"Homeschooled" | Reviewed by Chris Stuckenschneider

Obsessive parental love taken to the next level runs rampant in “Homeschooled,” an addictive memoir that while disturbing also inspires. Stefan Merrill Block has written a testament to the resiliency of children, to their ability to survive abuse in in a page turner that focuses on a mother overly attached to her youngest son.

The opening incident highlights what’s to come for young Stefan as he fantasizes about injuring himself just enough in a fall to get his mother to start talking to him again. Readers instantly realize this mother uses covert means to manipulate and punish her son.

Stefan, his older brother, and parents, moved from Indianapolis to Plano, Texas in 1990.  At his previous school, Stefan enjoyed classes. But in Plano, he’s a fish out of water, and his mother is determined to rescue him and possess Stefan in unhealthy ways that mask themselves as love. Stefan, in turn, learns to live with a mother who has strange ideas, “theories” as she calls them. “Mom believes that white people are capable of a mild form of photosynthesis…and that her father “was probably a covert agent of the CIA.”

The move to Texas brought even more dreadful changes in Stefan’s mother. Once kind to other kids and willing to participate in playtime, she becomes distrustful, angry, distracted and impatient which confuses Stefan as he continually tries to please her. Stefan’s brother Aaron, who attends a traditional school, is less vulnerable to her moods and sudden outbursts. The boys’ father detaches, and seems emotionally absent, losing himself in his work as a therapist.

Stefan’s mother takes Stefan out of school when he’s nine, determined to provide him with a better education than he could hope to get from school, but the teaching materials she orders mostly gather dust. Instead, of studying together, the pair often spend time on activities like swimming in the pool for hours, where his mom supports Stefan in the water like a baby. Stefan’s mother wants to keep Stefan as young as she can for as long as she can, handicapping his emotional growth as surely as hobbling a horse. Homeschooling gives her the opportunity to have Stefan with her 24-7.

As Stefan grows, his mother’s efforts to stymie his maturity grow more twisted. Though Stefan was a towhead as a tyke his hair darkened with age. His mother becomes determined to turn his hair blonde again and subjects him to having her dye his hair, and then sit in the sun to bleach it even lighter.

Stefan’s mother’s cure for his bad handwriting is even more disturbing, requiring that Stefan crawl about the house for months on end. If Stefan disobeys or ignores her requests, his mother rejects him.

Shocking incident follows shocking incident leaving readers with growing empathy for a boy who tries understand the dysfunction that follows him into adulthood and finally establish boundaries that free him in ways that empower him.

“Homeschooled” is well written and touching, a memoir that's both heartbreaking and hopeful.

In the Author’s Note, Block states he didn’t “intend his book to be an indictment of homeschooling in general. Homeschooling is a vital alternative for many students…” He does, however, believe that legislators “must urgently reevaluate current homeschool laws, to put in place better standards to ensure students’ safety, wellness, academic proficiency, access to diverse perspectives and ability to socialize outside the home.”

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