Homeschooler Jamie Rhodes has her Viewpoint published:

Parents choose to homeschool for a variety of reasons by Jamie Rhodes.

This is in response to the editorial, article and letters calling for stricter homeschool guidelines and laws. There are many points of view, however the general theme seems to be that public institutions offer a place where children can be monitored for abuse. Where they will receive proper nutrition and guidance. Where they can make friends and be properly socialized.

In the Calista Springer trial, a basis for a lot of these claims, she was in public school for many years. The school reported the problems they saw. The state dropped the ball.

I am the parent of children with special needs. One of them has pervasive developmental disorder — not otherwise specified, the same diagnosis as Calista Springer. I know first-hand what it is like to parent a child like this.

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It hurts my heart what happened to Calista. I understand the difficulties her parents had in raising her. I also understand the extremes they went to were, in fact, abusive. However, confusing the lack of follow through from the state and how it failed to help Calista with the fact that she was homeschooled shouldn’t be taking place.

The tragic story of Calista Springer, on many levels, is similar to what is happening in the UK where authorities tried to blame homeschooling for the death of a child.

The issue is not going away, and with the likes of Michael Pearl’s teaching in our midst, we can be almost certain of it. Jamie Rhodes courageously presents a calm, reasoned response based on personal experience, and she should be applauded. We need more strong voices speaking up against child abuse.

Tags: Calista Springer, child abuse, children with special needs, homeschooling, Michael Pearl, public school, stricter homeschool laws

This entry was posted on March 18, 2010 at 2:25 pm and is filed under Activist Homeschoolers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.