The following are my responses to statements and questions posed to me after I posted(to several of my email groups) a letter I'd sent to my local paper's editor regarding the legalities of homeschooling. The questions were taken from an online conversation I had with two friends, their names have been changed to protect privacy. My responses are relating to what my friends had posted, not to them personally.

Sherry wrote: "Here is the reply you might want to be prepared for. The private education of children, I think, should be a state concern because if it is not done correctly you end up with adults that are uneducated, illiterate, can not get a job and end up on welfare. For example, I know of 2 people here in (Houston area) who let their high school students drop out of school and then told the school they were being homeschooled."

Molly: "If the drop-outs you mention are uneducated, illiterate and possible welfare candidates then homeschooling is surely not what brought them to that state if they've just now dropped out of public education. If they were getting out of an oppressive system, away from drugs and kids that have horrible attitudes(and many of them do), away from the apathy and getting on with their lives instead of wasting them locked up in school then more power to them! If they were dropping out to stay home and cook meth or crack then attending public school one more semester isn't going to save them. Staying in school would, however, expose even more kids to drugs and the violent lifestyle that goes with them.

The state does not have any *real* interest in my children. They don't care if my kids love music, titanium, walking sticks, or if one wants to be a jewelry designer at age 8, they appear to care only that they can read(maybe) at a 4th grade level by the time they graduate or be atheletically gifted in high school. Equating home education with welfare or illiteracy doesn't make sense either. I am quite sure there are many more publicly educated(maybe not graduates but attendees) welfare recipients than formerly homeschooled welfare recipients.

The reality is I care about what happens to my children, I want to protect my right to raise them. Now that I've had intrusions when I have done nothing illegal and even followed the directions given by the school in the first situation, I'm more than ready to do my part to educate the public. If people disagree with my opinion maybe they'll question, then maybe one day their grandchildren will be homeschooled and they'll recall how weird they used to think that was but now they can see what it is all about.

Public school, contrary to popular belief, is not the only game in town; there ARE other ways to get an education. Homeschooled kids can take the GED, take courses at a local community college, get a job or apprenticeship, start their own business, join the Peace Corps(I think they need the GED for this though) or any number of things. What if someone was ready at 15-16 to participate on a professional level with an orchestra but couldn't go to all the practices due to homework conflicts? Or wanted to go work with their dad fixing computers at age 14? Or undertake some other apprenticeship type education? Homeschooling affords kids a taylor-made education and takes just a fraction of the time that public education takes so homeschooled kids have more time to follow their interests."

Sherry also wrote: "I think it's better for them to ask you what is going on and double check the situation and let you educate them, then for them to assume nothing is wrong (how are they to know you are not a drug dealer or too drunk to get your kids to school-both common situations) and have children that are at home and doing nothing at all."

"First of all, my children do not belong to the state. It is not up to someone else to "let" me educate them. What makes me a good parent up until they turn 6 and then all the sudden I'm not qualified? What changes after that magical age(which seems to be getting lower and lower)? Second, How many kids go to public school every day and step over their passed out parent(s)?? I would be willing to bet that this is NOT a common situation among those who are homeschooled and probably not all that common among public schooled kids. Third, if I'm a drug dealer the cops are gonna know it, they don't need to use "checking up on homeschooling" as an excuse to investigate my meth lab, mostly because it would be illegal for them to do so. Check out Amendment IV of the US Constitution. Also, there is NO WAY that sheriff's officer would have known if I was a drug dealer, a prostitute, or making anthrax in my secret lab, er...I mean bathroom, or whatever just by talking to me for 10 minutes on my front porch. Both the drug dealer parent and the drunk parent scenarios might constitute child neglect or abuse situations, and would need investigated by CPS or local police but the fact that someone is educating their child(ren) in their private home is not an excuse for "officials" to come see if they are upstanding enough citizens. Parents of public schooled kids aren't subjected to that kind of scrutiny and would be OUTRAGED if it was even suggested!! Now I will admit that a truly abused or neglected homeschooled kid would be harder to come in contact with than one in the PSS just because these days teachers are trained to recognize the signs of abuse and those kids are seen on a regular basis. That doesn't mean that "homeschooling checkups" should be used to gain access to my kids' bodies for investigation. If there is suspicion of real abuse it should be investigated but homeschooling is NOT a form of abuse or a legitimate reason to suspect it."

****note: I do not have a meth lab or an anthrax machine, nor am I a prostitute!!LOL****

And Patsy wrote: "I know you believe in "unschooling" and I'm just curious...do you have a set curriculum? How do you know that your children are learning everything they need to know? Do you have assessment tests periodically? I mean sometimes even in life situations we don't learn everything we need to know...in my opinion. I'd be worried that my kids weren't getting it all and then when taking the SAT to get into college they'd do horrible."

"No, we don't use a set(I am assuming you mean traditional) curriculum. We have over 2,000 books at our disposal, plus the library if we can't find what we want here. Our books include college textbooks, other adult-level books, McGraw-Hill(and other) workbooks, Childcraft and Worldbook Encyclopedia, National Geographic(Smithsonian, Newsweek, Cat Fancy, and other) mags, story books, fact books, phonics-based readers, sight-word based readers, dictionaries, thesaurus, Eyewitness, Usborne, DK, and on and on and on.... I have six bookshelves that are bulging at the seams!! We also have access to the Internet so we look up things that interest us on a daily basis, and music, cable tv for educational shows, videos and so forth.

I know what they know because they are with me 24/7 or very nearly! My kids don't leave at 7am and come home at 4pm just to spend another 1-3 hours on homework. I am with them, *actively* with them actually, and I am able to facilitate or help with whatever problem/topic/question comes up. We spend lots of time discussing topics they bring up and some that I introduce.

Is it really necessary for ALL first graders to learn the parts of a flower? What if my child had a fixation on space exploration or reptiles at that age and I skipped teaching parts of a flower that year? They'd fail it on the test but would it mean they aren't capable of learning? What if they never learn the parts of a flower? Can you recall them? I know I have to think pretty hard about it and am probably missing some of them. People also have natural leanings, mine happens to be more toward creativity and understanding people than mathematics. Homeschooling allows for diversity in learning styles and developing strengths rather than the hurry up and "learn it for the test" thing that happens in PSS.

This article was written by a woman I met when we were in Austin, I agree with this 100%.The Case Against Goverment Regulation of Homeschooling

As far as tests go, I don't believe in standardized testing for homeschoolers unless there is a need for the parent or child to know exactly where they are grade-wise. Standardized tests usually follow a state mandated curriculum or course of study so for a homeschooler to take it seems pointless. I know at least a dozen un/homeschooled young teens going to colleges without having taken a GED or SAT in various parts of the country, some as young as 14 years of age. Colleges are more and more accepting of homeschoolers and most homeschoolers are scoring way up there on their SATs anyway. Here is an article about SATs and homeschoolers.

Anyway, thanks for the questions yall, it has really helped me be able to verbalize and focus my thoughts on various arguments."