I wrote an article on homeschooling for this week’s issue of the Pacific Sun. I grew up in a church basement school and have been around homeschoolers all my life, so I was surprised to learn that a. a lot of people actively dislike homeschooling, and b. homeschoolers are very protective of what they do, to the point that it was difficult to get people to talk to me. Much of what I found out when I did talk to them surprised me. Excerpt:
Ever since homeschooling came under fire last February, Marin homeschoolers have been nervous. A ruling from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal in a case looking into abuse in a homeschooling family stated that parents must have teaching credentials to educate their kids, something that has never been required before.
“When that court case came down, people freaked out,” says Tamara Markwick, a homeschooler living in San Rafael. “It seemed like the majority of the way people are homeschooling might become illegal. People didn’t want to talk to the press and have their name out there. They didn’t want to say something that could come back and bite them.”