The YTA are, as usual, batshit crazy, or jumping to conclusions + abysmally ignorant.

John Oliver did a really informative piece on homeschooling recently. It was eye-opening and absolutely horrifying. There is virtually NO regulations for the parents and NO follow-up by authorities to verify whether or not the child is learning. Additionally, abusive parents can pull their kids out and claim "homeschooling", when in reality they are just using that as an excuse to abuse and torture their kids without interference from school officials, who are often the last line of defense for these kids.

From what I’ve seen, in many places, it isn’t the highly educated and qualified people doing this. It’s the LEAST qualified people—-and I mean barely graduating high school and maybe having a failed part time semester of community college a decade ago under their belt—-who think they’re the only ones who can “properly” teach their children, so they pull them out of school and “homeschool” them. However, the homeschooling turns out to be utter b******t and their kids fall so far behind their age cohorts they end up driving their own cars to school when they’re in 6th grade. Man, talk about your Idiocracy.

"His lesson plan for the week was going outside and looking at plants." - "Oh, maybe he can’t read/do math because he has ADHD/a learning disability." People amaze me… It’s good we‘re more aware of disabilities, but they mustn’t become a cheap excuse. That said, I do wonder if there are behaviour issues (possibly caused by lack of social interaction with other children). I don’t see why a mother would refuse to let their kid play with OP‘s grandson just because he can’t read yet at age 7.

"yta, why don't you just sacrifice yourself to teach him instead" how is that an argument

She's probrably not doing a good job communicating with her daughter, but she's right, her daughter is a bad parent. Educational neglect is disasterous for a child, and the longer it goes on, the worse of that child will be for the rest of his life. To all those who're saying YTA because "you're not the parent" abuse and neglect are everyones business. You are the a*****e if you don't intervene or report. This woman has every right and responsibility to advocate for her grandson, and get him the educational support he needs. She needs to insist on a discussion with both parents: The child is severely behind his agegroup, and is not making the educational progress he needs to be. Homeschooling is clearly not working, and he needs to be put back in school. If they don't get their act together, she needs to report them to CPS.

I was homeschooled from 10th grade on and I did not graduate. I could barely read, numbers swam in my head and I kept mixing up + and X, so it was all wrong. I got tutored 10 years into my marriage and finally got my GED. I went to college at age 40 and got professional help there to pass Algebra - just barely. The mother is apparently not teaching her son, which will affect him for life. does mom expect to support him all his life if he cannot read, write and do math sufficient to get a job?

Some parents can't handle the idea of their kid knowing more than they do. The kid might start thinking for themself! Might uncover the untruths their parents tell them.

Teaching is a profession you have to be qualified for. Parents are simply not. Home-schooling just means you're letting your child fall behind and as we all know, making up for a lack of education is hard. That is why we don't have home-schooling unless under very strict conditions, meaning you will be assessed regularly on how your child is doing.I'll never understand why you guys don't take education seriously.

One of the (very wrong) commenters uses the username “Proudly Transphobic.” FFS. Then again, I spose it’s a useful warning for people who might engage in conversation with that thing. Maybe it oughtta be a requirement that people use their worst trait as their username: “Worse than Stupid,” “Can’t Cogitate,” “Beyond Braindead,” “What’s Logic?,” things like that. It’d save a lotta people time in trying to engage them; we could ignore those people, and only ones like them will keep ‘em company. I’ll start; I’ll change my username to “Frequently Misses the Point.” Who’s next?

Kids should be in school. Homeschooling is cruel, in my opinion, and the worst people are the ones who usually support it. This is child neglect and abuse and is setting the kid up to work minimum wage jobs the rest of his life. The grandma had to say something. I get the feeling she is at the end of her rope over worrying about her grandchild.

Ahhh...yes. Parents never like to be told they've done a s**t job.

This is unforgivable. I wasn't home schooled, but I was reading before I started school at 5, simply because we had books at home and I was encouraged to do so. I can't fathom a child being so far behind at 7 that he knows no math or shapes. This is basically child abuse and I can't understand the people who support the mother and wonder why the grandmother hasn't managed to get him up speed when she occasionally babysits. They are delusional. Probably the same people who would call CPS at the drop of a hat IRL but can't see the problem here.

If the parent was educated but apparently not...Do these parents know their ABC"S or to multiply,lol yup they do

Yeah, those first three sentences really did it to me. I was rarely so confused. This clearly was wtitten by AlabamaGPT... oh wait! SIL=Son in law?! My bad

The great advantage of homeschooling is that children's don't have to be forced to learn at the same standardized rate as their peers. Some kids need more time for some things and less for others. BUT it is a fundamentally dangerous practice to have accepted with no oversight in society. Abuse goes undetected, the religious indoctrination and trauma is very real for many kids, and it is much harder to access key resources for children with learning disabilities. I firmly believe that part-time schooling should be legal and supported as standard practice for those who don't benefit from the school system (there are kids for whom school does more harm than good) but the children need a legally enforced right to have contact with teachers and support staff from outside the homeschooling community

My early education was in an Eastern European country where in grade 4 I could do math calculations, without a calculator, that I ended up doing again in high school while allow to use a calculator. Most of my North American peers were still somehow struggling with basic math to me as a 12 year old. The public education system is absolutely ridiculous, so if I had children I would be home schooling them. It sounds like this mom is not willing to do any actual teaching and is actually damaging her child.

YTA, you say you have him four days a week, SO stop bitching she doesn't teach him anything and TEACH HIM YOURSELF, using the most basic of basic home education material. It was bad enough my mother could barely spell, and had to take hard labour jobs that destroyed her help, till she got adult eduation to learn the right skiills to take on temp work of a clerical kind. If someone who gave a damn, just educated her young, she wouldn't have had too. YOU have the time to baby-sit, you have time to educate to read and right, and who gives a damn what schools, incomprehensible new maths methods are, teach him the maths YOU KNOW, then he will KNOW MATHS, period. If YOU are not willing to teach the child when you have him, don't grouch because, oh dear, neither is she, guess she had/ still has, a bad example.

Yeah, try some tact if you want to influence your daughter. Right now, you aren’t helping.