Homeschooled

A Memoir

By: Stefan Merrill Block

Narrated by: Stefan Merrill Block

A heartbreaking and empowering debut memoir about a mother’s all-consuming love, a son’s perilous quest to discover the world beyond the front door and the unregulated homeschool system that impacts millions like him

Stefan Merrill Block was nine when his mother pulled him from school, certain that his teachers were “stifling his creativity.” With no background in education and no formal training, she began to instruct Stefan in the family’s living room. Beyond his formal lessons in math, however, Stefan was largely left to his own devices and his mother’s erratic whims. She forced him to bleach his hair and to crawl like a baby in a strange and regressive attempt to recapture his early years.

Long before homeschooling would become a massive nationwide movement, at a time when it had just become legal in his home state of Texas, Stefan vanished into that unseen space and into his mother’s increasingly eccentric theories and projects. But when, after five years away from the outside world, Stefan reentered the public school system in Plano as a freshman, he was in for a jarring awakening.

At once a novelistic portrait of mother and son, and an illuminating window into an overlooked corner of the American education system, Homeschooled is a moving, funny and ultimately inspiring story of a son’s battle for a life of his own choosing, and the wages of a mother’s all-consuming love.

Meh

I thought this would be another book like Educated, which I loved, but it was not. At least for me. I agree with the overall goal of the book, though, which is that home schooling can be wonderful for some families and I’ve seen it work very well, but there should be oversight because it can also be used as a way to hide children.

Reflective and insightful memoir

This challenging story is so beautifully told. Whether you reject the idea of homeschooling, advocate for homeschooling, sit joyously atop a life built on a foundation of homeschooling, or are engaged in a lifelong repair from it, this story can speak to you. I agree with the author’s ninth grade teacher: the author’s endeavor is brave. I enjoyed beholding it.

Sad

This was sad to me. I read a review that said it was funny, but I didn’t find it that way. My heart broke for Stefan. 💔

A Mirror of My Own Life

It was like listening to my own life and my own isolation as a child during the same timeline. The writing was just so beautiful and the author’s voice fit perfectly for the book. Thank you, Stefan, for giving a voice to the children like me who were isolated, behind, and took YEARS to learn to live and how to break my own family’s heart to live again. Thanks for making my inner child feel seen.

Powerful and relatable

Some memoirs stick with you because of the extreme life circumstances that the authors endured and often overcame- this one is quieter but just as impactful. Our relationships with our mothers are complex and the author’s portrayal of his own mother was powerful and relatable. Excellent memoir and the narration was perfect.