More Blatant Hypocrisy from Chris Jeub

Last year, many in the homeschool alumni reform movement were encouraged by the support of Chris Jeub, a homeschooling father of 16 (and author and speaker) who denounced “patriarchy” and urged other homeschooling parents to listen to our concerns. But then Chris’s daughter Cynthia began blogging, and we learned that Chris was saying one thing and doing another. (I wrote about this at the time.)

Today, I want to call out another a piece of hypocrisy on Chris’s part. This week the Montgomery Advertiser ran an editorial calling for more oversight of homeschooling. Chris left this comment on the piece:

So, the educational community that ranks #45 in the nation (the bottom 10th) is telling their state to regulate homeschoolers (the upper 10th). 

Just a friendly suggestion: first ask your state to regulate itself. Come back when you can show positive results. Then we can talk about how to be more like you.

Interestingly enough, there was nothing in the article about the Alabama educational community telling their state to regulate homeschoolers. Instead, the editorial relied on information from the Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE)—an organization founded by homeschool alumni. Given that Chris’s daughter Cynthia has come out publicly in support of CRHE, I would assume it is an organization Chris is aware of, so I’m not sure why he misrepresents the contents of the article so blatantly.

Chris is biggest in homeschool debate circles—he has long been a leading debate coach in NCFCA, the debate association Michael Farris’s daughter Christy Shipe founded for homeschooled youth. Given that background, I expect so much more of Chris than this. Not only does he misrepresent the article, stating it says things it doesn’t, he also proves that he has no idea how statistics work when he claims that homeschoolers are in “the upper 10th.”

The research does not support this. Yes, there are studies that find homeschoolers score in the 87th percentile, but those studies use volunteer samples within which wealthy families with well educated parents are highly overrepresented. Data with more representative samples shows a different picture altogether. Again, Chris has training in things like argumentation and evidence. He should know better than this.

But there’s something else, too. Chris’s statement seems rather at odds with the education he gave his own daughter, Cynthia.

For most of my K-12 education, I studied three subjects: homemaking, business, and competitive forensics. I had more than a dozen younger brothers and sisters, who I was expected to babysit and care for whenever my parents were busy. I kept the house clean, bathed children, and I cooked and baked. I learned business because my dad gave me a microloan at age 9, and failure to pay him back was not an option. At age thirteen, I became the main administrative assistant for the family business. Every spring semester, speech and debate competition was my top priority, so I spent that time researching, practicing, traveling, and performing.

I learned only very basic math and science, and when I got to college, I couldn’t make it through a basic chemistry class because I couldn’t do the algebraic equations. At this point, I’m taking a break from college so I can teach myself middle-school level math, science, and history from Internet resources and books.

. . .

You know what would have helped? Prioritizing my education, instead of filling my time with so many other things. I was expected to put everything else before school—the family business, keeping the house in order and watching my siblings, staying competitive in speech and debate. I often got in trouble for trying to study while I was supposed to be doing something else. If someone had just told me it was okay to want to read all the time, instead of feeling like educating myself was a waste of time and a distraction, that would have been fantastic.

That Chris Jeub has the gall to go into the comments section of an editorial in a newspaper halfway across the country and claim that homeschoolers are in the top ten percent when he himself left his daughter unprepared to succeed in college and undervalued her education is staggering to me. This is hypocrisy at its grossest level.

Homeschooling parents like Chris really need to stop talking and start listening to their kids. Because isn’t that what homeschooling is supposed to be about? The kids? Sadly, men like Chris appear to have turned homeschooling into a platform that has everything to do with their own power and influence and very little to do with their children’s wellbeing.