Well, I suppose it depends on where you draw the line between “religious” and “cults”, and what size you consider “minuscule”.
Domestic tranquility requires some indoctrination of all citizens. We must share:
A language
A number system
A system of mathematics
An economic philosophy
A common understanding of the Constitution
A common understanding of our history
A scientific view of reality
A common understanding of social norms
A common understanding of the benefits and responsibilities of citizenship
The state is responsible for providing the information and each citizen is responsible for learning it. Passing a standard test is reasonable evidence of knowledge. So it can be obtained through home schooling or public school.
Religions are life style organizations. They should not influence education.
Sadly, children can be subjected to religious indoctrination by their parents.
…what? You comprehend that the singular form of “data” is not “anecdote”, right? Peer reviewed studies about the efficacy and outcomes of homeschooling is exactly what we SHOULD look at, rather than talking to random people – are you serious? 
I’m ambivalent on whether homeschooling should be banned. The countries that have banned it seem to be holding up fairly well. From a quick Google search, it looks like only 3% of children are home-schooled anyway, with the other 97% not taught “anything but liberal thought.” It’s really remarkable that there are any conservatives left with all of this liberal indoctrination.
Those who are adamant that homeschooling should be allowed, should those children be required to pass regular exams in history, English (writing and literature), various sciences and math subjects, and so on? I think twice-yearly mandated exams would make sense, paid for by the state. If the kids fail the tests, they have to go to an accredited public or private school.
If that were the requirement, I’d no longer be ambivalent towards home schooling – it would be fine by me. My concern is that some portion of those 3% of kids aren’t getting any education to speak of. How do the supporters in this thread feel about a regular testing requirement in all major subjects?
Not trying to junior-mod the discussion about whether homeschooling should or shouldn’t be banned, but just adding in the intermediate position proposed by Dr. Bartholet (and somewhat misrepresented in the OP).
Namely, what Harvard prof Dr. Bartholet actually advocated was that homeschooling should be subjected to a presumptive ban, meaning that by default nobody has automatic permission to homeschool, but you can still get permission to homeschool if you make a convincing case for it. So homeschooling woud be neither automatically permitted nor categorically forbidden.
Dude, I am on the record for being pro-homeschooling. I just think it needs to be somewhat regulated and all kids should receive a base level of services. I am also in favor of lots of forms of education reform. I don’t want to just let the the bad schools OR the bad homeschoolers fester.
The Bipartisan Growth of Homeschooling - article notes that “it was the countercultural left who first embraced homeschooling in the late-1970s”
The fact that many parents believe that a teacher doesn’t need much knowledge is a very strong argument against allowing homeschooling.
And a lot of homeschooling proponents have said that since it’s only the folks own children, it should be their right, but have then in the next breath talked about “homeschool collectives”, where it isn’t just their own children. A “homeschool collective” isn’t homeschooling; it’s a school, just one that isn’t required to meet the same standards as other schools.
If personal anecdotes matter, my mom’s a teacher (a real one, who’s required by law to be competent at teaching). There was a time, back when I was a teenager, when it looked like homeschooling might turn out to be the only option available for me. And she was very nervous about that, and very relieved when it turned out not to be necessary, because she knew that the quality of education I’d receive that way would be inferior to a real school.
Previous posts in this thread have already pointed out the leftist roots of the homeschool movement, and the fact that there are homeschoolers all across the political spectrum.
AFAICT none of the critics of homeschooling in this thread are under the impression that all homeschoolers are conservatives and/or fundamentalists. I support adequate regulation and oversight for homeschooling, irrespective of the ideological beliefs of the parents.
One what statistic do you base your last statement?
No, you’re right, she’s suggesting a presumptive ban.
Given the abysmal failure of many large school districts to provide an education for their students I suggest a presumptive ban on her employment by Harvard.
From the “Homeschooling is the U.S.” Wiki:
Motivations for homeschooling in the US (2011-2012)
Motivation Percentage of parents:
A concern about the school environment-91%
A desire to provide religious instruction-64%
A desire to provide moral instruction-77%
A dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools-74%
Provide a nontraditional approach to education-44%
Child has special needs-16%
Child has a physical or mental health problem-15%
Other reasons-37%
From a ThoughtCo artle titled Why Homeschooling is on the Rise:
-31.2 percent of home-schooling parents say that “concern about the environment of other schools” was their primary reason for home instruction
-16.5 percent stated “dissatisfaction with the academic instruction in other schools”
-29.8 percent said “to provide religious or moral instruction”
-6.5 percent was “because the child has a physical or mental health problem”
-7.2 percent said “because the child has other special needs”
-8.8 percent gave “other reasons”
All in all, I wouldn’t say religious motivation was “miniscule”.
Harvard should fire her because she hurts your fee fees?
Surprise, surprise, there is nowhere in this article or the linked articles where the professor is ever quoted as recommending a ban on homeschooling.
To discover this information, I performed the magic trick of reading beyond the headline of the article.
Again.
Yup. Glad we got that cleared up.
:dubious: For pointing out that educational neglect and abuse under the guise of irresponsibly unregulated homeschooling is a serious violation of children’s rights and a bad thing for civil society?
I’m afraid you’re being carried away by the knee-jerk conservative tendency to furiously deny the truth of anything you don’t want to hear and shoot the messenger who announces it.
When you calm down, though, think about the fact that nobody, including Dr. Bartholet, is denying that there are many serious problems with many school systems in the US, just as there are with many homeschooling practices. The difference is that we have legal oversight regulations for school systems that mandate supervising them and investigating and reporting their problems.
We have policies strictly limiting what school authorities are allowed to do to kids in the name of discipline, and what they are allowed to tell them in the name of education. We have elected school boards that oversee schools’ policies and performance. And when schools or their employees perform badly, we make an almighty fuss about it, and rightly so.
What we don’t do is just toss kids into the sole control of the school system 24/7/365, with no effective requirements or supervision about what they’re taught or how they’re treated. Yet many homeschooled kids are left in exactly that situation with abusive and/or incompetent parents.
And when somebody points out that that’s a violation of children’s rights and we ought to enact stricter laws to prevent it, what we get from conservatives is just a bunch of infuriated vindictive wattle-wobbling about how that damn “harpy” ought to be kicked out of her job for her communistic assault on the divine rights of parents to have complete control over their kids. :rolleyes:
To be fair, he did say " Cults are a minuscule subset of religious homeschooled children."
But yes, religion* is* the big reason today, and I would have to say that about 1/4 of those that listed religion as their main reason are fundies. Fundies arent quite a “cult” (there are too many of them), but there are quite a few cult like characteristics in being a strict Fundamentalist Christian.
To be fair, he didn’t define “cults”.
We’ve had the discussion about ‘harpy’ before, Shodan. Let’s keep the sexism to a minimum, everybody.
Warning issued.
Outright banning is rarely a good solution for anything except in a rare crisis, and even then only temporarily.
The particular way this is described comes across as a solution in search of a problem. Even if there is some huge problem with home schooling, I’m not sure I would trust someone using this methodology not to make the problem worse.
I have fairly liberal progressive friends in Vermont who homeschooled their 4 adopted daughters. They all got into college and seem to be thriving. They self directed how much of high school they wanted to attend- generally they tended to chose mostly to participate in things it had greater resources for like sports and music programs. None of them had social issues, and in fact, the one daughter for whom socializing was a priority, was surprisingly popular and engaged for a homeschooled girl living on a dirt road on a mountain a good 30-40 minutes drive away from town. She eventually joined the HS hockey team.
So I don’t think you can generalize.
And I agree with the poster who said that all of the same issues can have the school system as a source.
Isolation, bias, and stagnation are huge potential problems for any situation where there is no balance between resources. Hence the eggs in one basket and takes a village adages.
Probably the best solution is to create more flexibility to have a little of both in whatever form works best for the individual student and their family, as well as encouraging the development of additional opportunities and resources, like internships, apprenticeships, community service and volunteering, maker/creative workshops/labs/studios/libraries, and so forth.
Yes, it was important to show her intent.
I haven’t seen any irresponsible homeschooling. Everybody I met who was home schooled was very well educated. I can’t say that for the public school system where 3/4 of them fail to meet the ACT standards needed to move on to college. I would consider that educational neglect on a large scale. One even a Harvard professor could understand.
but thanks for your political bias which has nothing to do with what I said.