I’ve been putting off writing about the difficult topic of child abuse. My time is at a premium right now. Abuse is a difficult topic. And it isn’t a life learning topic. But some people keep trying to make it one.  So I have posted my thoughts and some background on my personal blog.

What finally pushed me to write about this is a concern that the homeschooling situation in Britain may be crossing the ocean. The unfounded accusation of child abuse has been used there by the government to create draconian and paternalistic regulations for homeschooling.  And I’m wondering if that could happen in North America. When my family was unschooling in the 1970s and 80, we were accused of abusive behavior by people who hadn’t bothered to understand our lifestyle. And that is still too common.

Attitudes among unschoolers vary widely in regards to government participation in their lives. But I don’t believe home inspections and the like are a viable solution to the child abuse issue. Nor do they ensure quality learning. Nor are they acceptable in terms of human rights.

I am not allowed to walk into my local school and interview a student for hours about the quality of her treatment and education in that school. Nor should school or welfare authorities be allowed into the homes of home-educating families for that purpose.

And you can be sure that schools wouldn’t agree to having the quality of their instruction measured against some definition of “satisfactory,” “equivalent” or other standard concocted to judge home-based educators. And if they did, would all those who didn’t meet the standards be kicked out of school and ordered to learn at home?

It’s long past time that home-educating families got the respect they’re due – as a legitimate minority group and as people pointing the way to a more enriching educational experience and to positive social change. The time for discrimination and allusions to abuse is over.