{"id":14572,"date":"2020-04-21T10:53:14","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T15:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/?p=14572"},"modified":"2020-04-21T10:53:17","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T15:53:17","slug":"no-harvard-homeschooling-should-not-be-banned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/no-harvard-homeschooling-should-not-be-banned","title":{"rendered":"No, Harvard, Homeschooling Should Not Be Banned"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In what seems a pretty nasty move in months where most Americans are thrust suddenly and unforgivingly into their new roles as temporary homeschoolers, Harvard Magazine<\/em> published<\/a> an essay calling for \u201ca presumptive ban\u201d on homeschooling in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The short essay summarizes a much longer work<\/a>\nby Elizabeth Bartholet, Wasserstein public interest professor of law and\nfaculty director of Harvard Law School\u2019s Child Advocacy Program.\n\u201cHomeschooling,\u201d Bartholet believes, \u201cnot only violates children\u2019s right to a\n\u2018meaningful education\u2019 and their right to be protected from potential child\nabuse, but may keep them from contributing positively to a democratic society.\u201d\nWhereas in countries such as Germany, which outlaws homeschooling altogether,\nor France, which gives mandatory annual tests to homeschooled students, the\nUnited States is \u201cessentially an unregulated regime.\u201d This creates the perfect\nenvironment, Bartholet writes, for potential child abusers, who can keep their\nchildren at home and away from the watchful eyes of mandatory reporters like\nteachers or other education personnel. Furthermore, up to 90 percent of those\nhomeschooling in the United States \u201care driven by conservative Christian\nbeliefs, and seek to remove their children from mainstream culture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bartholet insists she still believes parents should have \u201cvery\nsignificant rights to raise their children with the beliefs and religious\nconvictions that the parents hold.\u201d \u201cThe issue is,\u201d she continues, \u201cdo we think\nthat parents should have 24\/7, essentially authoritarian control over their\nchildren from ages zero to 18? I think that\u2019s dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This essay is dangerous and outright offensive and incorrect on a variety of levels. First, it is a blatant attack on parents\u2019 rights, along with the assumption that education personnel protect children better than do their parents.  As I have documented<\/a>, children are actually safest when they are with their married, biological mother and father. Almost all abuse, sexual or physical, occurs outside this parameter. And a letter to the editor<\/a> of Harvard Magazine <\/em>published at the Foundation for Economic Freedom highlights the abuse that children in traditional school settings endure, including bullying and even abuse at the hands of teachers and administrators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, the countries that Bartholet cites as holding up children\u2019s \u201crights\u201d by prohibiting homeschooling are infamous for their poorly documented, hasty, and heartbreaking child seizures. Michael Farris, co-founder of the Homeschool Legal Defense Association and current CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom, has written for a forthcoming issue of The Natural Family<\/em> (a publication of the International Organization for the Family) of the horrors endured by the Wunderlich family of Germany. On August 23, 2013, a group of 33 police officers and 7 youth welfare officers threatened to use a battering ram against the door of the Wunderlich family\u2019s home. Once inside, they shoved the father into a chair and seized the family\u2019s four children, all for the crime of homeschooling them. One officer pushed aside the mother as she tried to kiss one of the daughters goodbye, saying \u201cToo late now!\u201d The children remained away from their parents for over a year, and the case is still being heard at the European Court of Human Rights. Cases like this are not uncommon in more \u201ctolerant\u201d nations that forbid or tightly regulate homeschooling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, this essay gets very wrong a number of positive things about homeschooling. It is increasingly diverse, <\/a>as studies have shown that up to 32% of homeschoolers are non-white\/Caucasian. Homeschoolers also tend to do better<\/a> on standardized tests and graduate college at higher rates. Another study found that \u201cCompared to children attending conventional schools . . . research suggests that [homeschoolers] have higher quality friendships and better relationships with their parents and other adults. They are happy, optimistic, and satisfied with their lives.\u201d And as for preparation to participate in a democracy, research also demonstrates<\/a> that homeschoolers volunteer, attend public meetings, and vote at higher rates than do members of the general population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, Professor Bartholet is relying on outdated\nstatistics, faulty narratives and misconceptions, fear-mongering, and\ncherry-picking of a few nasty and tragic stories to make her points. Parents\nacross the United States (and the world) can breathe a sigh of relief: Your\ncurrently homeschooled children are not suffering because they\u2019re at home. In\nfact, they may be doing much better. And if you, their parent, the one who\nknows and loves them more than any educator ever could, decide come August that\nhomeschooling is the best route for them, be comforted in knowing that the\nelites at Harvard Magazine<\/em> are more\nconcerned about maintaining the status quo of the highly powerful education\nmachine (including universities, teachers unions, public offices, etc.) than\nthey are about your actual children. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The elites at Harvard Magazine are more concerned about maintaining the status quo of the highly powerful education machine than they are about your actual children. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":14574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"The elites at Harvard Magazine are more concerned about maintaining the status quo of the highly powerful education machine than they are about your actual children. ","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override":[{"single_blog_custom":"","sidebar":"","second_sidebar":"","share_position":"","share_float_style":"","post_date_format":"","post_date_format_custom":"","post_reading_time_wpm":"","zoom_button_out_step":"1","zoom_button_in_step":"1","number_popup_post":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"","single_post_gallery_size":""}],"trending_post_position":"","trending_post_label":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"510"},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[804,510,805],"tags":[1254,2947,1443],"class_list":["post-14572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-family","category-foreground","tag-education","tag-harvard","tag-homeschooling"],"yoast_head":"\nNo, Harvard, Homeschooling Should Not Be Banned - 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King is the Managing Editor of IOF's journal, The Natural Family: An International Journal of Research and Policy, the United States\u2019 leading journal of family-policy research. In that capacity, she writes, edits and corresponds with editors and contributors to ensure that each issue provides the most relevant and accurate research and policy analysis available. Nicole holds a B.A. in English as well as M.A.s in English and Political Theory. She has contributed to The Front Porch Republic and Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, among others. She is also a contributing editor to SALVO Magazine and a blogger at salvomag.com.","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/author\/nkingifamnews-com"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14572"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14612,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14572\/revisions\/14612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}