Princeton Professor Gets SMACKED DOWN by Facts After Claiming Homeschooling Is 'Educational Neglect'

[PeteS in CA]

Princeton Professor Gets SMACKED DOWN by Facts After Claiming Homeschooling Is 'Educational Neglect'

https://twitchy.com/amy-curtis/2024/05/24/princeton-prof-thinks-homeschool-is-educational-neglext-n2396552

Every once in a while, the Left gets a bug up their collective butt about homeschooling. Since increasing in popularity following COVID lockdowns and virtual learning, they're very concerned some children aren't in their grips, learning about 52 genders and critical race theory.

So when Princeton Sociology professor Jen Jennings opined about the 'educational neglect' that absolutely has to be happening in homeschooling, she got bit by reality. Hard.

What follows what I quoted is mostly posts from X calling out how horribly public schools are doing and "suggesting" the Professor Jen Jennings fix public schools before demanding that homeschoolers be scrutinized.

My wife and I homeschooled our 3 kids "K-12". Their first classroom experience was at our local JC. So ... how'd that work out? In order to bypass disputes over the validity of our homeschool high school diploma, we had each of our kids take - and pass - the California High School Proficiency Exam. In California, by law, the CHSPE certificate is the equivalent of a high school diploma. Our son earned Eagle rank in Scouts. Among them, each has earned an AA degree (the one who speaks fluent Mandarin had to take Spanish to satisfy the language requirement for the AA, because none of the JCs in our area or CSU San Jose have classes in Mandarin). One went on to earn a Bachelors degree in Business. One went on to earn the equivalent of a Bachelors degree in Chinese Language and Culture ... at a university in China ... in Mandarin ... including a thesis written and presented in Mandarin. Among them they have travelled to Fiji, Canada, India, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, China, Finland, Hong Kong, Egypt, and South Sudan (that I can remember). Our kids are not prodigies ... they may not even be above average among homeschooled adults.

[mountaineer]

What could possibly go wrong? "Scientific American" calls for federal homeschooling regulations. 

https://twitter.com/DeAngelisCorey/status/1802897185425743965

[The_Reader_David]

My daughter is homeschooling my seven year old grandson, and he's doing topics in math that are usually taught in fifth through eight grade in government schools, reads 500 page books in a week, and has a better grasp of physics, world history and biology than most college freshmen.  Sending him to even a gifted program in a government school would be closer to educational neglect than what he's getting.

On the other hand, my wife in her psychology practice has seen examples of homeschooling that could properly be characterized as educational neglect -- parents one of whom has only a high school diploma and the other without even that trying the task with a special needs child, and leaving their offspring further and further behind what the government schools would have managed with a similar child.

[PeteS in CA]

Regulations? Administered by whom?

Arrogant educrats who regard parents as stupid and even enemies?

Tyrannous CPS/DSS social workers, many of whom fancy themselves above the law and constitution, view parents as almost certain abusers, homeschooling as incapable of educating children, and religious parents as abusers?

And for what reason? Burdening the 99% to maybe catch the 1% of neglectful or abusive? It takes an arrogant bureaucrat for that to make sense, especially when there are many mandatory reporters already.

[Wingnut]

Put that guy Randal Weingarten in charge of  regulating Home Schoolers.  He has a history of keeping kids in the home and not in school.

[PeteS in CA]

How you know they're scared of homeschooling

https://tomknighton.substack.com/p/how-you-know-theyre-scared-of-homeschooling

Homeschooling represents a choice parents can make that takes the control out of the hands of teachers, administrators, and the government and puts it back where it belongs, the parents. It allows parents to decide on what gets taught, how it’s taught, what times things are taught, etc.

And now we’re being told what homeschooling really needs is federal regulation.

That’s according to a piece in the June issue of Scientific America.

Home­schooled students have won the National Spelling Bee; one was the most prolific mathematician in history. Many are well-rounded and well-adjusted children who go on to thrive as adults. But others do not receive a meaningful education—and too many have suffered horrific abuse. The federal government must develop basic standards for safety and quality of education in home­school­ing across the country.

When a traditional classroom setting cannot meet the educational, social or emotional needs of a child, homeschooling can allow parents to take over. For chil­­­dren facing bullying or gun violence or who need more challenging or more advanced schoolwork, a homeschooling environment may be best.

But many parents are attracted to home­­school­ing because they want to have more say in what their child learns and what they do not. Nearly 60 percent of home­school parents who responded to the 2019 NCES survey said that religious instruction was a motivation in their ­decision to educate at home. Some Christian home­school­ing curricula teach Young Earth Creationism instead of evolution. Other curricula describe slavery as “Black immigration” or extol the virtues of Nazism.

...
Yes, educational neglect can be problematic, but the fact that this research was able to find it and study it in cases that had absolutely nothing to do with homeschooling makes it clear that the issue has nothing to do with whether someone decides to educate their kids at home or not.

But, of course, we get the typical anti-homeschooling argument that’s almost obligatory at this point: Abuse.

SciAm's "study" of homeschooling looked at chronic truants, whose parent probably excused it by saying they were homeschooled. SciAm didn't research mainstream homeschoolers, whether the school-at-home variety or unschoolers. Unsurprisingly.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

What could possibly go wrong? "Scientific American" calls for federal homeschooling regulations. 

https://twitter.com/DeAngelisCorey/status/1802897185425743965

Fact #1 - the Federal Government has no authority or purpose in education, Period.

[mountaineer]

Fact #1 - the Federal Government has no authority or purpose in education, Period.

Wouldn't it be great if the Dept. of Education were eliminated (along with innumerable others)? I can dream, can't I?