Over the years, I have been writing about misconceptions regarding the schooling process. The purpose of these posts is to explain why I disagree with various comments that I have heard people make about schooling. These are meant as personal thoughts rather than conclusive proof, and I will admit that I'm not always the best at explaining my thoughts. Regardless, I have decided that I should be willing to share these posts when I encounter someone online who makes an argument that I have already discussed.
There are a lot of concerns that homeschooled children might not receive an adequate education. Technically speaking, this is possible. For this reason, it does make a small amount of sense that many people are demanding stronger homeschooling regulations. People demanding stronger regulations have also embraced the conventional model as the way things have to be. The kinds of regulations being promoted include regular testing to ensure children are learning the same things as a conventional school. Another argument is that parents should at least have a college degree. This would mean that an educational background must be connected to the conventional model.
Different children have vastly different needs. This is one of the reasons parents pull their children out of schools. They know the needs of their children aren't being met, so they try to give their children an environment that better meets their need. The regulations being promoted are built around the idea that if a child is homeschooled, they should receive the same education as if they attended a conventional school. This completely undermines the purpose of homeschooling.
I'm not going to lie. There are some parents out there who are legitimately interested in inhibiting their children's educations. This, however, is a very small minority. In a vast majority of homeschooling families, parents want their children to receive a better education than they could get from the conventional model. It completely defeats the purpose if the government requires homeschooling to function the same as the conventional model. Instead, we need to minimize the control that the government exerts over alternative approaches. We need to start treating education as a right rather than a threat to the government's power that must be tightly controlled and restricted.
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