The state could strengthen homeschooling regulations in the wake of several high-profile cases of abuse and neglect.
At an 18-hour-long public hearing last month, dozens of homeschooled kids and their parents spoke on the bill. Among them was 10-year-old Beatrix Tyson (named after Beatrix Potter). She told lawmakers she'd been learning to speak French, act onstage, and sail boats.
“I just finished reading Oliver Twist. I’m starting to learn advanced algebra," Beatrix said. "I’ve seen textbooks. I don’t want them.”
Beatrix and her family live on a small farm in Quaker Hill. There are three milk cows and a bull — chickens — a vegetable garden — fruit trees, and a farm stand. Beatrix even gets to milk the cows sometimes.
“It's kind of fun," she said.
Her mom, Courtney, said that too often, public education is like large-scale factory farming. Factory farms see cows as products, not animals, and to optimize their production, they treat them all the same.
“On a small farm, you love them, and so it doesn't matter that they need help; you have the capability to customize it for the cows," she said. "And I feel that's the same way with homeschooling. My eldest learned how to read very young. She's a very advanced reader, so she was learning at four.”
Beatrix's brother, Louis, isn’t progressing as quickly in reading.
“But he can tell you just about every kind of frog that lives in our ponds, and different ways to tie knots, and so we're focusing on that learning now," Courtney says.
Courtney used to be an art teacher. She said her district pressured her to focus less on art and more on math and science to raise test scores.
“School funding was tied to the test scores," she said. "I didn't go into education to teach that. I went into education to teach art, to teach creativity, because I really wanted kids to be able to explore and learn.”
She remembered seeing kindergarteners come into her art classes excited to learn and create. Because she worked in all grades, she could see their progress over the years.
“And little by little, as the years went on, the love and the joy for school or learning died," she said, "And it was like I'm just checking the boxes that I have to do to survive. And so we did not want that for our kids.”
Courtney and her husband use a curriculum based on the work of the British educator Charlotte Mason.
“Which is about living books," Courtney said. "Namely, books that are written by authors who are heavily invested or the first source of writings.”
There are a few textbooks, and Beatrix is fine with that.
“Well, I had one textbook," Beatrix said, "And it was about anatomy, and it just was so different and not really real.”
“They're written by a group of people that have to cater to the majority voice," Courtney said. "It's not by one author who has made it their life's work.”
Last year, the New York Times reported that many kids rarely read entire books in public schools anymore. But books are a big part of Beatrix’s life.
“Well, I usually wake up around like 7:30," Beatrix said. "And then I start school at eight. I get to pick which readings I do, and so I usually read a book, then I do math, and then I read another book, and then I practice my handwriting, and then I read another book, and then I read a poem.”
Her favorite books include Andrew Peterson's Wingfeather Saga — and she's currently reading The Hobbit and Redwall. Her favorite poems include Rudyard Kipling's "If."
The homeschooling bill, in its current form, would give the Department of Children and Families more oversight on homeschooling, intending to prevent cases like the death of 11-year-old Mimi Torres-Garcia last October. Families would also have to prove they’re giving kids the same level of education as public schools.
“As it stands right now, annually, we'd have to show up at the district and say that we're homeschooling, and we would have to prove that we are providing equivalent instruction," Courtney said. "And that's my biggest hang-up, because who's to define what equivalent instruction is?”
But that side of things has been a sticking point. Lawmakers said this week they’ll revisit the bill and may remove parts, like a requirement that students submit a portfolio or other demonstration of their work.
“I think the concern was it's a subjective standard, so who's reviewing it, right?" House Speaker Matt Ritter said. "You could just print something from a computer and hand it in, and the committee acknowledged that.”
Ritter said it’s important that the state prevent cases like that of 11-year-old Mimi Torres-Garcia, though. The Waterbury girl's death led to calls for stricter regulations and more oversight, especially from the Division of Children and Families.
“We now have a situation where we've had three kids withdrawn from school, two who were brutally either led to their death or close to death," Ritter said. "And a third one, it appears, committed suicide based upon a terrible thing in Enfield. We understand it's a small portion of it, but how do we stop that?”
Connecticut’s push comes at a time when other New England states are moving in the other direction. New Hampshire last month passed a new law loosening homeschooling regulations — on the same day Beatrix spoke at the Capitol.
Courtney said Beatrix used to be shy, but she’s learned to speak out in public more, thanks in part to some acting experience in a production of ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’ last year.
“She's nothing like a braggadocious hare," Courtney said. "And so the fact that this very smiley, friendly girl had to pretend to be this braggart. She grew so much, and it was because of that that she was like, yes, okay, I want to speak.”
But Beatrix said it still took a lot of bravery to testify at the Capitol.
It’s unclear, as of now, what the bill’s final form will look like. But Courtney and Beatrix are both watching carefully.
Correction: an earlier version of this story misidentified Beatrix's last name in the second paragraph. It is Tyson, not Taylor.
