To the editor:
Harvard Law School’s Professor Elizabeth Bartholet has been a major opponent of homeschool education lately. In an interview with the Harvard Gazette last year, Bartholet outlandishly claimed that homeschoolers are “socially awkward” and “in danger of maltreatment.”
Bartholet gives absolutely no statistical evidence to support her conclusions. Surely someone as highly educated as an Ivy League university professor has the ability to cite studies to reinforce their claims. In my opinion, Bartholet’s lack thereof is suggestive of her failure to find any such evidence.
Bartholet also makes allegations that are simply untrue. For instance, she said in an article for the Arizona Law Review that we have zero evidence that homeschoolers are successful. A study released this year by two of Bartholet’s colleagues at Harvard, Brendan Case and Ying Chen present very different findings. The scholars’ results showed not only that homeschooled students are on a higher level as other students academically, but that they actually have thirty-percent advantage over their peers in terms of social and financial success. With more than 12,000 students participating in this 11-year study, Case and Chen present much more statistical evidence than Bartholet. According to the Business Insider, sixty-nine percent of homeschooling graduates finish high school, meanwhile only fifty-nine percent of other students do so.
The stereotypes Professor Bartholet pushes on homeschooled students like me are false and grossly unfair. We are not socially awkward or ignorant in any way. The skills needed for our non-traditional learning actually enhance our social aptitude and entrepreneurial spirit. For these reasons, it is not surprising that studies are putting us at the top of our generation in terms of achievement. Recently, institutions of higher education have come this realization. At this point, many colleges and universities across the nation (including Harvard) have begun strategic enrollment practices of homeschooling graduates.
Unjust allegations have been, and will continue to be brought against homeschoolers, but these unfounded claims will never speak as loud as the overwhelming evidence in our favor. I will always be proud of my education, and forever thankful to my family for making it possible.
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