Homeschooled: A Memoir

This was a pretty crazy memoir. I thought it was very readable and had a lot of interesting, though some very sad and distressing stories in it. I would suspect that homeschooling advocates probably hate that this book is out there and getting as much publicity as it has. It really underlines how the line between parental concern and neglect can be very hard for anyone to see from outside the home.

Well-written memoir of a young boy's mother who plays psychological games of guilt and manipulation with her son, keeping him homeschooled for years. Not a happy read.

DNF at page 100 of 288. This book is not at all what it purports to be, but rather a memoir of a child separated from the world by a disengaged father, a severely mentally ill mother (all signs point to Borderline Personality Disorder and alcoholism), and a system that made the abuse possible by sanctioning homeschooling without monitoring by the state. It is sad, and I am sorry for what Block endured, but it gives me nothing other than the opportunity to feel icky about being a voyuer feasting on the sad story of another. I hope Block found writing this to be cathartic. I don't think it speaks to issues with homeschooling in a way that applies to anyone but him.

This was not helped by the audio, which was read by the author. His reading show more is not terrible, but also not compelling. show less

The author returns to school after being homeschooled by his mother from ages 10 - 15. Behind academically and socially, he is bullied relentlessly by his classmates. His mother's hippie homeschooling regimen consisted of running errands with her, doing a few math sheets, but otherwise being left to his own devices. She felt that school crippled his creativity and that he would be better off at home than attending a traditional school. Eventually, Stefan buckles down academically and finds his people in high school. He realizes that his mother did him a huge disservice, yet understood that she did it out of love.