If the name “Jaycee Dugard” sounds familiar to you, it’s because it was all over the news a while back when Jaycee was found and rescued 18 years after being kidnapped when she was 11 years old.
Her kidnapper, a convicted sex offender, held her hostage all those years and also fathered two children by her. They are now 11 and 15 years old; they grew up believing Jaycee was their sister, not knowing she was actually their mother.
But according to the British press, she was also their teacher:
Jaycee’s strength and determination to care for her daughters as best she could has filled the family with admiration.
Both Angel and Starlit appear to have been educated solely by their mother – who herself never made it past the fifth grade.
Yet recent tests show Angel, 15, functioning close to the level of a high school senior – that is, a higher level than Jaycee was at when she was abducted.
Both girls are now receiving tutoring at the northern California home.
Now that’s what I call successfully homeschooling in adverse conditions, and it’s just more proof that homeschooling works.
I don’t think that shows homeschooling works (and I don’t have anything against homeschooling). The news article (which itself is subject to bias), is very little data to go on. We don’t know what the reporter’s idea of “functioning” is…In short, no specifics.
Liz, since the reporter refers to recent tests, and also mentions that the girls are being tutored, I think it’s safe to assume the girls were given standardized placement tests so that the tutor would have an idea of where they stand in terms of approximate grade level.
While the level of a high school senior sure isn’t as high as it used to be, it still means that at the very least, the girl is literate and can do basic math. That’s a credit to her mother.
Stripped down to its essence, homeschooling is a parent teaching a child the three R’s, which is what happened here, and it worked.
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Regarding Liz’s comment:
We do know that it was the opinion of the tests administered not the author of the story that Angel is functioning higher than her grade level.
I agree with Barbara’s conclusion that if home schooling can work in the worst of circumstances (and this has to be the worst or among the worst) that it has a great chance of working in the best of circumstances.
The educational consultant at our homeschool ISP used to say, “The worst year of homeschooling beats the best year of public education.” Your blog post certainly testifies to that!
Kim
Thanks for weighing in, everyone!