The terrible impact of COVID mitigation on learning at every level is a very important topic. However, in what concerns the linked article, I’m overwhelmed by the learned helplessness and extreme entitlement of everybody involved. COVID looks like a tiny blip on the surface of a much bigger problem.
A Blip
Clarissa's Blog 
Basic error:
“Didn’t sign up for homeschool” does not equal “doesn’t homeschool.”
Years ago, in my own state, I tried to figure out what percentage of homeschooled kids were never registered as such. Nobody knew, of course, but after talking to enough people, I came up with “at least 10%, maybe a lot more”. as an answer I felt comfortable with.
Not registering means that the authorities don’t know that you’re homeschooling. It also means that they’re unlikely to somehow about-face and claim that you can’t homeschool your kid after all. . . a very realistic fear for anyone who actually knows the history of homeschooling in the 20th century in America.
That was when the only fear was that they’d take your kid away and put them in school. There wasn’t a strong fear that your kid would be forcibly injected with an experimental drug known to cause all sorts of problems, or that your kid would be encouraged to transition, or that your kid would be taught that being white meant that they were oppressors.
There’s a lot more reason to not register now.
I doubt it accounts for all 240,000 kids. But I’m sure it accounts for several thousand at a minimum.
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This is a great insight. It makes a lot of sense. I’m glad the numbers are better than they seem.
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I admit I skimmed the article, but, in addition to the first commenter’s note– yeah, it’s true, not all homeschoolers bother with the paperwork. From a legal standpoint, it’s unlikely you’ll get caught, it’s less hassle if you don’t do the required reporting (onerous-ness varies by state), and if you get caught, you can claim you didn’t know and just sign up in a hurry… whereas if you’re all signed up, and the local school board takes an irrational dislike to your family because you offended a neighbor who was the mother-in-law of a school principal or something… you could be in for months of legal hassles. That kind of situation is why HSLDA exists.
A couple of further observations:
1) They mention kids missing out on kindergarten stuff. As far as I know, in most states, kindergarten is optional. You don’t legally have to enroll your kid in the school system unless they turn six before the start of the school year.
2) Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t see any comparison with the usual dropout rate. Since 3 out of 4 kids in my family are technically some sort of high school dropouts, I think this is a curious omission. My brother really did drop out. My sister transferred to an unaccredited religious school, and I spent my final year as a “dual-enrolled” student at the local junior college. I wasn’t dually enrolled anywhere else, I was just going to college fulltime. I still have a GED instead of a highschool diploma, so I didn’t “graduate” like normal people.
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“I’m overwhelmed by the learned helplessness and extreme entitlement of everybody”
Victimhood is a state of mind.
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“Victimhood is a state of mind.”
Not to beat a dead horse (who am I kidding, it’s my favorite pasttime….).
Anyhoo, Korda talks about this which he calls “Games of Weakness”. The basic tactic is to gain power by pretending to have none.
“I think you need a raise too, but my hands are tied!”
“Now isn’t the time to talk about this, you would not believe my schedule, and I’ve got the higher ups on my case about the budget!”
“God, my head is splitting wide open…. do you have any Excidrin? …..No? (massages temple while squinting)… what is it you wanted again?”
What’s weird is that this very old tactic has leaked out into politics and social organization…
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This is exactly how my great-grandparents felt about “being poor”. You were never poor if you didn’t act poor or think poor. And as long as you didn’t act poor, you wouldn’t stay poor. They were right, too. All their kids grew up to be comfortably middle-class on their own efforts, from a childhood where they slept four to a bed and didn’t have enough shoes for everybody.
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