No Connection Between Homeschooling and School Shooting
Posted in Homespun Blog on Thursday, October 16, 2014
Nearly two years after Adam Lanza murdered 20 children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, a task force is proposing tighter scrutiny and control on homeschoolers in Connecticut.
According to HSLDA, the panel recently recommended that homeschooled children with special needs, emotional or behavioral problems, and those suffering from mental illness be required to submit to mental health screenings, report regularly to the special education directors in their public school district, and submit an individualized education plan to the local public school district for approval. The commission also proposed that parents whose children failed to make “adequate progress” as determined by public school officials would be denied the right to teach their children at home.
The news has created an uproar throughout the homeschool community at the prospect of having their freedoms, privacy, and rights stripped.
“There is simply no basis for the assertion that there is a connection between homeschooling and violence in public schools,” responded HSLDA, represented by Senior Counsel Dee Black.
The nonprofit organization also vehemently vowed to oppose any effort to subject homeschool students to mental health screenings and deny parents the constitutional right to homeschool.
How do you feel about the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission’s recommendations?
Comments(1 comment)
Selena Osteen 11/06/2014 14:35:23
I am sick and tired and actually angry with so-called government "leaders" assuming they can determine what all of us need. It is extreme arrogance. Frankly, I consider the experiment of government schooling to be a colossal failure. Those who have worked to shape it are the last people I would want influencing my children. They have proven that no amount of money will improve this ship-going-down. If they would spend half as much energy teaching computer skills, mathematics, logic, science, grammar and factual history as they spend teaching global citizenship, tolerance for unhealthy, dangerous lifestyles and how to live without taking any responsibility for your own actions, it MIGHT be possible to save government schooling. I don't see that ship righting itself. In fact, I predict it will continue to sink.
I've got eleven kids and have home educated for over 21 years with another 10 to go. I am so thankful that my kids have never been subjected to the failed system of throwing peer-dependent people into a room and attempting to turn them into the same, cookie-cutter, mediocre people found so often in our culture. My kids are bright thinkers. They LOVE learning. They have learned to relate to all age groups. They respect their elders. They are entrepreneurial. The first three started their own businesses at age 16. They are well-read...most of them read between 75-100 books per year. My husband and I are not super-talented people. Anyone can teach. ANYONE. There are countless resources available today to support and help the parent-teacher.
I strongly encourage parents to walk away from the brainwashing. The government and the Department of Education want us to believe that only highly-skilled robots can teach our children. That is simply not true. The average parent devoted to doing his best for his children will make a superior teacher compared to teachers today who are not allowed to think outside the box. There are many, many good teachers, but they are suppressed by regulations and a society that cares more about social agendas than about true learning. If most of us performed at the level of "success" that government schools perform, we would be considered failures.
Is it challenging to have one parent stay home to teach and have a family live on one income? Absolutely, but I am tired of hearing how parents with two kids cannot afford to live on one income. We have always lived on one income and have eleven kids. It is possible. It is a matter of priorities and, simply put, too many parents are not willing to live the modest lifestyle required to keep one parent at home. Families have paid the price. Society, as a whole, has paid the price. Education has paid the price. We really cannot afford, as a nation, to have future generations continue the same failed model.