Hello Friends,
I have some things on my heart to share in light of recent news headlines featuring the Turpin Family "House of Torture" stories. Sadly many are using this horrendous story to try to clamp down on homeschoolers and create laws to hinder the home education freedoms we have enjoyed over the past many years.
I have a lot of thoughts concerning all of this, but my first point is to state that this creepy story is NOT representative of most homeschool families! I have been involved in homeschooling for almost forty years both as a homeschool student and now as a homeschooling Mama to seven. I know that most homeschooling parents are making great sacrifices to home educate their students and truly have the best interest of each of their children in mind.
Last year I published a book titled
Legacy Reflections of a Homeschooled, Homeschooling Mama, and one of my objectives was to state how grateful I am for the legacy of faith my parents gave to me through the means of home education. In addition, I am seeking to share the many blessings I received through home education. I truly believe that the Lord used my time growing up in the classroom of my home to shape me for His kingdom purposes.
Yes, there are always those rare, exceptions to the rule, but I really want to make clear that this Turpin family case is a rare tragedy and not the norm in the homeschooling movement.
Back in the eighties my family was among many others who fought for homeschool freedoms. I remember the day my family traveled to Austin, TX to stand with a huge number of homeschool families who were there to state that they wanted freedoms to home educate their children without government interference. By God's grace great freedoms were won in Texas, however, those freedoms are now at risk again. As you probably know, there are liberal activists who are using this Turpin family case to try to motivate government to clamp down on our homeschool liberties. Dear parents, now is the time to stand up, be aware of what is happening, do your part, and fight for the preservation of the established freedoms we have enjoyed for many years. Freedom always comes with a price, and I cannot state it enough that the homeschool freedoms we now enjoy are at risk. We must not be apathetic here. If we sit back and let these activists have a field day with this Turpin case then we are at risk of being subjected to physical checks/examinations of our children, home inspections, and overall the government being too involved in our business.
I am certain that most of you reading this know the headlines about the Turpin case, but I am going to do a re-cap here unless anyone has missed any of these details. Earlier in January thirteen children/adult children were found in a California home having been subjected to years of torture and abuse. The family "homeschooled" which is why there is a movement of people trying to create new laws that will threaten homeschool freedoms. According to the Washington Post, A neighbor was surprised to meet a Turpin son, a man in his mid twenties, who she said looked fifteen." These Turpin young adults and children were severely malnourished and a twenty-nine year old daughter/victim only weighed eighty-nine pounds. TIME magazine described the Turpin home as a "Torture Chamber." Also, "Authorities said the children, for reasons still unclear, were starved for years and held capture in a dirty, smelly house in Parris, CA. If they misbehaved, they were tied to their beds as punishment - first a rope and later chains and padlocks - and were kept from using the bathroom."
According to the LA Times the children had been "Neglected for years in ways so extreme that the siblings are severely malnourished and some show signs of cognitive impairment and nerve damage."
The children were found earlier in January and are now be evaluated and treated while their parents, "Have been barred from contacting the children for the next three years, including by phone or electronically. They are prohibited from being within one hundred yards away from their children and are being held on a twelve million dollar bail."
One thing the children were allowed to do in their captivity was to write in journals, and so investigators are going through their journals to try to find out what was going on behind the walls of the Turpin home. On and on the stories go, and likely more is still to be revealed.
This is just sick! This is not homeschooling. I make my point again that this is NOT representative of most homeschool families. This is not home-education in any way, shape or form. This is abuse, this is criminal activity, this is anything but home education.
Because of this morbid story there are an astounding number of articles all over the internet stating that tougher laws, requirements, and inspections should be required for people to homeschool their children. One such article I found is from the News Republic. The name of the article is, "The Turpins Won't Be the Last, How Lax Homeschooling Laws Protect Child Abusers." Without taking the time to go deep into the article, the point of it is that lax homeschool laws enable abusive parents.
Now I just want to stop right there and ask what about all the abusive parents who send their children to state schools everyday? If you do a statistical study you will find that FAR more students are abused in state school homes than in private homeschools. For that matter there are also stories of kids being abused in christian, private schools. Abuse is going to be found in every kind of school, every kind of home, every kind of church, and every kind of religious persuasion. It is important, however, to look at statistics and realize that most homeschools are not abusive! Also, a correlation does not mean a causation. Yes, there was a correlation to "homeschooling" in this Turpin family case but not a causation. I believe had David and Louise Turpin sent their children to government schools then there would have been abuse going on at home in the evenings. The problem here is not home education or the lack thereof but rather a case of abusive parenting. This is a parenting issue not a homeschool issue!
Going back to my own upbringing, as a homeschool student, I NEVER knew any homeschool families where anything like this was going on. You want to know something else? Almost forty years later I still do not know any homeschool families abusing their children. I have known many, many homeschool families over the span of almost four decades, and never once have I ever heard that any of these families were abusive to their children. Again, I encourage you to think about the fact that abuse happens far more frequently in families who send their children to state schools. What about all the children in the slums who are living with drug and alcohol addicted parents? What do you think their home life is like? So are we also going to send CPS workers to do yearly investigations in all the homes of children attending public schools?
In addition, what about families who hold to different religious beliefs and the fathers who have been known to torture young adults who have left the family's religion and converted to Christianity? To be self-consistent do we need to send CPS inspectors to do home checks in every home that holds to those beliefs?
What about the fact that there have been some children abused in churches? Do we now need to have CPS get involved in annual inspections inside every church? What about the stories of priests in the Catholic church abusing children? Need CPS do regular investigations in every Catholic Church?
Furthermore, what about the recent stories coming out about the gymnastics coach in Michigan who has abused many, many girls through the years? Do we now invite CPS to make regular visits and subject every teacher and coach to investigations? Do we want to live in police states where the state has totalitarian control over every aspect of our lives?
My point here is that we cannot just single out the homeschooling community because of one tragic case and punish all home educating parents, cracking down on their freedoms, inviting CPS into every homeschool home for physical and emotional checks on the children, and who knows what else? This is not at all fair and could really threaten our rights to home educate our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Would you feel comfortable with a CPS investigator knocking on your door and asking to interview each of your children while "looking for a problem in your home?" Some of these investigators would be out to "find' a problem even if no problem exists. What about if your house just doesn't happen to be quite squeaky clean "enough" that particular day? Again, the answer is NOT to punish and regulate all homeschool families because of a rare case of abuse. The answer IS to rightly punish the offenders and bring them to justice. Now is the time for Christian, homeschooling parents to be vigilant, prayerful, discerning, and active to speak up for freedom.
Matt Walsh chimed in on this with some good things to say, "The treatment suffered by the Turpin children is horrendous and depraved, but it is an anomaly among home educators. It's not as though thousands upon thousands of homeschool parents have their starving, unwashed kids chained to a bedpost. On the other hand, the sexual abuse problem in public school is a verified national crisis - 100 times worse according to life site news, than it ever was in the Catholic Church." Walsh goes on to point out that, "Public schools can also often be nests of drug and gang activity, with 27% of public school kids attending schools that are gang and drug infected." He nailed it when he said, "There is not any evidence that homeschool is more dangerous for a child than public school. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that the opposite is the case. So, instead of asking the government to take charge of our families, perhaps we should ask it to take charge of its own affairs. To this point, it has not shown itself capable of doing even that much."
A couple of years ago a helpful study was done called the Gen2 Survey that looked at and did statistical comparisons on millennials who were homeschooled, attended Christian school, and those who were educated in state schools. This study did statistical studies comparing these three groups, and in the category of how likely to be abused, the break down turned out that sixteen percent reported abuse from public school, fifteen percent from private, Christian schools, and only six percent reported abuse from homeschools. You can see that statistically abuse is much lower in homeschool settings. This makes good sense when you consider that when parents decides to home educate their children they are choosing to make many sacrifices to carry out this plan. Most parents who don't care would never choose home education. Typically home educating parents are intentional, loving, dedicated, and willing to make many sacrifices so that their children can be taught at home. This is NOT to say that parents who choose other paths do not love their children; I am not saying that at all. What I am saying is that the norm is that homeschooling parents are choosing a path that requires great sacrifice and that they care very much about the needs their children. Yes, there are always the exceptions to the norm (The Turpins) but this is a bizarre exception. All homeschool families should not be subjected to home checks, medical checks, and more because of a crazy exception.
Now going back to the history of homeschooling, and the pioneering parents who have already fought the brave fight for freedom, I want to point out the good work of HSLDA throughout the years. Here is a write up I found about the purpose and history of the Home School Legal Defense Association. "HSLDA was founded by Michael Farris in 1983 for the purpose of defending homeschooling families. At the time, homeschooling was not specifically legal in most of the states of the U.S. under compulsory education laws. Those who practiced homeschooling were often harassed or prosecuted. Through a combination of legal action and legislative lobbying, HSLDA played a large part in the legalization of homeschooling throughout the U.S.
Homeschool liberty is dear to my heart, because my family was one of the families who fought to secure the freedoms we now enjoy. I encourage you to look into HSLDA
https://hslda.org and also to look at Heritage Defense which we use as a legal protection for our homeschool.
http://www.heritagedefense.org
At this point I just want to close the post with going back to the why and the vision of home education. Here is a quote that I love from my book. It succinctly summarizes much of what I feel I received through the home discipleship/home education model my parents chose for my upbringing. I am thankful for my legacy and the freedom I have had thus far to carry on this legacy with my own seven children.
Here is a snippet from a chapter in my book that I want to share with you: "I am furthermore grateful that I have the freedom to educate my own children at home where we are learning that history is His Story, that Science proclaims the works of a wonderful Creator, that music is a way we can glorify our Lord, that reading enables us to read the very words of God, and so forth. In all of our studies, we are trying to paint a picture of divine providence and the sovereignty of God. We are trying to instill a Biblical worldview so that our children can see all of life through the lens of God, His word, and His ways."
Lastly, THSC has been on the alert working for homeschool freedoms for Texans for many years. I have been hearing that they are seeking to mobilize homeschooling families to be prepared to fight the battle should it begin to rage. Right now they are seeking to inform families of how they can be proactive and do their part to preserve the freedoms my parents and many others fought to obtain. Here is a link to look at how THSC is proceeding:
https://www.thsc.org/events/operation-mobilize/
In closing, let me remind us again that freedom comes at a cost and it is worth preserving. May we proceed ahead with watchfulness, prayer, and great vision for the future.
