John Borst, editor of Tomorrow’s Trust, a web-based journal of Catholic education, answers with a resounding yes.
This is in response to an article by Liz McCloskey, a doctoral candidate at the Catholic University of America, who took some time off her doctoral pursuits in order to spend more time with her two boys. Borst seems to want to warn us that, while McCloskey’s reasons for homeschooling may be noble, most of us aren’t like that.
In my experience with home schooling parents, this is not the typical motivation. Most often a parent has a difference of opinion with the curriculum of either the public or Catholic school. This difference, in many cases, involves a dispute regarding the role of sex education being taught in the school. Tomorrow’s Trust
In bringing up “experience,” I cannot help but wonder exactly what that “experience” is. No real bio is offered on the site, and I can’t find any other information about Borst, but if his experience is going to provide the basis for state regulation of all homeschools, I would like to know a little more about him and how he came to know these homeschoolers.
Besides, I have a better reason for homeschooling which encompasses both McCloskey’s concern for family time, Borst’s acquaintances’ concerns over sex ed and just about every other reason for homeschooling floating around out there: We want what is best for our children. In my experience as a homeschooling mother who writes a blog specifically targeted to homeschoolers, reads numerous homeschooling blogs, participates in forum discussions with other homeschoolers, knows homeschoolers in her own community and now serves on the board of a political action committee specifically concerned with home education freedoms, most homeschoolers choose this educational option for a variety of reasons. Even for me, “religious reasons” is more of a convenient shorthand for an educational philosophy which encompasses the importance of family and the nature of learning as well as moral and spiritual values. According to Department of Education statistics, concerns regarding safety, drugs and negative peer pressure actually tops the list for reasons to homeschool. Not sex ed.
Maybe it is different in Canada, but Borst paints with a broad brush which includes all of North America.
Personally, I have no problem in principle with the concept of home schooling; however recent actions in California and Germany bring to the fore issues which we in Canadian and particularly in Ontario blissfully ignore. Ibid.
And what are these issues brought to the fore?
From California: Specifically, in the 21st Century should parents be required to meet some minimum standard of education themselves before they are permitted to home school their children?
From Germany: Well, from Germany basically that he doesn’t seem to really understand what is going on in Germany. He writes:
In Germany, the state has stringent requirements which must be met before parents are permitted to home school. Ibid.
And I would really like to know where he gets that information. The Neubronners even used the state curriculum under the supervision of a state certified teacher and their application was denied. The “stringent requirements” are essentially that you must be either a circus worker or a child star. Even the distance learning course which German missionaries and diplomats use while abroad is not acceptable if you are in Germany. (You may also listen to my interview with Rina, a homeschooler in Germany who has taken her petition all the way to the European Parliament, who discusses some of these issues as well.)
From Germany, I think we can see the extremes of his philosophy and where fear of that which might happen overtake common sense.
At the same time in this age of radical ideologies, religious fanaticism and the concomitant insecurity which such movements breed it is also legitimate to ask, should parents be permitted to pass on values which promote racism, hated of others, or violent rebellion against the state? Ibid.
Yes, well, that is one of those arguments that is a little difficult to address. Let’s take a poll of homeschoolers and see if we in general think people should be passing on racism, hatred and violent rebellion against the state. I don’t think my neighbors should be dealing drugs, either, but I’m not going to ask the state to do a monthly inspection on all families in order to make sure this isn’t happening. But somehow, out of fear of an idea, we ask for just this kind of monitoring? And Jesus Camp as evidence of what American evangelicals believe? Please.
How about Deliver Us From Evil? Let’s take that as the model for what it means to be a Catholic priest. Can we really allow an organization like that to continue to exist without stringent oversight from the state? Homeschools may have limited oversight, thereby technically allowing for bizarre and even harmful teaching to continue without the state’s knowledge, but did you know that the church is not even a mandatory reporter of child abuse in all states? The list requiring the report from ministers and priests has been steadily growing since the recent priest sex scandals, but how much more important is it for the state to require reporting of known crimes than for it to oversee people out of fear that they might teach something hateful?
And why is it those Catholics have their own schools, anyway? What is it about the American values inculcated through our public school system they so wholly reject? Maybe it was because Protestants so wholly controlled the system that they felt their religious and ethnic identities were in danger. But their attempts at reform within the public school met with little success. And maybe, just maybe, the whole push toward compulsory attendance laws in the late 19th century had less to do with concerns about illiteracy than it did with Protestants worried about the “Catholic problem.”
Suspicious lot, those Catholics, rejecting fundamental American values and going so far as resisting our education laws founded on the very noble goals of literacy, numeracy and social cohesion to go off and found their own schools. Who knows what they are teaching…and what they are doing…to children? And it isn’t as if their conflict with the state ends there.
There are however, reasons for vigilance by the state to ensure that the education provided in such a setting is not counterproductive to the general welfare of society as a whole. Ibid.
In the late 1800s, Catholicism was seen as counterproductive to the general welfare of society as a whole. And the state acted with great vigilance. Maybe Catholic education has more in common with homeschoolers than some may like to admit.
The problem is, vigilance by the state in securing any particular ideology is counterproductive to the general welfare of society. Will there occasionally be a homeschooler who abuses this freedom? Certainly. Just as there have been priests who have taken liberties with children while in their positions of trust and just as there have been teachers in public schools who have done the same. And just as my neighbors could be dealing drugs for all anyone knows. But how much power are we willing to grant the state in order to monitor the possibility of wrongdoing?
In a free society, it is the citizen who is vigilant in overseeing the state, not the state in overseeing the individual.
Principled Discovery is a place to stop and discuss news and information related to faith, family and particularly education. Pour yourself a cup of tea and join the conversation! 
My understanding is that in Canada, nearly all Catholic schools are government-run. So Mr. Borst doesn’t seem to “get” the fundamental objections to government regulation of education. Also, because the Canadian Catholic schools are taxpayer-funded, financial concerns don’t play a role in the decision to homeschool among Catholics in that country. It’s not like he’s encountering folks like me who’d be facing tuition of $6.5k per year per child for elementary and $10-15k per year per child for high school (plus however much the increase in tuition between now and 2027 when my 3rd will presumably be graduating). So those Canadian Catholics who do choose to homeschool are likely disproportionately drawn from the hard-core traditionalist segment of the Church, much more so than the American Catholic homeschoolers.
Where does this Borst fellow get the idea that people homeschool mostly due to objections to the sex ed curriculum? Granted, I object to the sex ed curriculum but my older children attend public school do this magical thing called “opting out.” Wheeee. (Does this guy not have kids in public school, that he wouldn’t know that this is an option?)
Personally, we withdrew Elf from public school because he was being abused and locked in the closet as a discipline technique. But it’s ok, because as long as it’s done by a certified teacher licensed by the state we know it’s being done the right way. Shame on me for trying to take control of the situation. What was I thinking?
I’m glad McCloskey is the exception, doing everything the “right” way, and that she has approval from the Holy Father Borst himself. Where do you get this stuff from, Dana? Because I don’t want to get my drugs from the same dealer.
What amazes me in these types of articles are all the unspoken assumptions of the writer. You do a good job (always) of bringing them to light.
That is a very good point, Crimson Wife, but unfortunately there are many who see homeschooling the same way he does. Some seem to see us as competition for their own schools, and many just don’t seem to understand us. Which is fine when they are expressing concern, a little disconcerting when they are calling for governmental regulation.
I wonder if you can opt out in Canada, Mrs. C? Maybe you can’t and that is the basis for his comment. I certainly know people who object to the way sex ed is presented in the schools, but I don’t know anyone who pulled their children or refused to send their children for that reason alone.
Thank you suburbancorrespondent. He does present a very stereotyped view of what it means to be a Protestant and then use that as the basis for his argument for regulation.
Wow. Thanks. Great response to more stupidity. People who want to write policy that stems from their “experience with homeschooling parents” and the broad generalizations which follow, should have their pencils taken away!
I appreciate you taking the time to sort out the logic (and lack thereof) and the arguments (and lack thereof) to help push the real issues to light.
Thank you!
~Luke
Good point about some schools seeing us as competition for their schools - not only Catholic schools. When any church has a school affiliated with it, there is often (though not always) widespread suspicion of homeschoolers in the congregation.
Appreciate your analysis and how you cut to the chase.
“…however recent actions in California and Germany bring to the fore issues which we in Canadian and particularly in Ontario blissfully ignore.”
As a Canadian homeschooler, particularly in Ontario…
I am not even sure what the above statement means.
All I do know is that we are one of the few provinces in Canada, thanks mostly to the efforts of the OFTP (a secular organization), who do not have to “justify” our decision to homeschool with mandatory testing, submissions of lesson plans or routine check-ups by our local school boards.
I feel very fortunate in that because I am not trying to nor am I even interested in, competing with the school system. I’m just trying to do what’s best for my daughter.
I think most homeschoolers are, Zayna. Even if they do complain about their local schools or schools in general.
And quite true, Susan.
Susan makes an interesting point. I live “way out in the sticks” and in our little homeschool group, there are two families (out of a total of ten of so), one Lutheran and one Catholic, who would gladly send their children to parochial school — if there were one! As a pastor’s family in a church body which operates the second largest and second oldest parochial school system in the US, we found it expedient, as dyed-in-the-wool homeschoolers, to specifically request a parish which did NOT have a school. It just doesn’t reflect well on the school when the pastor does not enroll his own children!
Which leads me to Zayna’s comment: “I am not trying to nor am I even interested in, competing with the school system. I’m just trying to do what’s best for my daughter.” That hits the nail on the head. So often homeschooling is seen as a defacto indictment of the local school, public or private, and people immediately go into defensive mode. And yet, at least in our family, homeschooling has always been our “default” mode and has very little to do with the quality of any particular school.
Dana,
I’ve gotten to the point where I won’t list “religious reasons” as part of why I homeschool. While there are certain religious issues in the schools that concern me, and while I like being able to teach my kids what I believe, and while I’m even pretty sure the schools would be trying to counteract what I’m teaching, that’s not why I originally chose to homeschool. I’m tired of being lumped (by those who don’t know what they’re talking about) with those who pulled their children specifically because they disagreed with what the public schools are teaching about religion; and I’m particularly tired of having people say things like, “Well, since you are a conservative Christian, you OBVIOUSLY homeschool primarily for religious reasons.”
In fact, I began homeschooling because even our excellent local church-based preschool could not provide my daughter with what she needed. At 3 1/2, my daughter had already mastered all but two of the skills they were teaching in kindergarten (and this was a top-tier preschool). I decided she was better off staying home and letting me teach her - and the longer she is at home, the further ahead she gets. At just-turned-12, she is now taking Algebra 1 and biology, and is flying through them with no difficulty at all. How can I sentence a chidl like this to sit through two years of middle-school classes before her peers catch up with her?
I also homeschool because my younger daughter is a struggling reader. She is a great learner, and is very bright, but reading is tough for her. I’m not willing to let the schools put out her enthusiasm for learning; at home, I can read aloud to her and she can keep learning while she grows into a good reader.
Not only that, I homeschool for social reasons, because I think homeschooled kids are better socialized. I homeschool because I think kids need time to be kids, and I don’t see the kids who go to school getting that time. I homeschool because I genuinely LIKE my kids, and because it allows my daughters to swim competitively, and because we can learn together as a family, and for countless other reasons.
So I refuse to allow someone else to discount all those other reasons, just because I happen to be a Christian, or just because I’ve said I homeschool for “religious reasons.” The primary reasons I homeschool would be there even if the religious ones were non-existent.
Oh, and I agree 100% that we should not allow the state to monitor because there is only a possibility of wrongdoing. I feel differently if wrongdoing has already been established (if, for example, a family has a pattern of truancy and suddenly begins saying they are “homeschooling”; or if a family has a history of substantiated child abuse).
Great post (as always)!
So often homeschooling is seen as a defacto indictment of the local school, public or private, and people immediately go into defensive mode.
Very true. I think part of it is because most people still can’t imagine doing it themselves, so think we must be really upset with something. And some of us do tend to pose our reasonings against failures in schools. A lot of people are homeschooling after problems in their schools, so it is only natural that this would enter into their discourse about why they have chosen homeschooling.
But it is difficult to pin any reason on all of us, and the more accepted homeschooling becomes, the more of us there will be who do it for reasons that aren’t specifically a rejection of anything.
The fact is, if parents wants to teach their children nothing but racist ideology it is within their rights as a parent to do so. Just as it is within my rights to teach my children about racial equality. That’s part of what it means to live in a free country.
Sex Ed never crossed my mind when I considered homeschooling… that’s all I have to say. Oh, and that guy is a nut-job… sorry.
Mine either, Shawna. Even if I do object to how it is handled in schools. It never entered into any of our discussions about education.