[Teribear]

Originally Posted by Heather Micaela

Still, in many states you have to report to the govt in some fashion or other. Are parents in those states not truly homeschooling?

I could be wrong, as I really haven't researched any state other than my own. To be perfectly honest, I am not homeschooling under my state law. The only way to legally homeschool in TN is to go through the LEA (local education authority) which puts me right back under the jurisdiction of the public school. Or to homeschool through a church related school (CRS) that reports high schoolers to the LEA which AGAIN puts me right back under the jurisdiction of the public school. OR have my daughter "attend" a private CRS where I am considered faculty member and my home is considered a satellite campus of the private CRS where my daughter is enrolled. I therefore I fall under the requirements of that school not the requirements of the state schools. Ironically in TN this is the route that actually provides us the most educational freedom.

A large percentage of homeschoolers use the Jeter Memo option (which is the one I just described) because as a rule the cover schools let us do whatever we want in regards to our children's education and all they really do is keep our records for us. We pick curriculum, they approve it. We choose how to teach it. When she graduates she will have a diploma from Gateway Christian School. In order to "homeschool" the way our predecessors wanted us to have the freedom to homeschool I have to chose an option that makes me technically NOT a homeschooler in the eyes of the law. I understand the paradox, I really do.

I'd love to see "alternative schooling" become the catch-all term. I think it would bind us together in a way that simply homeschooling doesn't. But until that happens we need to be clear about what it is that we are actually doing. I homeschool but I'm not a homeschooler if that makes a lick of sense. Just as you homeschool but you're not a homeschooler either.