let's talk about homeschooling, shall we?

Let's talk about homeschooling. Shall we?
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I know you have read in the news about a few families lately who have done horrendous things who were also "homeschoolers" and I can understand the outrage you are feeling from what these children endured. Me too.
But blaming homeschooling and thinking that reforms on homeschool education and "security checks" for homeschooling families is ridiculous. Let me explain why.
#1- BECAUSE AS PARENTS WE ARE THE FIRST AND FOREMOST EDUCATORS OF OUR CHILDREN. School is secondary education in the formation of the child. Our society and government has bullied parents into believing that if YOU actually educate your child then you are unfit, insane or need "supervision." 
#2- THE NUMBERS DO NOT LIE. Here we are trembling in fear now of homeschoolers because of the Turpin and Hart families. Think about this. In 2017, their were approximately 50 million school age children in the US. In 2016, approximately 3% of school aged children were classified as "homeschooled." 3% of 50 million is 1,500,000 children. 
That is right. Approximately 1,500,000 homeschooled children.
Now ask yourself if what you are seeing on the news makes any sense now. 19 children who were abused. Now over 1.5 million are going to be "supervised and regulated" because of this "widespread epidemic." 
#3 YOU ARE FALLING VICTIM TO THE GLORIFICATION OF EVIL IN THE NEWS. Man, how happy would the devil be to get everyone worked up about homeschoolers so the government can come in and regulate and "supervise" them. That the government would now be able to come in and determine what is right and what is wrong for all of these families. That many of these families would be judged incorrectly and tormented, possibly even separated from each other. Yeah, the devil LOVES splitting up families and he is going to use your decision to act on your emotions and feelings instead of evidence and logic. Don't fall for it. You are smarter than that.
#4 HOMESCHOOLING FAMILIES EMBRACE AND LIVE OUT THE MEANING OF DIVERSITY. We understand that children are different and may have different learning styles. And in that understanding we allow the students to learn in ways that help build them up instead of making them feel different or incapable. We are able to give the student the additional time they may need depending on their own special needs. We embrace the identity of the WHOLE child, not just the academic test scores to determine who they are as a person, not just who they are as a student. And we form and instruct our children in the traditions of our faith, whatever those beliefs may be. 
I do not support nor agree with the work of Planned Parenthood. But public schools welcome PP into their classrooms. It is my right as their parent as well as their educator to raise them in our own family's beliefs. That is called religious freedom and it is protected under the Constitution of the US.
#5 YOU ARE IGNORING THE POSITIVE RESULTS AND ASPECTS OF HOMESCHOOLED CHILDREN. Money wise, homeschoolers do not rely on public tax funded resources for education which saves American taxpayers approximately $27 million each year. Did you know that the home educated usually score 15-30 percentile points higher than publicly educated students on Standardized Testing? They also score typically higher on SAT and ACT testing and are now sought after by many colleges and universities.
Did you know that home educated children are often able more so than public educated children to explore "Who they are" and that home educated girls are more likely to have an unusually stronger sense of self?
But it is not just HOMESCHOOLING the creates these results. It is the combination of two parent families, one parent as a home educator and family cohesion that brings about positive results in all children.
With all of this being said, I want to add that what has happened within these particular (and very few) homeschooling families is absolutely horrendous. These parents are not fit and have committed crimes against their children. But crimes against children are not limited to homeschooling families and the numbers even tell you that if you compared crimes committed against publicly schooled children and homeschooled children you will see that the numbers are greater in the publicly schooled children.
We need to stop this attack on homeschooling families. You are blaming the wrong thing here. It is not because they were homeschooled that the crimes occurred. These are exceptions to the rule, people who hid under the guise of homeschoolers in order to harm children/family.
The numbers don't lie.
Sources:
Photo cred: penneydouglas.com
https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=91
https://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/p20-571.pdf
https://www.nheri.org/research-facts-on-homeschooling/

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