Why do people think all homeschoolers are social catastrophes?

Question

The kids who were breastfed until age 9 and have only ever read the Bible are screwed up, but they're screwed up because their parents are screwed up. If they were in school, they could get away with less, but a child is a product of their parents.

I know a few screw ups myself -really, really scary cases of messed up parenting- but I'm homeschooled, all my friends but one are homeschooled, and they're all well-adjusted.

We're a bit weird, my friends, but people are so BIASED. People think I'm really great, then they find out I'm homeschooled, and I'm sheltered? No, I'm not offered drugs. Why is that a bad thing?

Homeschoolers are generally less conscious of pop culture because the environment we're in (the name sucks, not the home environment) is one where we judge each other based on merit, not shoes. Why? Because we're given more respect at home so we treat each other with more respect.

Maybe the disasters stay because it's easier to remember the bad than the good?

Homeschoolers are exposed to people of differing cultures and ideas all the time.

You see, when you go in to this place called the world, there are people. They're all different from each other.

Different race? Doesn't cross my mind. Different culture? Cool! What can you tell me about it?
Different religion? (read, Religious?) Interesting, how's that work?

A very small minority of homeschoolers are white supremacists or Nazis or freak out when they meet a black guy or a lefty. They just get all the publicity.

A good analogy that I thought of that I'm going to botch is that of a car.

Most cars never explode. A well-run car will not explode. How much publicity does a safe car get outside of ads? Maybe 30 seconds if you're lucky.

Car explodes. How much publicity? Astronomical amounts.

The exploding car homeschoolers steal all the media.

I don't know who the latest slack-jawed bimbo "singer" is because I DON'T CARE. My parents aren't sheltering me.

Answer 1

People think this way b/c they don't like something that is different.

Note the irony here, public school advocates brag how those students are more open to new things, and more diverse...BUT throw in one home schooler and it's like they're radioactive! Public schoolers can't handle it. If you're not like them, you must be a "social catastrophe". Some diversity.

Public schoolers are conditioned to accept one standard. The teacher knows all, and don't think of learning from anywhere else. It's easy and comfortable. The homeschooler OTOH, comes in steeped in the ability to think and research. Thinking for yourself is uncomfortable for most people.

Answer 2

I suggest that the upper limit for contributions be done away with, and that the maximum payouts in retirement still remain as they are, adjusted for inflation. Social security is not a "give away" program but one that we all contribute to like a savings plan, and should be protected from other uses by the government. Do you agree or disagree and why? If you are so worried about it then why don't you; first put it back into the private sector and make to were no can take out money from it for their own interest, second pay back every penny you have borrowed from both Social Security and Medicare, third take the illegal immigrants off of it and those who come over here but never paid a penny to it, and lastly have it the same for everyone; in other words government officials are to participate in it and if they want something more they do it on their own without the tax payers funding it?Yet, the monetary stytem feeding the imbalances had never been really changed. They, a group of scholars, suggested that all interest rates would be 3% or less for everyone to become rich if desired (that must be true also to taces). The best economic situation would be, they said, when there were no interest rates. Why not try this solution? The rich would still be rich. My question is: when soial security becomes a problem connected to federal debts, why not work with a balanced or gain budget and spend no more than comes in, as any family has to strive for? Why not ban all loobying gifts in order to get laws that serve the country? God bless America.

Answer 3

I blame it on public schools not teaching the right kind of history.

When people of the past are studied, is it ever brought up that they were homeschooled or privately tutored at home? No.

Imagine if history curriculum began exploring famous people of the past and learning about how they actually got their education. I think it would reduce a lot of the nonsense about homeschoolers being socially messed up. They would learn about Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Edison and lots of people who led great lives and did wonderful things, all without having gone to school. If they could learn that, maybe they wouldn't believe the pseudo-psychological reasoning that kids need to be surrounded by umpteen kids of the same age for 12 years out of their lives in order to turn into reasonable adults.

Oh, and to the people who think that homeschooled kids don't have contact with other cultures, that's just silly. Homeschooled kids get out in the real world a lot more than most public schooled kids; they don't go to their school library every week, but the public library; they go to stores during the day when most people are at school and work and they can actually spend some time talking to the sales person or the person at the checkout; just a couple of examples. Plus, interaction with other cultures will depend entirely on where someone lives. We live in a very multicultural/religious area and have no choice but to interact with others and our homeschooling groups are fairly representative of the diversity.

Point: By ASSuming something just make an A** of yourself. Learn more before spouting off negative things about others.

Answer 4

I was home schooled for many years. For me, it made adjustment into high school more difficult because I had a safer social environment at home and I learned much more than other kids so I got teased.

As far as social catastrophe, I don't think so. Again, it is because you are out of the mainstream that makes it seem like a home schooled person is not "with it" socially. It can be hard for some kids to fit in after being home schooled because they missed all of the nonsense and "assimilation" in public education.

It is the same with people in college who study more than party.

That's BS and everyone knows that home schooled kids do much better in school and are more successul because their priorities are more realistic and productive.

Answer 5

Homeschoolers are well adjusted, normal individuals with just a different learning atmosphere for school. To think that they are sheltered is just idiotic. Most have many outside interactions, with friends, neighbors, church groups, sporting events, school co-ops, volunteer work,etc. And to say that they have been taught in a biased atmosphere?...a public school is biased and only teaches the views of the state, that teacher, or the author of the text book! (Mr. Palmer needs to get out a little more, I think!) At home, most parents teach their children to see things from more than one point of view. How many cultures and ways of life are children going to get exposed to at their local public school? Not many...just their neighbors that are in the same school district. They get more "exposure to other cultures" going to the grocery store! Come on! The majority of students (outside of the lucky few that get to travel) learn about cultural diversity in the classroom setting,whether it's at home or in a public school. Parents that homeschool are the lucky ones that get to teach their children their values and what they believe is important and should be imparted to their children. How is that wrong? Why would parents want their children to be taught the values of a complete stranger? You are entrusting their minds, souls and very being to them and why? Because it's the "norm"? That's not a good enough reason for me or for many other homeschoolers. It's sad that not many other parents feel the same way and would care enough to impart their values to their children themselves.

Answer 6

My daughter, at age 14 got in trouble for stealing bras from Sears and I was a single dad raising her. So I had to go to Sears and pay for the 10 bras. She had taken them into the fitting room and put them on, one on top of the other, so she walked in flat chested, and walked out with double D's. She was only 95 pounds. LOL. Anyhow, I called her mom, who had recently gotten clean off drugs, (which is why I had custody) and was re-married to a really super hard working guy, so after meeting him, I turned custody over to them. They home schooled her till she graduated from high school. We were all so scared she'd go back to drugs if she went back to school. She is 25 now, married and has a beautiful daughter that just turned 3. So I see nothing wrong with home schooling, if the parents are willing and able to be a MAJOR participant in the teaching. I hope this helps.

Answer 7

What kind of people do we meet, you ask? A lot of people. Contrary to apparent (and completely thoughtless! I mean...really people!) popular opinion, homeschoolers do not sit inside all day making paper mache model DNA and reading trig textbooks for amusement. We definately get out - to church, to our co-ops (which can be large and extremely diverse, such as the one I attended bi-weekly for three years, which had over 500 students just as varied in every way as those you'd find in any highschool - more, perhaps, because it was actually 7-12th grades), our neighborhoods (my brother and I played soccar, did gymanstics, took art classes, etc at the park center a few blocks from our house in Minneapolis), and so on. I lived in rural Minnesota until age 11, but currently, I'm living in Bangkok, Thailand, with my family, and I'm going to start my senior year of highschool in about a month. Sheltered? My friends here are from all over the world, all walks of life, both genders and many ages. I've drank lukewarm Coke in slums and cold Coke in the Mall of America. I've heard firsthand stories from tsunami survivors in the south of Thailand, and saw the Independance Day 1999 storm (which caused the blowdown which in turn caused the current fires in the BWCA) loom on the horizon in Ely, MN.

Are you seriously going to tell me that a peer of mine who has gone to the same *public school* in Small Town USA for her 18 years is less sheltered than I am?

Even without the living overseas, homeschoolers, as a general rule, are well-adjusted, talented, normal individuals. Chill out on your prejudice for long enough to look, and you'll see just that.

Answer 8

Beacuse they are sad, mean, ignorant people. They need to get out more and see more of the world. I feel so sorry for schoolers who are stuck inside at a desk all day. They aren't seeing the world or having true social interaction.

Answer 9

But what kind of social interaction do you have. You don't meet people with different cultures, temperament etc. School is supposed to prepare you for life not just a career. Home schoolers are sheletered and their thoughts are shaped purely through the biases and thoughts of the parents. How then can they socially adapt.

Answer 10

hi i have home schooled my kids for 9 years. i have never been affraid for them to enter society, only the public school system. school is an abnormality in our culture. it is like a huge Fraternity in college only there you have to want to join. are they misfits. in a way. they say what they think because they have always been able to. they dress the way they want to. and thay still play and have a lot of fun. i have sen other kids from the public school system much more socially stymed than mine mainly because the school did it to them.