Reply #13: Agreed. The problem here isn't the home schooling [View All]

it is the state's lack of making sure that the home schooling is done in a responsible fashion. In Arkansas, you can home school a kid, but you have to have them tested once a year, just like the kids in school. Home schooled kids are judged by the same tests, and if a kid doesn't pass the test for two years running, the parents are required to send the kid to school for testing and evaluation and placement with people that can address his or her learning problems. This, to me, puts parents on notice as to what a child is expected to learn in a given year, just as a teacher in a school is put on notice. When I first moved to Arkansas and discovered I couldn't get a teaching job because I was too experienced and had too many degrees, I tutored a child that was home schooled. His mom had paid attention to his test scores and realized he was on the low end of the passing scale. She wanted to keep home schooling him and so she hired me to show him--and her--where his deficits were and what could be done about them. Didn't take long for the problems to work out. But I'm not sure that this parent would have realized her son was starting to have problems if the test hadn't pointed it out. By having a measure to go by, she took responsibility and helped her child early on. He continued to be home schooled and took his GED and went to university without any problem.