Over the years our family learned at home, many terms floated across the homeschool communities describing different homeschooling styles. For many parents, one phrase – “Christian homeschooler” – turned into “Christian who also homeschools” because of the assumed connotations within our community. We can all breathe a sigh of relief that thorny subject is not my focus today, except to point out our varied interests.

The intent today is on “homeschooling writers” or “writers who homeschool”, or all of the above. An enjoyable pastime for me is observing various homeschooling writers’ engagement with the public in columns, books and articles. On one of my first days as editor and since we seem to have a slow homeschooling news day, I aim to list a compilation of homeschoolers with public opinions.

I am fully aware the phrase – “homeschoolers with opinions” – is redundant, but there are always rumors floating on the ‘socialization’ muck accusing us of the little lady abiding our husband’s wishes of barefoot, pregnant and in a denim jumper. As many in the media and the education research department might assert this backwoods image, the notion should be swept right out our back door.

These authors’ writing interests I’m showcasing are not necessarily revolving around homeschooling. but there does seem to be a link with lifelong learning. Farming/good food and love of the land, science/branches of education, family/that is a major reason we homeschool and of course politics/’homeschool politics are local’ turned into specialties of these different homeschoolers’ trade. I think they’ve served their communities well with thorough knowledge of the subject at hand. So let’s get started.

Author Laurie Couture  has an article in the current November – December Home Education Magazine – Keeping The Parent-Teen Connection Strong Through Unschooling. Laurie was also interviewed in the provocative documentary – War on Kids. She’s the one in the movie trailer noting school students are often told to “sit down in that chair and keep your mouth shut”.

Indiana’s News and Tribune Columnist Debbie Harbeson puts her point of view out there for inspection every Thursday. Covering various current events in her articles, Debbie also does not like educational coercion while liking the idea of educational anarchy.

Mississippi homeschooler Natalie Winningham also writes a column in the Clarion-Ledger. Natalie offers her take on family, education trends and homeschooling.

Fran Eaton homeschooled her children and they are continuing the tradition with their own children. Fran writes a column for the south Chicago suburbs – Southtown Star. Her start as a defender of Illinois homeschooling rights sparked a political affairs passion. Fran also edits The Illinois Review and actively participates in Illinois politics.

Another Illinoisan, Deborah Niemann-Boehle, homeschooled while working as a reporter. Then they made a huge lifestyle change and a started up a new homestead. Deborah added to that busy life with her writings about their experience and now has a popular farm blog and two books – Homegrown and Handmade and EcoThrifty.

New Yorker and multi-generation farmer Shannon Hayes has four books to tout, including the start of a new turn of phrase with this title – Radical Homemakers. She has written numerous articles in publications such as the New York Times and you can read her Radical Homemaking thoughts in Yes magazine’s blog.

Home Education Magazine championed many writers along the way, including Kathy Ceceri and Laura Grace Weldon. Kathy is now the senior editor for Geek Mom in Wired magazine and has written several activity books for many homeschoolers’ favorite projects – Hands On Learning. Both these ladies are smart, savvy and let those who are not enlightened never forget – social,  offering fun resources in the realm of geekmomdom. Laura also produced a book- Free Range Learning, with a HEM column by the same name.

We can’t forget Parent at the Helm’s Linda Dobson! Her books are on my shelf and her Good Housekeeping article way back put homeschooling in the news in a good way.

As I review this off the top of my head list, I recognize these are all of the female gender. I know there are more, and there are certainly men in this group of writers that homeschool (or homeschoolers that write). Pat Farenga, David Albert, and Snow Falling on Cedars award winning author David Guterson immediately come to mind. But it’s a bit fun to highlight the power mamas in this piece. Hats off to them and many others. I will be reading and learning from their pieces and you will surely see their influence here in Home Education Magazine’s News & Commentary.

If you have other writers to add, please feel welcome to note them in comments.

Homeschoolers in Illinois are facing challenges to their situation as described in this Sun-Times article by Fran Eaton, titled Homeschooling Parents Not Eager for States Help:

Homeschoolers can be called a lot of things because they’re so independent and self-sufficient, and that seems counter-intuitive in today’s world. But they’re not as paranoid as some public school officials would make them out to be. The truancy officer acknowledged he would assume guilt before proving innocence. He would not have a problem searching private homes to prove the schools within were up to state standards.

The Senate committee exchange became more revealing when Reynolds told the committee he would look around those registered homes for computers with educational software, books and other indications teaching was going on.

And then he would “help” them.

Illinois blogger Susan Ryan is following the situation closely at her blog Corn and Oil:

Illinois homeschoolers don’t want any legislation that will infringe on their rights.  Any negotiations are concerning if they ever end in compromise.  4,000 Illinois homeschoolers in the Capitol showed the resolve about that issue.

Susan also noted the formation of a political action committee for Illinois homeschoolers:

One good thing to come of this ongoing fiasco is the creation of the IL Homeschool PAC.  We needed that yesterday.

Susan Ryan shares a heart-warming story at her Corn and Oil blog about a homeschooling family who purchased a local school and are sharing it with their community:

“When they heard about the sale of the school and its contents, Melanie and Gary Doyle thought they may end up purchasing school supplies for their home-schooled kids. Instead, they bought the school itself.”

Susan Ryan blogs about a Thanksgiving Throwdown with Master Chef Bobby Flay and Ree Drummond, also known as The Pioneer Woman:

In the introduction of The Pioneer Woman’s life, Bobby Flay pointed out that she homeschools her four kids.

And:

This particular hour of Throw Down a Thanksgiving Feast was charming and fun and half of it was about a homeschooling mom’s life.

Check it out via Susan’s Corn & Oil blog.

Susan Ryan at the Corn & Oil blog is upbeat about an article on homeschooling titled Grooming the Next Generation of Leaders. Good quotes:

“We have greater opportunities as homeschoolers to dance to the beat of our own drums,” Alyssa said, adding, “The only downside is that we can never just watch a movie without having to dissect the plot afterwards.”

“As a mother, I am always told, ‘You homeschool? I could never do that.’ I consider myself the most fortunate woman in the world to have the privilege to invest my life in three spectacular young ladies,” Austin-Taitt said. “In the process of teaching them through the years, it is I who have learned the greatest lessons from them. I have learned to laugh hilariously, cry passionately – and learn incessantly.”

In an increasingly bizarre situation a school district in Texas is “seeking to bankrupt” a now-homeschooling family. Writing for the Houston, Texas FOX News channel, reporter Greg Groogan explains the case in an article he titled School District Seeks to Bankrupt Disabled Student’s Family:

In May, 2007, after learning that their son Chuka was not receiving the help he needed from the local school, Kenneth and Neka Chibuogwu filed a procedure called “due process” where a sort of education judge listens to all the evidence and decides the issue. But instead of seeking compromise, the school district launched a full-blown legal counterattack against the family:

“These people had been railroaded, these people had been maligned,” says special education advocate Jimmy Kilpatrick who represented Chuka and his parents.

Drained and discouraged, Kenneth and Eka dropped their due process case and Chuka never returned to class.

The conflict could have ended there, but Alief Superintendent Louis Stoerner and then board president Sarah Winkler had other plans.

The District sued the economically distressed parents of a special needs child for every penny of the district’s legal expenses, an amount, at the time approaching $170,000 dollars and now estimated at close to a quarter million.

“What I feel is that they are trying to bully me for asking for a chance for my son¿s life,” says Kenneth.

Reporter Groogan continues:

Those who represent special needs families suspect a larger more sinister scheme.

“What they are trying to do is send a chill down parent’s spine about advocating for their children,” says Louis Geigerman, president of the Texas Organization of Parents, Attorneys and Advocates.

“Lets set some examples, lets hang a few of them at high noon right out here in the middle of the town square and show you what we do to people who want to advocate for their children,” adds Kilpatrick.

“If I don’t fight them, you know they are going to do it to other parents,” says Kenneth Chibuogwu.

Read the entire article at the link above. Discussion of the article is taking place on the HEM Networking discussion list:

“I suspect too, that that school district doesn’t care if they win or lose (they’ve lost so far) that lawsuit. They are sending a message with the use of local, Texas and federal tax monies. LOTS of money.” ~Susan Ryan

Susan Ryan at Corn and Oil cautions: “I want to point out again…that the Regional Offices of Education are systematically pushing for daytime curfews in Illinois communities to rein in homeschoolers. It’s all over the state, but quite a few southern Illinois communities in a couple of Regional Offices of Education areas with anti-homeschool agendas have passed curfews in the last few months.” Click on Susan’s link to read much more.

Susan Ryan writes at Corn and Oil:

“I wonder if bureaucracies fail -and homeschoolers prevail- with the continuation of poor fiscal governmental affairs.

“I like how that sounds. Not our sorry Illinois affairs, but that our bureaucracies are breaking down. Something does have to give, rather than constantly getting. Even as many of the involved government employees – real people with real lives and families – must suffer many days of dread and discomfort, I can’t say I’m disturbed to see that some of the Illinois public school bureaucracies are hitting hard times.”

Titled Sorry State Financial Affairs Cause Bureaucratic Breakdown, it’s an interesting and thought-provoking post – as most of Susan’s are. Read it at the link above.

Susan Ryan blogs about educational freedom at Corn and Oil:

“Some Americans are disturbed that Swedish homeschooling families are losing their right to educate their children at home. What a depressing notion turning into a reality, that children can and will be taken from their homes because they’re learning at home with their families.

“In Sweden – a country oft considered a progressive’s dream- and Germany, families were torn apart when their homeschooled children were forced from their homes. But here in the US, states such as Pennsylvania and New York bear down on homeschoolers with oppressive rules, regulations and bureaucratic paperwork having little and nothing to do with learning.”

It’s a good post, worthy reading for anyone interested in educational freedoms – and, of course, we all should be.

WRITE THESE LAWS ON YOUR CHILDREN: Inside the World of Conservative Christian Homeschooling By Robert Kunzman

The book was released in August of 2009 and published by Beacon Press of Boston.

A Review by Susan Ryan, Illinois Homeschooler

In one of Robert Kunzman’s interviews with six “strongly conservative” Christian homeschooling families, a California homeschooling mom related her kids “get a lot of life, real life that goes on, that they don’t understand when they are separated for several hours a day.”  She went on to explain that their family of nine children was able to spend valuable time lovingly caring for their grandparents as they reached the end of their lives. Whatever different views, philosophies and lifestyles any homeschooling family has, the incredibly diverse homeschool community can appreciate that, as Mr. Kunzman points out, “homeschooling is…woven into the fabric of everyday family life.”

Indiana University Associate Professor of Education Robert Kunzman’s name – and his quotes – have been floating into general homeschooling news over the last few months.  Many homeschool advocates have been wondering what collective influence he has had, to be sought after so frequently in articles about homeschooling. (It is an odd feeling, as homeschoolers carry on with our busy lives and then discover that some unknown entity is talking about us in an authoritative fashion.)

Often, Mr. Kunzman’s feedback was requested regarding a perceived homeschool growth trend.  The National Center for Education Statistics data is reported on his site with their supposed 74% homeschooling increase since 1999.  He has developed an impressive Indiana University website called: Homeschooling Research and Scholarship. It gave a start to see that on a university link. (The University of Illinois has a homeschooling applicant section in order to study at the University, but not to be studied.)

Kunzman researched and analyzed the families who were located in California, Indiana, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont. Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) co-founders Michael Smith and Michael Farris, former Generation Joshua leader Ned Ryun, and a Teen Pact college student were also interviewed. The book offered observations and reflections on “four crucial questions that framed [his] homeschooling journeys“: “What do homeschoolers do, and why do they do it? Do children learn to think for themselves?  What do they learn about the relationship between faith and citizenship?  And how, if at all, should homeschooling be regulated?”

I found Mr. Kunzman’s attentive layout of each individual family’s qualities and schedule engaging, although he didn’t ever seem to take his professional evaluator’s hat off when stepping in the door. He asked the parents’ opinions of increased oversight of homeschoolers.  The feedback seemed to be a resounding negative on more governmental authority. One California mom’s adamant rejection of more bureaucracy brought about his acceptance that some homeschoolers “who have learning difficulties would be having at least as much trouble in an institutional setting.”   He maintained that “to assume outright that a parent-teacher is a failure because her child doesn’t meet a fixed standard at a particular age or grade level may be just as unfair as expecting a classroom teacher to have all students excelling in June, regardless of where they started in September.”  That is a worthy concept.

Still, Kunzman proposes homeschoolers be subjected to those standards in his concluding chapter: “General consensus should exist on standards for meeting those interests.”  (“Interests” are included as part of his first proposition that “vital interests of children or society must be at stake.”)

There is a societal disquiet across our communities concerning much of public school education and its standards.  Naomi Wolf laments in a Washington Post article [‘Hey, Young Americans, Here's a Text for You’] that the federal No Child Left Behind Act mandates tests which “assess chiefly math and reading comprehension,” while civics and history education has gone astray. However, Kunzman calls for “basic skills testing” (reading and math) of homeschoolers, along with his third homeschool oversight recommendation that “an effective way to measure whether standards are met” be fulfilled.

Professor Kunzman also expressed ambivalence about the Home School Legal Defense Association’s teen civic education program called Generation Joshua.  Kunzman observed that Generation Joshua has “genuine civic engagement.” While noting a 2006 National Assessment of Educational Progress civics assessment is distressing, in that “only 27% of high school seniors [were] scoring at or above proficient.”

Kunzman’s 2007 interview with former George Bush speech writer and founding Generation Joshua Director Ned Ryun occurred before Ryun unhappily exited from the HSLDA fold.  The reason for that departure is one example that the conservative Christian homeschooling community is not in lockstep with HSLDA. Many draw the line when homeschooling rights are risked.

There was another case in point concerning the interviewed Tennessee homeschooling family who did not follow HSLDA advice.  They were the only family in the book that had to deal with state social workers (“four or five different times”).  The family determined they had “nothing to hide” and allowed the social worker into their home to chat.  When asked if there was any follow-up to the visit, the reply was a negative, with the father’s comment that: “As a matter of fact, the last visit, the man opened up to me quite a bit about how he raises his children.  He told me he smacks his children!”

The mother observed that was a touchy issue.  This family had a “thin black rod about eight inches long” that rested on the table.  They were also former neighbors of Michael Pearl, whose book “To Train Up A Child” is a deep source of dismay for many homeschoolers.  Conversely, the Tennessee homeschooling father was inspired by the book:”I have never read anything more encouraging, more uplifting, more knowledgeable in homeschooling.”

When Kunzman returned home from Tennessee, he looked up Pearl’s book on Amazon and discovered there were nearly 700 [currently 859] reviews of the book.  Many of the negative reviews were from dismayed homeschoolers not supportive of this type of discipline, and very active in the Stop the Rod movement.

Most homeschool advocates counsel to not let social workers or truant officers in the home without a court order.  We recognize and agree with the author that “some public school officials and social workers do have a decidedly jaded view of homeschooling.” Abuse is unwanted in the homeschool community.  That would include governmental bullying of law abiding families because they choose to homeschool.

That prudence should be understandable when homeschoolers’ educational base is located in the family’s private living space.  The call for regulation by Mr. Kunzman and others thrashes the very opposition that these six families have to governmental interference. Ironic, isn’t it?

There seemed to be a definite agenda in this book that wasn’t favorable to homeschooling self-sufficiency. The last chapter is oddly named: Becoming A Public. The premise of Kunzman’s homeschooling concerns, framed in the first chapter’s last question regarding “Homeschool Regulation,” seemed to lead to this book’s foregone conclusion.

I’m also bewildered by Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews’ thought process in his recent Education column, 3 Smart Rules for Regulation of Homeschoolers, which focused on Kunzman’s book. Mathews’ position seems to be that unfavorable political winds could increase regulation and that we should do something about that by using the “sensible answer” of universal regulation as offered in “Write These Laws On Your Children.” Mathews also states, “Kunzman knows that many parents have chosen to homeschool for non-religious reasons, but focuses on serious Christians because they are the ones that public school professionals are most worried about.”

The concern about “serious Christians” is the theme throughout this book. Kunzman requested each of the six families fill out a General Social Survey to confirm their social, political and religious conservatism.  There must be a survey or study sought out for almost every curiosity, while most homeschoolers seem to be holding out as the last bastion.  Robert Kunzman reported that nearly a fourth of our homeschooled population don’t need to notify or verify educating their children.  He asked HSLDA’s Michael Smith if their ultimate goal was to be a “place like Illinois where parents don’t have to report, register, anything.”

Kunzman’s propositions suggested that free homeschooling states (such as Illinois) “runs the greatest risk of neglecting the interests of children and the state.” His unease seems to be baseless and cynical, as he didn’t provide proof of such neglect. An imagined problem, that school bureaucrats need to oversee already established parental accountability, will kill what we live – and what we love about homeschooling.  The former Social Studies and English high school teacher, coach and administrator describes a “triad of interests” (children, parents, society) as a concern of “advocates of regulation.”  (‘Anti-homeschoolers’ is the term I use for homeschooling regulation advocates.)  Even after hundreds of hours observing homeschoolers, Robert Kunzman either doesn’t understand the homeschooling way of life, or worse yet, he does.