Homeschool Horror Stories
NonFiction about and by people who were homeschooled or in nontraditional schooling, causing educational neglect and abuse, for some or all of their childhood and adolescence. These books feature, examine &/or deconstruct the systems and instances of harm that frequently occur in insular, high control educational environments.
đ¨â ď¸â ď¸â ď¸đ¨ Huge & Varied Content Warnings ⥠Take care with your bodyminds âĄ
In progress Pending additions in the twinned shelf Suggestions welcome!
created by Lurdo
last updated August, 2026
Comments
Should I publish my diaries from my teens so they can be added to this list? đ¤Şđ
LurdoOP
Haha, absolutely đ
Iâd read it! lol
really love to see this, thank you for compiling!
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES
LurdoOP
I've been really struggling to turn my chaotic brain jumble into a coherent description for this list. I've talked about why I wanted to make it here, đ. But I can't seem to condense everything down & articulate all the intricacies I'm feeling.
Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas to help me out?
Hmm perhaps the description could be something to the effect of âNonfiction about the negative impacts of homeschooling, including memoirs from those who consider themselves survivors of educational abuse and neglectâ
LurdoOP
That's so helpful! Thank you!! And maybe I can add something about how religious isolation is frequently a big factor too... đ¤
Youâre welcome! Feel free to use any of it if youâd like but also no pressure lol.
đŻđŻ itâs a very relevant factor for a lot of us! While secular and progressive homeschool families do exist (and I know a couple of them) I would bet that almost all of us who feel traumatized or negatively impacted by having been homeschooled had the accompanying religious trauma
LurdoOP
đđđ
Definitely. Of the 10 books in here so far only 1 & A Bit are without a religious home environment. It's probablypossible to safely homeschool while religious, but they are for sure a minority.
The difficulty with that being more than just hypothetically possible and actually happening is that (and without actual statistical data to support this, I am still fairly confident I am correct in this assertion) most (not all! but most) families who homeschool do it for religious reasons, so theyâre unlikely to teach anything that isnât aligned with or even produced by their sect/cult/church đŁ
LurdoOP
Yeah. I'm yet to meet any homeschooled adults who have had more good experiences, or put more importance on their minority of good experiences, than all their accumulated bad ones.
Yep!!! The things I liked about homeschooling could not even begin to compensate for the negative effects
