Homeschool?

Question

Why do so many people who have no credentials (people who have not been homeschooled and do not homeschool their children) seem to think that homeschooled children are socially retarded??? I was homeschooled for the last two years of high school. I have always been very shy, but I became more social after I was homeschooled. If you don't know what you're talking about why are you commenting? And any who have had good experiences with homeschooling are welcome to comment to further my point. TY in advanced.

Actually if you had read, I was in public school until my last 2 years of high school, so I have had experience with both.

Answer 1

Because their ability to independently process thought has been retarded by the public school institution ;-0

Okay, I'm joking on that. If I look at the situation, I honestly think it's that they don't have the experience with homeschooling, and like the other mom posted, they see one bad instance and don't realize that they seen probably other families that don't stick out. One cannot use the argument that all people should be homeschooled on the basis that a very few families will not do it the way that society thinks it should be done. By the same line, if one child reacts to immunizations, we should stop immunizing all children. It's the same logic.

Glurpy has hit it head on. Again, I appreciate your answer. People are always surprised to find that we homeschool. My kids are very social, polite, and get along with everyone. They know how to deal with other children who are rude or hateful, and they know how to take care of their own needs in social situations. What more do people want?

Answer 2

Ummm.....homeschooling should not be you locked in a basement somewhere or chained to a desk. Real world activities can be the best part of a home based education. We garden and visit parks and farms. We attend various lectures and my daughter was inspired to do some photography this winter. My daughter likes to bike in the afternoons, sculpt most mornings in the sun, go with friends to the library, go shopping and to the movies on weekends and we both take in art shows whenever we can. We use city buses and trolleys to get where we want to go. We bike the greenbelt and hang out at the skate park for "gym class". If you hate the kind of homeschool you currently have, change it completely! There are as many ways to homeschool as there are homeschoolers. Currently my daughter and a friend are getting together to watch a weekly PBS special on Native Americans. They watch and discuss while they have Rocky Road ice cream and enjoy each others company. If my daughter hated how she schooled, I'd tell her that was her fault for lacking imagination and gumption, because we school according to her tastes, talents and plans. You should try that too.

Answer 3

In my experience, people in general are judgmental. It seems to be a human prerogative to judge everything they hear, see, touch, smell and taste. Most do it instinctively, they've been doing it too long. There are very few true optimists out there, the ones that say neither good nor bad until it is tried. It's the same with homeschooling. It is automatically judged just because. It is also mostly joked as a religious thing (Mean Girls) because a lot of families do teach at home due to religious factors. But it is made into a big joke because that is the only way people know how to deal with things they don't know about. If they have tried it, then they are free to judge, but there is absolutely no call for it otherwise. And yet, they do it anyway.

Answer 4

My theory is that these are people that don't know anything about homeschooling but have heard homeschoolers do wonderfully on standardized testing and academic competitions so they know they can't say that homeschoolers aren't smart. So "social skills" are about all they can bring up as a possible weakness in homeschooling.

Of course I have never yet seen them put forth any research which states that it is a benefit to children to have them hang out most of the day with children that all have the same birth year. To me that seems like it would limit your social skills rather than enhance them if anything. But then I don't think there is too much scientific research basis to any of the argumentation of those with as you say "no credentials"...

Answer 5

I am homeschooled, and i can tell you right now that the whole misconception that homeschooled kids are "socially retared" is pretty much every homeschooler's pet peeve. Of course, as with any situation, if depends on the kid, but for the most part all of my homeschooling friends are smart, creative and definitely not "loners" or any of the other lables that we get stuck under. I hate the prejudice against homeschooled kids that i see, and how people assume that just because you're not stuck all day in a classroom with 20 other kids exactly your age, that you can't intereact or make friends in the "real world." personally, i feel like homeschooled kids are more prepared for the "real world" than kids in school. i don't know what people think kids are getting prepared for in school that you can't be prepared for by just living life.... after all, we're not sitting at a desk in a room all day. another point is that most kids are pretty burned out of traditional education by the time they get to college, whereas homeschooled kids are usually excited to experience a tradition school setting for what may be the first time in their lifes. i just hate how people's ignorance can lead to such idiotic misconceptions......

ok...enough ranting :)

Answer 6

Because if it's different, it has to be bad! They are just ignorant. I have seen both sides of the coin. Homeschooled kids FAR outmatch their public school counterpart. They don't have to deal with peer pressure to like certain people or not. Wear certain things. Pretend to be stupid, punk, or just something they are not so the boy/girl next to them thinks they are great. And they don't have the fear of all that school violence to get in the way of learning. So when homeschooled kids are being social, they do it on their terms not teachers and timeframes of the public school. Most colleges are begging for homeschoolers because they are more serious than public school kids. Maybe they are just jealous.Think about it, where else but public school do you have 30 or so kids your age stuck in a classroom, interacting between their classes with really only minutes in which to do so, all with teachers looking on orchestrating how it will be done. My kids can interact with all ages in all settings.

Answer 7

There's something else, too. A lot of people know homeschooling kids without even knowing they know homeschooling kids.

What I mean is this - sometimes you'll hear someone say, "Oh! There are these kids on my block. They homeschool and they're so socially retarded, you know? That's how I *know* homeschooling is totally bad." *RME*

Thing is, what they know is just one example - and yes, it's a bad one. (It's also totally overlooking the fact that you can easily find social outcasts who have been going to public school since pre-k; kids who are poorly dressed, badly fed, neglected and barely passing in school.) What these folks never realize is they also know *other* homeschooled kids - at their churches, in their boy scouts troops, little leagues, karate schools, YMCAs, library book clubs and so on - but because these kids are socially well-adjusted, happy kids - in a word: normal - most people don't even know they homeschool and it never crosses their minds that they might.

It's nothing but ignorance. I'm not calling people stupid here. Ignorance is just a lack of education and in this particular matter, these people just don't know any better. They *think* they know all about it because of one or two bad examples, but really they know very little, if nothing at all.

Still, it's always fun to see the looks on the faces of people who've just finished complimenting me for my "smart", "polite", "friendly", "beautifully behaved" children, after I respond with, "That's homeschooling for you."

Answer 8

I agree that there seems to be a social stigma attached to home schooling. It may be that some people are afraid of what is different, and they show their fear by attacking it. It may be that some criticism comes from people who think that home schooled = isolated. Most people probably don't know the high standards that parents who home school their kids are put through, which includes having their kids take and pass the state assessment tests and local school's subject examinations. Not to mention state standards that require the children to be socialized through group outtings and physical education gatherings.

I personally don't agree that a home schooled child is offered all that public school offers *for the same cost*. I want to emphasize for the same cost. Residents of a school district pay taxes which are cumulatively used to pay for supplies, books, teacher salaries (teachers who "should be" specialized in their content area), computers, extracurricular activities, etc. That is not to say that home schooled kids cannot have the same things-at their parents expense though.

Answer 9

They've got bees up their bonnets, as you can tell by Mr. Z's response which clearly shows that he is bothered by so many bees, he did not even read your question properly.

Mr. Z has no kids and is truly put off by the idea that parents think they know more about raising kids than he does. I can only think that he must have had a poor relationship with his own parents.

In any case, about those who bash it so vehemently, it points to being egotistical and having a lack of humility.

Answer 10

I know several dozen home schoolers some still in and some graduated. Several off to college including U of M. Best young people I know. Very social and comfortable in it. Most working and the kind of people you want to hire. I know I'm impressed.