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I was homeschooled from the 1st through 12th grades and never once desired to go to the government schools. At the time, I couldn’t imagine being confined to what looked like a prison system — bells telling me where to go, cutting short the time I wanted to spend on certain subjects; standing in line to have food dumped on a tray for me to eat; wearing the same clothes as everyone else; and truant officers hunting me down if I went rogue! None of that appealed to me. I was very happy with the freedom that homeschooling provided. Not...

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike came to the United States in 2008 seeking political asylum. They fled their German homeland in the face of religious persecution for homeschooling their children. They wanted to live in a country where they could raise their children in accordance with their Christian beliefs. The Romeikes were initially given asylum, but the Obama administration objected – claiming that German laws that outlaw homeschooling do not constitute persecution.

ORLANDO, Fla. - Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz signed a pledge to kill Common Core if elected.Cruz was the only one of 14 Republican presidential primary candidates at the Florida Sunshine Summit - a conservative rally put on by the state's Republican Party - to vow, in writing, to oppose any federal efforts to mandate, impose or influence standards assessments or curriculum across the country, Sunshine State News reports."As the Republican Party of Florida begins its Sunshine Summit, Senator Cruz's pledge provides needed leadership on the critical issue of education that so impacts the many residents and students of the State...

A number of homeschool parents in Florida have been ordered by a public school district to register their children in classes within three days or face “criminal prosecution” under state law. A meeting within the next week likely will determine whether school officials will face a lawsuit in response to the threat. The issue is being addressed by the Home School Legal Defense Association, which said its members in the Santa Rosa County School District received letters demanding information that parents are not required to provide under state law. The information included Social Security number, race and grade level. The...

Laura McIntyre began educating her nine children more than a decade ago inside a vacant office at an El Paso motorcycle dealership she ran with her husband and other relatives. Now the family is embroiled in a legal battle the Texas Supreme Court hears next week that could have broad implications on the nation's booming home-school ranks. The McIntyres are accused of failing to teach their children educational basics because they were waiting to be transported to heaven with the second coming of Jesus Christ. At issue: Where do religious liberty and parental rights to educate one's own children stop...

I just need general advice and links to resources on home schooling. I'm finding the topic a little daunting because I don't know where to begin. My kid is bright and being bullied relentlessly at school. Not by just the kids, but also staff. Admin do nothing because of nepotism, etc. He's 8th grade level, now. I'll leave this here and catch up later to replies. I know there are many FReepers here who home school and would appreciate feedback. I just don't know where to begin and I'm terribly disorganized. I'll make dinner and BBL. Thanks!

Nothing really changed after a New Jersey state social worker banged on Christopher and Nicole Zimmer’s front door, and yet everything was different. Over the next two hours, the social worker quizzed their 15-year-old son, Chris, including questions on whether his parents fought or did drugs. She wanted to see his homeschool curriculum. She wanted to inspect their firearms. She told the Zimmers to sign papers agreeing to turn over their son’s medical records. And then she left, and the Zimmers never saw her again. But they can’t let it go. They can’t erase the memory of what it felt...

The left-leaning nonprofit ProPublica recently ran an article on home schooling that opened by relating an anecdote from 2003. It tells of a 19-year-old man in New Jersey who weighed just 45 pounds and was found rummaging through a neighbor’s garbage. The explanation for how such a thing could happen is delivered by a state politician who says, “I was told it was because he was homeschooled.” The story, co-published on the liberal Slate.com, then quotes Ellen Heinitz, who is the legislative director for a Democratic state representative from Detroit, about her experience with a national homeschooling lobbying group called...

Many public primary and secondary schools are dangerous places. The Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics show that in 2012, there were about 749,200 violent assaults on students. In the 2011-12 academic year, there were a record 209,800 primary- and secondary-school teachers who reported being physically attacked by a student. Nationally, an average of 1,175 teachers and staff were physically attacked, including being knocked out, each day of that school year. In Baltimore, each school day in 2010, an average of four teachers and staff were assaulted. Each year, roughly...

LONDON, August 8, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – A former beauty queen now working as a sexologist is turning heads in Britain after her just-aired TV special, Sex in Class, featured her leading a group of Lancashire teens in rewriting a script for a porn movie. For the program, Goedele Liekens went into homes as well as classrooms to talk sex with parents and their offspring. Liekens took 13 mid-teens, girls and boys, from Hollins Technology College, through a crash course in sex, with students at one point attempting to make art inspired by female reproductive organs. The TV special was intended to promote the idea...

strong>Angela Wade’s children hadn’t reached school age yet, so she had given little thought to where, or how, they’d be educated. But from the moment she set foot in her local public school—to vote on Election Day—she knew that she wouldn’t be sending her kids there. It wasn’t that the academics weren’t up to snuff or that the Astoria, Queens, elementary school suffered from a bad reputation. But what she saw in the hallways and on the cafeteria walls surprised this former New York City public school teacher with an education degree from NYU. “There were licensed characters painted on...

The National Education Association has launched an attack on the practice of homeschooling, and one leading education expert is not taking it lying down. “The National Education Association’s radical attacks on constitutionally protected liberties and homeschooling families in particular are outrageous and should be vehemently denounced by every real educator and every real American,” internationalist journalist and educator Alex Newman declared. The NEA’s 2014-2015 resolution on homeschooling begins like this: “The National Education Association believes that home schooling programs based on parental choice cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience.” Freelance writer Patrice Lewis, who homeschools her children,...

It all started with an unwanted knock on the door by a government worker and it’s being answered with a $60 million lawsuit. A New Jersey family is suing the state child-protection agency after it allegedly sent a caseworker to their home to interrogate them on everything from their son’s homeschool education to questions about vaccines and guns in the house. Christopher Zimmer and his wife Nicole of Belvidere filed a civil rights complaint in April in U.S. District Court in Trenton alleging “unlawful and unconstitutional home intrusion.” “I won’t forget that morning for a long, long time,” said Christopher...

BELVIDERE—A Warren County family is suing the state's Division of Child Protection and Permanency for alleged unconstitutional home intrusion and civil rights violations. Christopher Zimmer and his wife Nicole, of Belvidere, filed a civil rights complaint in United States District Court in Trenton yesterday against DCP&P, a DCP&P supervisor and one of its case workers for an alleged "unlawful and unconstitutional home intrusion of their home." "I won't forget that morning for a long, long time," said Mr. Zimmer, thinking back to a Tuesday morning in January that began with a caseworker pounding on their door. .... Mr. Zimmer said...

In the wake of the tragic murders of two Michigan children whose mother tortured them before stuffing them into the family’s freezer, lawmakers are calling for more stringent regulation of homeschooling in the state. The proposed legislation from state Rep. Stephanie Chang, a Detroit Democrat, would require homeschooled children to be inspected twice per year by a licensed social worker or law enforcement officer. The bill would also require homeschooling parents to register their children — like dogs or sex offenders — with the superintendent of the school district in which they reside. Michigan is one of eleven states that...

(WXYZ) - A new homeschool bill was introduced this morning after a young brother and sister were found dead in their mother's freezer last month. If passed it would require every child being homeschooled to be registered with their school district. The schooling would be able to take place at any appropriate location. "I believe this bill not only will have a part in monitoring children's education. ..in some cases, save lives," said Stephen Berry and Stoni Blair's grandfather John Blair. John was standing with family members and state and local leaders outside of the Spirit of Detroit Statue at...

April 10, 2015 (BreakPoint.org) -- Already this year, we’ve seen a lot of evil: suicide bombings, the attacks in Paris, religious persecution, Boko Haram and ISIS. These have all outraged the world—and rightly so. But here’s a question worth pondering: will our kids be able to recognize evil when they see it? Do they even believe in moral facts?Well, that’s the question one educator asked recently in The New York Times after making a surprising discovery about what his child was learning in school.Justin McBrayer, an associate professor of ethics at Fort Lewis College, says he couldn’t figure out why...

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA), and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) after a Town Hall Panel Discussion hosted by Steve Deace at the NICHE Homeschool Iowa Capitol Day at the Holiday Inn Des Moines-Airport/Conference Center in Des Moines on Thursday, Apr. 9, 2015.DES MOINES — The debate over religious liberty in Indiana spilled over into Iowa Thursday as four presidential hopefuls pledged to defend the rights of parents who home-school their children to worship as they choose and educate their children as they wish. Religious liberty is the “civil rights issue of...

The superintendent of the Watchung Hills Regional High School District in New Jersey has confirmed that she sent an email to fellow superintendents Tuesday about her concern that education publishing giant Pearson is “monitoring” children’s social media accounts for possible leaks about the Common Core-aligned PARCC tests.

Source: TopMastersInEducation.com