PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Homeschooling
by Jan Tuesday, Sep. 23, 2003 at 6:09 PM

Homeschooling and harassment

HOMESCHOOLERS MERIT RESPECT, NOT HARASSMENT

Children taught at home often are highly desired by the nation's top
colleges and universities. Nevertheless, state social workers
sometimes treat homeschooled students as truants. Worse, in
California "social service workers have also harassed families by
forcing entry to private homes, privately interviewing, and strip
searching children, simply because the children were not enrolled in
a formal school," according to Ariel Dillon, public policy intern at
the Independent Institute, in a new op-ed.

Ariel Dillon should know a thing or two about state harassment of
homeschoolers -- she's a product of homeschooling herself.

"Why is the state attacking homeschooling? The answer is simple,"
writes Dillon.

"Homeschooling is proving that parents know what is best for their
children and is exposing the utter failure of the public school
system."

Yet despite the failures of public schooling, many politicos and
pundits are loathe to acknowledge the successes of homeschoolers.
This may change, however, as the Homeschool Non-Discrimination Act
moves through both houses of Congress. "The Act," writes Dillon,
"expressly states that the federal government has no control over
home education, and it would clear up several areas of law that have
troubled homeschooling families for many years."

Homeschooling has been badly mythologized by its critics, Dillon
explains. Homeschoolers are not social misfits deprived of the
"socialization" afforded by formal schools. Rather, because their
academic studies are not hindered by the need to slow down
instruction to suit the least-able students, homeschoolers often have
more time to engage in extracurricular activities -- joining clubs,
playing sports, visiting museums, and networking with other
homeschooled students and families -- without sacrificing academics.

"Homeschoolers," according to a Stanford University admissions
officer quoted by Dillon, "bring certain skills -- motivation,
curiosity, the capacity to be responsible for their education -- that
high schools don't induce very well."

It's time for the education establishment to take notes and learn
this lesson. At the very least it should be made to stop bullying
homeschoolers.

See "Homeschooling Must Be Decriminalized -- Parents Really Do Know
Best," by Ariel Dillon (9/18/03)
http://www.independent.org/tii/news/030918Dillon.html

For more on education policy, see
http://www.independent.org/archive/education.html

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