I recently came upon an article by homeschool mom Lisa Cherry<\/a>\u00a0on how homeschoolers should respond to the recent Bill Gothard and Vision Forum sexual abuse scandals. Her article is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of her suggestions\u2014such as homeschool co-op meetings raising awareness about sexual abuse and the importance of labeling abuse as abuse\u2014are good, but others\u2014such as supporting homeschool legal defense organizations that oppose homeschooling accountability\u2014are not so good.<\/p>\n Most concerning of all, nowhere does Cherry advise her readers to report abuse concerns to social services. In fact, her only mention of social services is to state that they \u201cdo not understand homeschoolers.\u201d Cherry suggests self-policing, but self-policing, while good,\u00a0is not a replacement for reporting abuse to the authorities<\/em>. The homeschooling community needs to cultivate a culture where abuse is reported to the authorities, including social services, and Cherry\u2019s post does not do that.<\/p>\n That said, I want to hit on two themes\u2014first, the constant focus on supposed threats to homeschooling rather than on the wellbeing and interests of homeschooled children, and second, the claim that anyone who favors homeschooling accountability is \u201canti-homeschooling\u201d or \u201chostile to homeschooling.\u201d For the author, these two points are conflated\u2014anti-homeschooling individuals are drumming up hostility to homeschooling and pushing for more oversight of homeschooling, which is \u201cfrightening\u201d and could be \u201cdevastating.\u201d<\/p>\n Hostility toward the Homeschool Community Is Increasing<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Online responses to these stories are flying\u2014especially by those hostile to homeschooling. Honestly, I had not paid any attention to these anti-homeschooling voices until I saw them chiming in during the aftermath of these ministry scandals. But they are very real and very vocal. The implication that we, as homeschoolers, might need to be \u201cwatched more closely\u201d is alarming. I do not want to dignify these comments further by providing a link, but I have seen them on several sites, and it is frightening. The hostile momentum that\u2019s building\u2014driven by those who would love to stop homeschooling or deeply regulate it\u2014could be devastating to us all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n While she doesn\u2019t clarify, the author is almost certainly talking about Homeschoolers Anonymous and Love, Joy, Feminism, among others. But here\u2019s the thing\u2014neither Homeschoolers Anonymous nor I am anti-homeschooling or hostile to homeschooling. The Homeschool Alumni Reaching Out (HARO) board (which oversees Homeschoolers Anonymous) and myself both acknowledge that homeschooling can be a wonderful thing for both parent and child. It\u2019s just that we are aware that homeschooling can also be a terrible<\/em> thing, and that matters to us because, as homeschool graduates ourselves, we care about current and future homeschooled children.<\/p>\n HARO does not actually take a position on legal oversight of homeschooling, focusing instead on encouraging and supporting those who had bad homeschool experiences and finding ways to encourage self-policing in the homeschool community. So not only is HARO not anti-homeschooling, they are not in fact in favor of regulating homeschooling\u2014they take no position.<\/p>\n What does it say that those simply trying to help victims and draw awareness to a problem in need of fixing are portrayed as the enemy and the problem by homeschool parents like the author of the article under discussion? In fact, this author ought to reach out to HARO if she\u2019s interested in homeschool co-ops raising awareness of sexual abuse (and hopefully other abuse as well), as that is one thing HARO hopes to help with. (HARO, as you may remember, was recently offered a speaking slot at a homeschool convention, only to have that invitation withdrawn.)<\/p>\n I, in contrast, do take a position on homeschooling oversight\u2014I believe that lack of accountability creates a situation ripe for abuse, and that there should therefore be some form of accountability for homeschooling parents. I tend to agree with the arguments made by the Coalition for Responsible Home Education<\/a>\u00a0(CRHE), which lays out policy recommendations<\/a> and has called for input and further research on how best to provide this accountability while still allowing for the flexibility and room for innovation that homeschooling offers parents.<\/p>\n But you know what? I\u2019m not anti-homeschooling. I support accountability for homeschooling parents not because I want to ban homeschooling or regulate it out of existence but rather because I care about the wellbeing and interests of homeschooled children. In the rush to talk about reputation and image and threats to \u201chomeschooling freedoms\u201d (read, the freedom to homeschool without accountability), supporting the wellbeing and interests of homeschooled children themselves frequently gets left out of the conversation.<\/p>\n And Cherry isn\u2019t the only one out there saying things like this. Karen Campbell of the popular homeschooling blog That Mom recently wrote the following<\/a>:<\/p>\n A new, organized, and\u00a0clearly focused group of former homeschool student<\/a>s, motivated, in part, by the bad fruits of patriocentric homeschooling, have taken up the banner for homeschooling reform, putting the\u00a0very good ideals at the heart of homeschooling at risk.<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>Their legitimate concerns over some instances of sexual, physical, emotional, and spiritual abuse of children have resulted in their\u00a0misguided call for state-operated control over all homeschooling<\/a>\u00a0and have even extended to their advancement of \u201chomosexual rights\u201d for homeschooled children. Though I have had similar concerns about treatment of all children, homeschooled and otherwise, at the hands of adversarial methods, I do not share the solutions being advanced by this group! Let me encourage you to read through their websites to become aware of their agenda. I believe this group poses possibly the greatest threat to homeschooling freedoms we enjoy today and has largely been inspired by the patriarchy movement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If Campbell wants to pin me as a supporter of \u201chomosexual rights\u201d for homeschooled children, I stand guilty as charged. But what really gets me is that Campbell can declare calls for homeschooling accountability \u201cthe greatest threat to homeschooling freedoms\u201d without even attempting to explain how it accountability poses such a threat. If you read over CRHE\u2019s policy recommendations<\/a>, which she links, you will find that the oversight suggested is mild and would not in fact prevent Campbell from homeschooling or likely have any affect on the way she or other responsible homeschoolers educate their children. A good look at some of the<\/a> testimonials on the<\/a> CRHE website<\/a> makes this fairly clear.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also worth noting, once again, the differences between HARO (which runs HA) and CRHE. While they do not limit their scope to Christian homeschooling, HARO and HA did indeed come into existence as a response to oppressive and problematic religious ideologies that came to suffuse so much of Christian homeschooling \u2014 only one of which is \u2018the patriarchy movement. But CRHE is different, and does not have this same level of focus on Christian homeschooling circles and ideologies as HARO. CRHE was created, instead, by homeschool alumni with a research and policy perspective. It\u2019s in the interests of individuals like Campbell to keep these nonprofits straight and not conflate them.<\/p>\n With all of this said, I want to take a moment to speak directly to homeschool parents and clarify a few points.<\/p>\n 1. This is not about being anti-homeschooling.<\/strong>\u00a0I fear I\u2019ve been tagged as anti-homeschooling when in fact what I\u2019m doing is arguing that we to stop ignoring problems and start addressing them instead. And it\u2019s not just me or other homeschool graduates saying this\u2014some homeschool<\/a> parents<\/a> vocally<\/a> support<\/a> oversight<\/a> of homeschooling as well. Are there people who are anti-homeschooling? Sure, but I\u2019m not one of them, nor are the vast majority of homeschool graduates advocating alongside me for homeschooling accountability. We are not the enemy<\/em>.<\/p>\n 2. This conversation has got<\/em> to stop ignoring the needs and interests of homeschooled children.<\/strong> If you want to argue against oversight of homeschooling, that\u2019s fine, but you have got<\/em> to explain why it is better for children to be homeschooled in an atmosphere without oversight rather than jumping straight to \u201chomeschooling freedoms\u201d and claiming that oversight of homeschooling could be \u201cdevastating\u201d to homeschooling. That is not helpful<\/em>. And honestly, if the fairly minimal oversight recommended by CRHE would in fact be \u201cdevastating\u201d to homeschooling, you have got some serious explaining to do.<\/p>\n