Homeschooling, an American Divide

Wikipedia: “According to the US National Center for Education Statistics, about three percent of all children in the US were homeschooled in 2011-2012 school year. The study found that 83 percent were White, 5 percent were Black, 7 percent were Hispanic, and 2 percent were Asian or Pacific Islander. As of 2016, there are about 2.3 million homeschooled students in the United States…

“For most of history and in different cultures, the education of children at home by family members was a common practice. Enlisting professional tutors was an option available only to the wealthy. Homeschooling declined in the 19th and 20th centuries with the enactment of compulsory attendance laws. But, it continued to be practiced in isolated communities. Homeschooling began a resurgence in the 1960s and 1970s with educational reformists dissatisfied with industrialized education.”

In the modern era, for some, they may have a gifted child worthy of full time accelerated attention. Others are in the opposite ranks, where their children have medical issues or learning disabilities not well addressed in the public school system, even though the law seems to require proper accommodation in most states. For still others, there is the notion of familial, moral and religious values, often a focus on deeply-held beliefs often accompanied by a fear of contamination with teachings and values that the parents cannot tolerate.

While three percent might not seem like a large number, it represents millions of children who are being educated outside of mainstream public and public schools. Some prosper. Some are doomed to a lifetime outside of “the rest of the world.” And some are criminally abused with no one to report the damaging behavior. You’d think that a liberal, consumer/people protective state like California would have the answer. Apparently, and the story is the same all across the United States, California most certainly does not.

“A lack of oversight in California is what helped make the 13 children of David Allen Turpin and Louise Anna Turpin invisible to their Riverside County neighbors. The children, ages 2 to 29, were rescued in January after a 17-year-old escaped their house and called authorities. Police said when they arrived at the home, they found ropes, chains and padlocks used to restrain and shackle the Turpin siblings to their beds. They were dirty and a putrid odor permeated the house, police said. Investigators said the Turpins had imprisoned their children for years. The adult children were so malnourished they looked like children.

“These damaged children in Perris, California, were not alone. There are scores of cases like this one involving starving kids to death. Other cases document children who have been beaten by parents most of their young lives or have otherwise been treated so severely for so long they can rightly be classified as torture victims.

“In one sense, the savage abuse inflicted on the Turpin kids and in hundreds of other cases across the U.S. and in California, is easily explained by the one thing they had in common: They were homeschooled.

“In West Des Moines, Iowa, 16-year-old Natalie Finn died from starvation on Oct. 24, 2016, after her mother locked her, a 15-year-old brother and a 14-year-old sister in their bedroom for months, food and water all but cut off. One of the kids who survived, barely, later said their bedroom slowly filled with their own waste because their mother often would not let them out even to use the bathroom. When they did get permission, they were so desperately thirsty they sometimes scooped water into their mouths from the toilet bowl.

“Lax oversight of homeschooling provides a simple answer for why nobody noticed or reported little Natalie as she became little more than skin and bones. Her homeschooling ensured no teacher or other responsible adult would see the girl and detect the abuse…

“A lack of oversight in California is what helped make the 13 children of David Allen Turpin and Louise Anna Turpin invisible to their Riverside County neighbors. The children, ages 2 to 29, were rescued in January after a 17-year-old escaped their house and called authorities. Police said when they arrived at the home, they found ropes, chains and padlocks used to restrain and shackle the Turpin siblings to their beds. They were dirty and a putrid odor permeated the house, police said. Investigators said the Turpins had imprisoned their children for years. The adult children were so malnourished they looked like children.

“These damaged children in Perris, California, were not alone. There are scores of cases like this one involving starving kids to death. Other cases document children who have been beaten by parents most of their young lives or have otherwise been treated so severely for so long they can rightly be classified as torture victims.

“In one sense, the savage abuse inflicted on the Turpin kids and in hundreds of other cases across the U.S. and in California, is easily explained by the one thing they had in common: They were homeschooled.

“In West Des Moines, Iowa, 16-year-old Natalie Finn died from starvation on Oct. 24, 2016, after her mother locked her, a 15-year-old brother and a 14-year-old sister in their bedroom for months, food and water all but cut off. One of the kids who survived, barely, later said their bedroom slowly filled with their own waste because their mother often would not let them out even to use the bathroom. When they did get permission, they were so desperately thirsty they sometimes scooped water into their mouths from the toilet bowl.

“Lax oversight of homeschooling provides a simple answer for why nobody noticed or reported little Natalie as she became little more than skin and bones. Her homeschooling ensured no teacher or other responsible adult would see the girl and detect the abuse…

“From 2000 to last year, at least 320 homeschooled children were severely neglected and abused, often for years without detection, according to the Homeschooling's Invisible Children database kept by [Rachel Coleman and her Coalition for Responsible Home Education]. Of those kids, 116 died. A disproportionate number of the children were adopted from foster care and the database indicates homeschooled kids die from abuse at a great rate than other children… Nobody sees these kids.” Banning-Beaumont, CA Patch, February 18th.

Most homeschooled children do not suffer this horrendous fate. But remember that most of those that do survive will enter society at some level and interrelate and impact with the rest of society. So as much as we want parents to have the freedom to raise their children as they see fit, not only are most parents unprepared for the teaching burden, many are promulgating a belief system that just might not prepare their children to function in the real world.

For those serious at home schooling, the Internet has created teaching aids. K12.com or homeschool.com , for example, or online groups of homeschooling parents sharing resources and specialized tutors. It can be done effectively, perhaps even better than the best public or private schools.  But not always. What can and should be done?

“The Responsible Education coalition's creation of a database details in graphic language hundreds of gruesome abuse cases involving homeschooled kids… ‘Homeschooling can serve as a powerful tool in the hand of an abusive parent,’ according to the sister group that maintains the database, Homeschools Invisible Children. ‘Numerous young adults who were homeschooled for part of their upbringing and attended public school for part of their upbringing have reported that their parents' abuse was worse when they were homeschooled, as there was nothing to act as a check on their parents' abuse.’

“Among other measures the coalition has called for:

• ·         Background checks: Bar parents from homeschooling if they have committed a crime that would prevent them from teaching in a public school.
• ·         A flagging system: Bar parents from homeschooling if they or anyone in the household have previously had a founded abuse or neglect report.
• ·         Risk assessments: Conduct risk assessments when parents begin to homeschool after a recent child abuse report or concerning history of reports.
• ·         Mandatory reporter contact: Ensure that homeschooled children are seen by mandatory reporters via academic assessments, medical visits, or other means.
• ·         Medical care: Require homeschooled children to have the same medical visits required of children who attend public school.

“Only Pennsylvania and Arkansas currently forbid homeschooling of kids whose parents have been convicted of child abuse and certain other crimes. Some states require none of the coalition's proposals. No state requires all of the measures.” The Patch. We owe those children, and ourselves, a whole lot more than what is obviously provided today. For legitimate home schoolers, there should be no issues, but we should create a system of checks and balances to prevent even the slightest potential for undiscoverable child abuse.

I’m Peter Dekom, and in the perpetual balancing act between personal freedom and societal needs, sometimes a little common sense goes a long way.