A Harvard law professor said that homeschooling is a risk for schoolchildren and suggested to ban the practice.
Now, Elizabeth Bartholet, a law professor and faculty director of the school's Child Advocacy Program, faces criticisms for her strong statements on homeschooling in Harvard Magazine's May-June issue.
A large number of American kids are now taking their school lessons at home after public schools were closed due to COVID-19. Bartholet opined that homeschooling violates the children's right to a "meaningful education" and protection from potential child abuse. She worried that this practice could hinder children from contributing positively to a democratic society.
Bartholet argued that homeschooling would give parents 24/7 and authoritarian control over their children who are from zero to 18 years old. "I think that's dangerous. I think it's always dangerous to put powerful people in charge of the powerless and to give the powerful one's total authority," the law professor told Fox News.
From Bartholet's perspective, the lack of any regulations that will ensure that homeschooled children will receive a meaningful education comparable to that in public schools is a threat to democracy. She emphasized that if they looked at the situation, an overwhelming majority of lawmakers and American people would conclude that something must be done about it.
Bartholet's Views are Extreme
Michael Donnelly told Fox News that the views of the law professor are "extreme." Donnelly is the director of global outreach and senior counsel at the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), which is the target of the article.
In the magazine article, Bartholet criticized the hesitation of lawmakers to restrict homeschooling practice because of HSLDA. She claimed that the conservative Christian homeschool advocacy group is a small, well-organized, and "overwhelmingly powerful politically."
"Bartholet's dystopian recommendations are tone-deaf and have provoked a firestorm of response from political and religious perspectives - as well they should have. Her obvious distrust of average Americans is loud and clear," Donnelly explained in the report.
Donnelly continued that the law professor's appeal to ban homeschooling because Bartholet considers American homeschooling parents too ignorant or too religious. However, he added that her view disagrees with the decades of scholarly research on homeschooling that proves that the practice has a positive academic, civic, and social outcome.
An Attack on the Fundamental Rights and Freedom
Meanwhile, Melba Pearson, a former Harvard University student, opposed Bartholet's views on homeschooling. Pearson was homeschooled before she studied at Harvard University.
Pearson described the article as "an attack on the fundamental rights and freedoms that make our country (and until recently, institutions such as Harvard) what they are." She disputed the claim of the article that the government has more of a right than parents do to educate their children.
"The idea that a government, already so inefficient and inadequate in so many areas, can care for and educate every child better than its parent is wrong," Pearson told Fox News. She stressed that homeschooling prepared her for Harvard. The Harvard alumni expressed her disappointment with the university for promoting a totalitarian intellectual path that bans liberties that helped her and countless others succeed. "For it is those liberties and ideals that have made America the great nation it is today," she said.
The education system in the United States took a hit due to the rising numbers of people getting infected by COVID-19. As a result, homeschooling has become the option of many students as social distancing and quarantine measures are being imposed in the country to fight the spread of COVID-19.
Also Read: Harvard Researchers: Social Distancing Measures Will Most Likely Be Extended Til 2022
