Top Myths About Homeschooling
1. Children are being deprived of important social experiences.
Not true, homeschoolers socialize with a wide variety of people. We socialize with fellow homeschoolers in our homeschool groups, we socialize with public school students on recreational sports teams and other organizations like scouts. We are active in our communities.
2. Children are isolated from other social/ethnic groups.
Again not true, homeschoolers are a diverse group and almost every social and ethnic group can be found in the homeschooling community.
3. Children are denied the full range of curriculum experiences and materials.
Again not true, parents are free to pick the best curriculum for their students. Homeschooled students often use honors or advanced placement textbooks not available to all students in the public schools. See Why Homeschooling Works ~ No or Little Bureaucracy .
4. A burden is created for the school administrators.
How?????? School administrators have NOTHING to do with homeschooling.
5. Homeschooling does not provide effective assessment of academic standing.
Homeschoolers are free to take the ACT & SAT just like public school students do. Numerous studies have been done that show that homeschoolers often score higher on the ACT & SAT then their public school counterparts do. Homeschoolers are also free to take any other test their parents deem necessary at their parents expense.
2006 ACT High School Profile Report Check out this National Data! 9,117 homeschoolers average composite score was 22.4. [1,206,455 students took the test in all, averaging 21.1.] [0.76% homeschoolers] Emailed to me from Jim Sconing, Director, Statistical Research Department, Research, 319/337-1709 (From A-Z Home's Cool)
Homeschoolers Excel in ACT College Entrance Exam
6. Many times children are taught by adults not certified in education.
So?????? A teacher's certificate does not automatically make one a good teacher. See Why Homeschools post on teacher certification.
7. The whole approach is isolationist in nature.
Homeschooling is not isolationist in nature. Homeschoolers go on field trips with other homeschoolers, we participate in our communities and we work together on projects. Homeschooled children often have a wealth of experience working with people older and younger then they are as well as people from different backgrounds. This experience translates well into the work place.
Not only have we been able to meet students and teachers from other countries through Friends & Flags, homeschooling has allowed us to travel to Hawaii, Washington D.C and San Diego, CA where the culture is vastly different then here in South Mississippi.
6 comments:
So glad you addressed this! I am amazed at the sheer arrogance of the people who attack homeschooling without any knowledge of the process. It's sorta like saying that all public school kids are uneducated.
No one seems to defend public school education. Do they point at us out of fear or ignorance? Maybe both.
Nonconformity,
What surprised me was the number of 20 somethings that don't even have kids who attack homeschooling.
Renae,
As far as I know, no one tells parents who send their children to public school that they shouldn't, that they are bad parents if they send their children to public school or that they shouldn't be allowed to do so. Homeschoolers have to deal with all this BS.
So no we do not point to the flaws in public school out of fear or ignorance.
There are many excellent public school teachers and decent public schools. But some public schools are failing in their mission to educate children and those children's parents have every right to homeschool. Public school isn't for everyone. Just like not everyone is cut out to be a homeschooler.
Public, Private and Homeschooling are all valid educational options.
Great post! I have heard all of those comments from people who actually have no idea what homeschooling is about. My favorite one I get from people is I don't know how you can spend so much time with your kids. This one I just don't get.
Have a great day!
JoAnn
I have never understood why parents who don't want to spend TIME with their children bother having children.
That said I think a lot of times, it's because they mistakenly believe we are with our kids 24/7, and never have any time apart or for ourselves.
You mentioned the 20-somethings without kids who attack homeschooling. I believe that is largely due to the myth that homeschoolers are all Christian fundamentalists. The 20-somethings are most likely to have absorbed the anti-Christian bias of our mainstream culture, being such avid consumers of it.
I think there is also a political aspect to homeschool bashing. I find it comes from the Left much more frequently than from the Right. I think the bashing reflects a fear among liberals that if left without government supervision, parents would teach their kids to be racist, homophobic, "Christianist" "breeders."
Evidently, we can't teach them all that in the evenings and weekends! ;)
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