Who isn't in any case really homeschooling--yet.

I live in area where homeschooling started in the 1980s and is very popular now. I went through it myself for some time. I have developed a very, very negative view of it over the years.

First off, homeschooling is a relative luxury for those white folks who can afford for the mother to stay at home. It's not for the Native Americans, the Hispanic dairy farm workers, or the Jamaicans imported to clean the hotel rooms of this tourist area. And that's partly the point. Homeschooling is for white people who are clinging to their grandad's smallholding using their Homestead Exemption tax. You talk to them, it becomes clear that an influx of "colored" immigrants and the movement of "those damn casino Indians" off the reservation is part of the reason they are pulling their kids out of public school, thereby deliberately ghettoizing the schools.

Next comes religion: they are fundie Christians of that weird stripe who read the "Left Behind" series of books as real prophecy. They do not want their kids exposed to "humanist ideas" or science. They are anti-tax, anti-health care (because the "coloreds" would get it), etc. etc. you know the type. This mentally stunts the children and cripples their entrance into the adult world. They are bad employees and worse citizens. They can only survive in the fundie parallel universe, in the bubble. That too is the point--to imprison them.

Next, and I say this as a teacher, very often the homeschooling is a cover for abuse, all going along with the rural white fundie profile. These parents don't want to be told they can't beat their kids, so they pull them out of school so teachers won't ask questions about cuts or bruises. In my personal experience, I have known cases of young girls being registered as home schooled to hide the fact that they got pregnant through incest. Some of the "homeschooled" don't even have homes--one family I knew was living out of their vehicle. We have very cold winters, and if they had been in school at least they would have been in a warm building and had one hot meal a day. But no--gotta hide from the "seculars".

Weirdly, this same cohort of parents often attempts to take over the schools by running for the school board. How can you sit on the school board when you won't send your kids to the school? And very loudly bitch about paying taxes for it? It's all about domination.

This is a group of terrified, angry people who are losing their resources and influence very quickly--most of them won't be able to hang on to "the farm" (which, typically, ceased functioning as a farm back in the late 1970s, about the time the whole Rapture/Creationist fundie thing started--no accident, that) much longer, but they aren't going to go quietly. We need to deal with them.

Homeschooling is their way of raising their army--all the ones I know have a high birth rate, 4 to 8 kids--and it is dangerous. As practiced by most of these folks, it is also child abuse.

For these sociopolitical reasons, it is my firm belief that homeschooling in the States should be outlawed as it is in other countries. Germany is one example. Given their history, it's smart (think of what some disgruntled Germans would do if they could home school their kids). Let's get the truant officers back, fund public schools properly, and get to work rooting out this menace.

Because it is a menace. I have no patience with anyone who praises any aspect of homeschooling. None. And my sister does it, and most of the neighbors. I know that as people they have some positive qualities but their antipathy to the larger community scares me. Their home schooling is no better than madrassahs training suicide bombers.

Just my two cents.

Since you can't even write, I can't imagine how you thought you could homeschool. If your son is successful, it's in spite of the homeschooling, not because of it......you got lucky. That's all.

Homeschooled kids are reputed to get about the same scores on standardized tests as kids in public schools in their area, but they do much worse than other children in their demographic, that is, white middle class. Yet you will never hear that discussed--their test scores are only compared to those of the average students in very crappy public schools (and that is setting the bar rather low). Compared to private schools or even charter schools, the homeschooled are far behind. If I were a mom who really felt the public schools were hopeless I'd enroll the kids in some non-fundie parochial and get myself a job to pay the tuition.

Then the PKK (Kurdish, very Islamist) and the NPD (barely legal version of the Nazi party) folks would all be homeschooling their kids and Germany would have a huge problem on its hands. As it is, the children of Germany's extremist loons like everyone else MUST attend school, where they receive integration and citizenship courses. They have a chance to get out--I suspect that more than a few young lives have been saved by the fact that homeschool is not legal (it is allowed in, for example, Ireland...and as we know no problems there *SNARK*)

Why do we allow our own political/religious radicals to homeschool? It's just ridiculous.