only come from the left. Fox News has recently produced a disturbing piece about abusive parents who used homeschooling as a legal cover for their acts. This is a typical Fox piece of news that feeds the ignorant with a heavy dose of prejudice. The hit begins with an alarming headline "The House of Horrors". Those who know little of homeschooling, would certainly develop a bias that would reduce chances of free learning in their family.

A Michigan mother who held her children captive at home, beat them and killed two of them months apart, keeping their bodies in freezers for years. What they and scores of other children with similar fates have in common is that their abusers kept their crimes against them secret by keeping them out of school – where bruises, wounds or other signs of mistreatment likely would have drawn someone’s attention. The abusers kept authorities at bay by claiming that their children were being homeschooled

The Coalition for Responsible Home Education has a mission of protecting child's rights in homeschooled setting. However, homeschoolers often call the CRHE a wolf in sheep's clothing. The Coalition works to promote good homeschooling practices. However, Christian homeschoolers feel the CRHE calls for excessive oversight.

The Coalition of Responsible Home Education (sic!), a national nonprofit, told Fox News that it has tracked nearly 400 cases that have drawn public attention – often through news outlets – since the year 2000. The cases tracked had children whose parents reported them as homeschooled but who were fatally abused or had survived severe abuse and neglect

The Coalition's mission sounds well intended, however, proposed remedies may be a threat to free learning:

CRHE calls for states to conduct periodic wellness and academic assessments to ensure that children are progressing

The problem with free learning is that child's progress may be entirely invisible to any agency's benchmark (see: Progress benchmarks). Free learning, by definition, is free to set it's own benchmarks and goals.

In similar vein, Eagan's report mentioned in the article states:

There must be a safety net to protect children who are victims of abuse and neglect from being withdrawn from the safe harbor and visibility of school and removed to a less or even potentially non-visible environment, with the consequence of either no education or continued lack of protection from abuse and neglect. Even for children who have never been victims of abuse or neglect, there must be some mechanism for ensuring that children are actually being homeschooled

Home School Legal Defense Association was set up in 1983 to protect legal rights of homeschooled families. They have won numerous court cases on behalf of homeschoolers in the US and abroad. Thankfully, for balance, their voice was included in the Fox News piece:

Home School Legal Defense Association senior counsel Scott Woodruff told Fox News that the organization objects to policies or laws that single out homeschool families: "States are frequently changing their child abuse and neglect regulations and we rarely oppose them, especially when they apply to everyone equally," Woodruff said. "Parents who homeschool should not be singled out for special treatment. Homeschooling is not a risk factor for abuse or neglect"

Child abuse occurs at home and at school. However, in a vast majority of cases, children are homeschooled for the most noble reasons. This is why compulsory schooling is far greater a violation of human rights than the total of child abuse that results from lax school laws. We enslave millions in the confines of school, while focusing on headlines based on singular cases of horrible abuse. When in doubt, we should always err on the side of freedom because the loss of liberty brings out the worst of the human kind.

Child abuse should be treated like all other crimes without pointing fingers to any social group.


Quoted excerpts come from the following reference:

Title: 'House of Horrors' child abuse cases reveal how offenders nationwide use homeschooling to hide their crimes

Author: Elizabeth Llorente, Fox News

Date: Apr 27, 2019

Link: House of Horrors

Backlink: Advantages of compulsory education