How about #ExposeHomeschooling?

The trending hashtag #ExposeChristianSchools has sparked controversy in the media and in comment sections as of late, and the hashtag has opened the door for many stories to be told, most of them critical of Christian schooling.

I can relate. However, I never attended a Christian school in person. My high school degree was awarded to me by Gateway Christian Schools in Memphis, Tenn. And I did barely anything to deserve it. My education wasn’t just lacking, it was nearly non-existent.

I don’t think many people from the non-homeschooling world realize how few regulations there are for homeschoolers.

The following quote was taken from Gateway Christian Schools’ website: “Gateway … is not and does not wish to be accredited by the state of Tennessee. Schools that are accredited by the state of Tennessee may be required to use specific books and materials and to test their students in certain grades.”

That’s right. Throughout my entire homeschool career, I was not tested on any subject. I never took a quiz. I never learned how to study. I remember writing one paper, which was read and graded, not by my parent, but by my sister, only a few years older than myself. My parents were entirely responsible for providing classroom materials and textbooks for my siblings and I with no oversight, and that meant we were provided largely with religious texts. Evolution was a no-no. Sex education was evil. I never learned anything about biology, chemistry, physics, or any form of science. To learn English, I did fifteen minutes out of a workbook daily… when I felt like it.

Socially, we were isolated. We lived on a farm in the rural south. We were taught no social skills and, in fact, barely had access to children our age. We did, on occasion, attend the activities of a local homeschooling group, which was where I learned that my situation was not singular. There are many children being neglected, abused, and denied an education due to a lack of oversight. There are many children out there who could use help.

SOCIAL CONTROL & RELIGION

While there are homeschooling families who want the best for their children and who pursue homeschooling to provide an alternative education, homeschooling is, in some cases, used not as an educational tool, but as a form of social control. Homeschooling is used to limit the child’s ability to grow and learn instead of encouraging it. By ‘teaching’ the child at home, you can keep them stunted, manipulated, and under the control of religion and family, sometimes even after they have reached adulthood.

In our family, we were often threatened with the outside world (we’ll send you to public school!), which was made to be a terrifying place for us. Almost everything was considered THE DEVIL. Pikachu. Harry Potter. Spaghetti-strapped shirts on girls and women. Gay people. Anything that questioned America, God, or the troops. Drugs. Civil rights. Feminism. Saying, “Oh my God.” Lying. Sex. Accidentally tempting men by walking down the street, minding your own business. Atheists. Other races. Other religions. Too much make-up. Indecent clothing (i.e. anything that doesn’t look like a pioneer woman would have worn it while digging a well.)

Contact with any of it could have you burning in hell if you didn’t watch your step. And it’s impossible to protect yourself if you’re surrounded by those EVIL people who make up our society, people like neighbors, classmates, co-workers, and friends.

The threat of being tossed out into this alien world of devils became my ultimate fear as a child, especially after being exposed to it in small doses without any social skills, which was excruciating. Isolation from society leads to fear of society, which leads to anger directed at society for not accepting you.

Enough of that and you can have your child stunted for life! Which means they’re permanently under your control, and they never even have the chance to question the false reality that’s been constructed for them.

Fortunately, my parents didn’t want to be financially responsible for their children for the rest of their lives, and so I was set on the path to college. I was very concerned about getting into college, and I had to study very hard to even make a decent score on the ACT. I prepped with practice tests and still ended up scoring low enough on some sections to be required to take remedial courses. Once I started classes, I had to learn how to study, how to write a paper correctly, and how to take a midterm and a final, all while struggling with basic human interactions. I was told again and again at home that my professors were liars and what I was learning in my classes was false and a part of the liberal agenda, but that college was necessary to get a job and it must be done. In the end, I received a degree from a state university, and the experiences I had there launched me into the real world, and thankfully, eventually out of the rural south.

I am being serious when I say that many young women and men are not afforded that option. I personally knew young people who were not allowed drivers licenses or jobs or any higher education. I knew young women who were told they were not allowed to leave home until they were married, and in a marriage approved of by the head of the household: the father. Patriarchy and religious homeschooling go hand-in-hand.

Why don’t they just leave, you might ask? Because when you live in a rural area in the U.S., have no access to transportation, no drivers license, no job, and no experience of society whatsoever besides your small circle, leaving can seem impossible. You’d be homeless. Penniless. Completely alone.

And don’t even get me started on how LGBTQ people are treated by religious fundamentalists in homeschooling communities. The Home School Legal Defense Association, a homeschool advocacy organization, has made statements openly against LGBTQ rights, and if you haven’t read the recent news about the Home School Legal Defense Association and its ties to extreme rightwing groups and oligarchs in other parts of the world, please do.

My parents were members of HSLDA, and I wasn’t at all surprised.

REGULATING HOMESCHOOLING FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL

Homeschooling should be regulated. As someone with firsthand experience, I can’t stress that enough.

The only regulation we were required to follow in my schooling, since we were under an umbrella (church-related) school, was providing a list of classes and grades to the school by mail. I believe my parent sent the list of classes in at the beginning of the semester and then the final grades in at the end. She would make up the grades I’d received each semester right before stuffing the paper in the envelope. She often couldn’t even remember what classes she had said I was taking and had to look back at the notes she had sent in at the beginning of the semester. I would always get As with a B or a C thrown in to make it look like there had been some reasoning behind it. I am not the only one with this experience.

And that is just the educational portion. Homeschooled students don’t come into contact with mandatory reporters on a regular basis. Homeschooling with no regulation makes severe child abuse extremely easy.

Again, homeschooling should be regulated.

Currently, laws differ between states, some have a few regulations, some have none at all. As a society, we are allowing children to be abused, uneducated, and indoctrinated. Children deserve an education and access to society no matter who their parents are.

To this day, I struggle with my daily life due to the deficiencies of homeschooling, and I don’t want other children to suffer in the same manner. We should constantly be fighting to better our education system, and regulations are a part of that fight.

Fortunately, there are organizations and people out there working to put stricter regulations on homeschooling to protect children.

We can do better.