Homeschooling: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

our main story tonight concerns school for some it's the place to make lifelong friends and enjoy first crushes while for others now I'm not naming names it's not it's different specifically we're going to talk about homeschooling during the pandemic many parents were suddenly forced to do it and while some struggled others like this family absolutely thrived a b c d e f g h i j k a l m o p q r s t u v w x y and z now you know your ABC that is clearly excellent but it's also it is also a pretty mean way to make other parents look like total because that is significantly better than anything I did with my kids during the pandemic it was much less singing certified alphabet bangers are much more hiding in the closet praying they would not find me also quick shout out to the baby on the counter living her best life she has no idea what's going on but yet there she is in the center of it all like Mariah Carey on a New Year's broadcast now now that family like many eventually sent their kids back to school but for some homeschooling isn't just a pandemic era necessity it's a way of life and you may have heard a stereotype of homeschoolers being Christian conservatives who object to what kids learn in public school environments and I admit those people do exist take this man who offers this pretty shaky rationalization for pulling his kid out of school I think the type of content on what they're teaching about sex or anal sex that my third grade daughter should not be in a classroom where a teacher or someone else is teaching her about that and that was your experience in school I thre through friends in other spots that had been kids at those ages cuz mine was only in first grade when we pulled them well that sounds like total although I guess I do basically agree with him there things that are definitely not happening should continue not to happen but the truth is the homeschooling Community is much broader than just right-wing parents afraid of hypothetical third grade Lube demonstrations by one estimate there are now around 2 million children being homeschooled in this country and parents can choose that for all sorts of reasons maybe their kids have social or health problems or disabilities that aren't being accommodated maybe they families with legitimate fears about school safety or who are in the military and move around a lot and there's also a growing number of black parents opting to Hom School due to whitewash curriculums and zero tolerance policies in schools that disproportionately criminalize their kids at an early age so there are lots of reasons to do it and the fact is for some kids getting to be homeschooled can be genuinely transformative at 15 Victoria asked her mom Bernita to take her out of Detroit schools she says she was being bullied relentlessly for her appearance and it didn't seem like her administrators cared it made me not want to ask questions you know or not want to ask specific questions because I'm like am I like they going to call me dumb when you transitioned to homeschooling how did you start to feel about yourself um I felt more confident it was just like a kind of like a sunshine like the clouds opening a little bit that's great that is very nice and I know that's not something you usually hear me say after a clip on this show it's usually a variation of that's horrible that's heartbreaking or shut the up you Baby lawn DS so frankly this this is a welcome change of pace the point is the ceiling of how good homeschooling can be is admittedly very high but the flaw of how bad it can get is basically non-existent because to an extent that you may not realize in many parts of the country homeschooling is essentially unregulated which can result in enormous damage so given that tonight let's take a look at homeschooling and let's start with the fact there is a lot that we don't know about homeschooled kids from exactly how many there are to what they are learning when I said there are around two million of them the reason that's an estimate is that depending on the state homeschool families might not have to report what they are doing at all in these 26 States parents simply have to file a notice once a year with officials to let them know that they are homeschooling their child in these 13 they only have to file a notice once with no requirement to check in ever again and in the remaining 11 they don't have to notify by anyone at all and when it comes to the education itself filing a notice is typically where supervision stops as in Most states there is no oversight and no evaluation by anyone of the academic program and of students progress and homeschooling Advocates will tell you that that is not a concern and the parents will simply come up with all sorts of innovative ways to teach their kids here is one parent enthusiastically explaining how he taught his kids science I can't tell you how many times um you know in my home in our kitchen table we've dissected you know sheep eyeballs or frogs uh kitchen kitchens are great labs for this kind of thing where did somebody where did somebody get a sheep eyeball well John you can just Google sheep eyeball for homeschoolers lot of people absolutely okay first are kitchens the best lab for this kind of thing I think probably labs are the best lab for this kind of thing I'm just like maybe don't go dissecting sheep eyeballs in the same place where you cut olives for salad also do not Google sheep eyeballs despite what that man just said I did it and I'm not even going to show you the result un blurred because it is too nauseating suffice to say it looks like what would happen if an oyster had a butthole and while that man was clearly willing to go to impressive lengths for atome science lessons not everyone has the time or the resources to do to develop a curriculum from scratch that is why there are big publishers who offer materials specifically tailored to homeschoolers and much of that market is dominated by these three Christian textbook Publishers who promise learning through a Biblical filter and look it is absolutely a parents right to educate their child with religion if they so choose but the quality of some of these books can be troubling for instance one current ABCA history book says that the beginning of the 20th century witnessed a cultural breakdown that threatened to destroy the very roots of Western Civilization the cause of this dissolution was an idea or philosophy known as liberalism meanwhile a workbook from AC celebrates the confederate general Robert E le as a devoted Christian who practiced his Christianity in all his dealings with others and a science book from Bob Jones University claims that biblical and scientific evidence tends to support the idea that men and dinosaurs existed at the same time and if you're wondering what that would look like AC actually had a workbook featuring this rendering implying that not only only did men and dinosaurs exist at the same time but they were totally cool with each other hey Hank great tucked in shirt do you see that dinosaur over there sure do Bob love those jeans by the way should we run no way these dinos are chill let's just keep whacking these leaves with that one sword knife that you brought but while all of that is pretty troubling the truth is in many states the rules and oversight can be so LAX parents don't ultimately have to teach their kids anything at all just watch as this former homeschool student breaks down her daily schedule this is my actual list of assignments we've got the date at the top I would have been 12 first we've got classical music which was just turning on classical music in the morning so that everyone could hear it we've got Bible listening we've got handwriting and math that's fairly normal we've got memorizing the Bible we've got memorizing poetry uh the Poetry was mostly hymns we've got exercise that's good it was is usually just walking around the block um and then the whole entire rest of the list is chores and cleaning tasks it's true most of her lessons just involve chores and just look at that list that is a lot of cleaning demands who was her parent this guy I mean don't get me wrong he's an absolute zad would will and I'll take seconds but as hot as he makes doing CHS seem it's not an adequate alternative to education is it although I will say even that is a preferable alternative to the single worst homeschool curriculum that we found whose creators excitedly promoted it on a podcast we are so deeply invested into making sure that that child becomes a wonderful Nazi and homeschooling we're going to get that done well that is terrifying you never want to hear a mother lovingly utter the sentence my kids are wonderful Nazi outside of maybe if they're praising their son's performan as Ral in The Sound of Music and even then just say wonderful Rolph what's wrong with you that woman and her husband actually launched their own online community dissident homeschool in 2021 after she had a quote rough time finding Nazi approved School material for her homeschool children and you know what good that probably shouldn't be an easy Google in fact if you search for that it should probably auto correct to did you mean how do I take myself to jail at one point distant homeschool had nearly 2500 subscribers and included ideas like handwriting exercises consisting of writing out quotes from Adolf Hitler which I think we can all agree is just appalling handwriting exercises that is just cruel they should be working on their keyboard skills through game like Mavis Beacon teaches the final solution although not that don't actually do that that is awful the channel also posted tips ensuring that their parents were in full compliance with the law so that the state wouldn't interfere but as you have already seen in Most states they don't have much to worry about there because when it comes to homeschooling basically anything goes so how the is that the case well in large part it's thanks to a very powerful homeschooling Lobby whose most most prominent player is The Homeschool legal defense Association or hsld da and here is where I will concede some ground because it grew out an environment that was in many places overly restrictive of homeschooling with some states and local school districts effectively Banning it entirely in Texas in the early 1980s homeschooling families were actually prosecuted but a turning point came after several Texas families f a class action suit against their school districts and ultimately won and around that same time time the hsld was formed with the aim of expanding the rights of homeschoolers in every state and from the very beginning it had a strong Evangelical conservative Outlook its founding president and chairman Michael Farris has referred to Public Schools as a Godless monstrosity and here he is back in 2004 speaking to the Christian Coalition and describing his long-term hopes for the Next Generation today it is not Preposterous to recognize what's going on the promotion of homosexuality to promotion of other kinds of things that you heard from Walter Jones and you've heard many other times is a deplorable reality that we cannot countenance I can't wait for the day when our young people Vanquish the Enemy by a 5 to four vote reversing Row versus Wade and uh where we Vanquish the the Spectre of same-sex marriage that's the the standard of Victory okay there is a lot that is hard to take In that clip that that's his wish list that he's already gotten half of it and that he's saying Vanquish the enemy despite looking less like a warrior and more like your tax accountant's tax accountant's assistant over the years the hsld DA has lobbied extensively from a hard-right perspective on issues that have nothing to do with homeschooling opposing everything from vaccine mandates to same-sex marriage but it speaks to how significant a force it is that even some parents who are uneasy with its political leanings feel that they have no choice but to be members here is one mom who started a homeschooling group to offer an alternative to what she saw as a whitewashed curriculum talking about her relationship to the hsld whenever there's a threat in any particular state to their right to homeschool oh you will see us come together you know it may not we're not going to stay together but we will band up because we all desperately need our right to homeschool and that's the nuanced aspect of being in The Homeschool world the people that you have to work with in order to maintain what you hold dear are also the people who Crush you it's true the hsld da have made themselves so powerful many parents keep working with them even if they don't agree with everything they stand for it's a dilemma otherwise known as the Tom Cruz conundrum on the one hand a billion dollars at the box office on the other a billion-year contract to an alien Mafia It's Tricky right It's Tricky what's a bunch of young Hots to do plus for what is worth the hsld da much like Tom Cruz will probably never die as a lobbying group it's been astonishingly successful in four decades its efforts have be credited with rolling back existing laws governing homeschooling in state after State and the argument that it will always make against any regulation is you're just punishing all the parents doing things right to address a handful who are doing it wrong and in theory Sure but when you've got some parents running The Homeschool Institute of dishwashing and others running Lil Nazis R Us it seems maybe the Reigns have gotten a little loose and the lack of Regulation here has serious consequences and not just regarding quality of education and fair warning this is where this story gets quite a bit darker more than two million children are being homeschooled in the US many of them living in states that have little or no regulations making it easy for abusive parents to hide behind the system these are the faces of just some of the homeschooled children who've died as a result of abuse and neglect Susanna grubs was homeschooled in Missouri she tells us the discipline she received was anything but gentle I think that in a lot of ways me and my siblings totally fell through the cracks because I mean with my mom's disciplinary techniques and my mom's educational look like it's really terrible that it it has happened and it keeps happening and nobody wants to stop it because parental rights are so Paramount to anything else in this country exactly and that is massively dangerous because deregulating homeschooling doesn't just eliminate safeguards against parents who are bad teachers it also eliminates them against parents who are bad people for all the hsld DA's talk of parental rights it's worth remembering Elon Musk is a parent OJ Simpson is a parent Darth Vader is such a parent he made it part of his fancy name change the point is having a child does not inherently make you virtuous and one of the key problems here is child welfare laws were written before homeschooling was legal in all 50 states so they rely heavily on the premise that a child is going to be in school and seen by other adults as this da explains a lot of child abuse gets reported through our schools teachers and school administrators are mandated reporters so you know if a child comes to school with bruises or emaciated that is a very common way that it gets reported right because the fact is teachers serve multiple functions at school in addition to education they watch out for signs of abuse they chaperone school events and they pretend not to know why Ellie won't sit next to Rachel Rachel won't sit next to Kelsey Kelsey's not talking to Ethan even though Ethan's having a joint birthday party with Kelsey's brother Bryce who just happens to be Rachel's boyfriend since last period and they do all of that while also trying to teach long division teachers are superheroes who should make a million dollar a year so you can probably see the fact that it is possible to pull a kid out of school with no questions asked or follow-ups allowed could easily be exploited by abusive parents especially as Most states don't even screen homeschooled parents for red flags 48 states have no background check process for parents who choose to homeschool in fact even if you have a prior conviction of a crime against a child you can homeschool them a study done in Connecticut found that of the 380 students withdrawn in six districts to be homeschooled 138 lived in families that were the subject of at least one prior report of suspected abuse or neglect and yet despite this at every turn the hslda has vigorously fought efforts to put any guard rails in place here was their then president in 2015 explaining why they fight all regulations even ones explicitly designed to prevent child abuse child abuse is a parental issue isn't it any child whether they be a non homeschooled child or parent where they be a homeschooled parent they can abuse their children they have the potential to do it so why should we for just a few why why should we for just a few invade all of the other innocent parents that's prior restraint it's unconstitutional it's unamerican are there are there some categories of regulations around homeschooling that you would support that you don't think of as an invasion or a takeover no not any okay it is bad enough that he's arguing for a total lack of Regulation there but the fact that he openly licks the corners of his mouth before doing so somehow makes it worse it looks like a cat went to a zar machine and made a wish to be Andy Griffith the hslda views any oversight whatsoever as an attack even offering members a 24-hour hotline in case of a visit from the state in fact here is the sister of that woman you saw earlier explaining how they would practice what to do if Child Protective Services showed up on their doorstep the parent would lock the front door would call The Homeschool legal defense Association on the phone hand the phone out the kitchen window and us kids were supposed to hide in the basement we actually did drills on this stuff folks we did drills in case someone ever decided to check in on our well-being holy that is dark drills are meant for practicing what to do to avoid getting hurt not to avoid getting help it's why fire alarms say pull here in case of emergency and not snitches get stitches and the thing is because of its committed membership the hslda has the power to stop any kind of oversight in its tracks take ry's law named after an 8-year-old girl in West Virginia whose father pulled her out of school after he was reported for abuse she died of neglect only a few weeks later now eventually legislators proposed a law that would prevent parents from withdrawing a child from school when there is a pending child abuse or neglect investigation or when a parent has been convicted of domestic violence child abuse or neglect and it seems like that law would be easy to get pass right but the legislator who proposed it found out not so much there are groups I want to say there like this homeschool defense fund group that came out against Ra's law the hsda that's it and there were quotes about how awful this bill was and it's an attack on homeschooling and you know they want to move the the goalpost that's what you do in politics but always thought maybe protecting children you wouldn't actually go about that right and that seems pretty reasonable and if the hsld da thinks trying to protect kids from being taken out of school by people convicted of child abuse is an attack on homeschooling they're saying quite a bit about what they believe homeschooling to be if Chile's responded to a health inspector writing their workers up for pissing in the skillet quo with this is an attack on everything Chile stands for don't punish the majority of our staff for the minority who piss and sh it in our Presidente Margaritas you'd have some questions about what Chile thinks it stands for and for the record that man's Bill never passed and that story has been repeated in state after state after State as one legislative Aid who has gone up against the hsld DA has said I've never seen a Lobby more powerful and scary and a legislator in Arkansas who Tangled with them says they told me the only legislation they wanted was what Alaska had which was nothing at a certain point it's start to feel like the hsld da is basically the homeschooling equivalent of the NRA an extremely powerful organization that while it represents a large number of people pursues an outermost Fringe version of their agenda so where do we go from here well in a perfect world we'd make sure that homeschool kids were both safe and actually receiving a functional education and there are smaller organizations like this one pushing for those sort of changes but at the bearest minimum we could require in all 50 states to register a child as homeschooled so there's at least a record that they exist that is how low the bar is here at the Earth's core which I'm sure according to at least one homeschooling textbook is somewhere between soil and the fiery bowels of hell but beyond that we could pass some basic child safety protections to ensure parents can't pull their kids out of school to escape scrutiny for abuse a few years ago to its credit Georgia passed a law that requires parents who who pull kids out of school for no reason to send documentation within 45 days that they are homeschooling their child or proof of attendance at another school if they don't do that they're subject to a follow-up from the state and even this Republican Georgia State Rep acknowledges that it was needed if the people in your world that you believe are are most protective of you are are torturing you or abusing you who's going to who's going to look out for you I mean I don't you know I don't like government intervention and a lot of things but I don't you know the government's the only person I know of that can intervene in this kind of case to to save a child yeah he's right he's just completely right and agreeing with a staunch Republican Georgia State Rep wasn't something I had on my 2023 bingo card I I've almost got a full Bingo by the way I'm just waiting on you know who to you know what and to be clear I share his ambivalence about government intervention here I understand that involving social services and the government in people's personal situations poses a risk R especially to those who aren't wealthy and who aren't white it's not like I love the idea of giving The State Room to poke around in people's lives or that I think our child protective services system is Flawless no notes we almost definitely going to be doing a main story on CPS one day but it does seem like giving parents a get out of all scrutiny free no questions ask card just isn't the answer here because being a parent doesn't automatically make someone moral and being with a parent doesn't aut atically make a child safe and the truth is a few extra security measures would not hurt the many parents who homeschool their children responsibly but they definitely Safeguard against those who use personal Liberty as an excuse to neglect or harm their kids the H LDA can say all that it wants that it doesn't support Nazis or child abusers but the fact is the policies that it relentlessly pushes for allow them to thrive and basic reforms here just shouldn't be remotely controversial because after all this is about child welfare this isn't rocket science it's not even home sheep eye dissection don't Google it by the way I cannot emphasize that enough all of this is just basic common sense

Channel: LastWeekTonight

Views: 6,373,353

Keywords:

Id: lzsZP9o7SlI

Length: 24min 25sec (1465 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 09 2023