After years of homeschooling, Billy's parents decided to enroll him in the local public school. After the first week, Billy's auto shop teacher calls Billy's parents and informs them that Billy is behind. Billy's parents, perplexed and concerned, ask, "Behind in what"?
Billy's teacher informs them that they have been working on rebuilding engines this year and since Billy hasn't used a standardized curriculum, he is behind the rest of the class.
The teacher informs them that Billy will need remedial training to come up to standards. The parents are a little embarrassed and apologize.
Meanwhile Billy's classmates have already belittled him for being the "retarded" homeschooler. Billy gets upset with his parents and blames them for his failure because "they" chose to homeschool him and they obviously weren't qualified.
Shortly after, the school board calls Billy's parents in for a meeting. They accuse them of educational neglect and demand to see all of Billy's records from their years of home schooling.
Billy's parents inform the board that they use a very relaxed homeschooling method with lots of hands-on real life activities, so they don't have many records. The school board becomes irate at this point and severely chastises Billy's parents for child neglect.
They threaten to have all their other children taken away if they don't immediately enroll them in public school.
At this threat, Billy's parents pull Billy out of the school and call HSLDA. The school files a truancy charge against Billy's parents.
HSLDA makes all the necessary contacts and there is a court hearing set to determine if Billy is truant and if his parents are guilty of neglect.
When presenting their case before the judge, HSLDA's lawyer Dewitt Black explains to the court that this has been a huge misunderstanding and that Billy is neither behind in school, nor are his parents neglectful.
"You see your honor", said Dewitt, "Billy has spent the last two years rebuilding a 1978 Camaro from the ground up with his dad. During the rebuilding process Billy has learned to weld, fix brakes, paint, rebuild transmissions and gear boxes, reupholster seats, repair electrical wiring, and install glass.
Billy's father decided to buy a pre-built crate engine for the Camaro, so Billy hasn't learned how to rebuild engines yet. We have the car and pictures and videos of the whole restoration for the courts review.
Your honor, we reviewed the public school curriculum and have found that none of the classes have taught the other children to weld, fix brakes, paint, rebuild transmissions and gear boxes, reupholster seats, repair electrical wiring, or install glass.
Based on our findings, we conclude that Billy is way ahead of ALL the students who have gone through the inferior public school curriculum and we ask that all charges be dropped and an apology be made to Billy and his parents".
This is a fictional story which attempts to demonstrate that there is no such thing as "standard" education. It's a myth and it hurts many people. There is no "ahead" and there is no "behind". The sooner you grasp this concept, the better your homeschool experience will be. Your kids will thank you.
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