Does anybody think homeschoolers are stupid?

Question

I've been homeschooled my entire life. I went to public school last year for the first time, and the kids there were'nt the brightest stars in the sky. I got straight As, was in two advanced classes, and just did really well all around.
But then it seems that every question on here when somebody who answers gets mad at the questioner, they say stuff like "you must've been homeschooled"
That really pisses me off, we aren't stupid at all, and the ones who are it's because they wreen't doing well in the crappy public school system and had to be pulled out and taught at home.
So does anybody think we're stupid? If you do, give an actual reason, examples. It seems like you have nothing to back up your mean statements.

Thanks for all the support!
Francis--I know I'm insulting the public school students :/ I'm just mad right now, it's not that they're all stupid, it's just what most people said, they don't want to learn, therefore a lot of them don't.

Answer 1

I went to public school through my Sophmore year, and then I was homeschooled. I finished a year early, I got straight A's (and no my mommy didn't grade my homework for those of you that might think that...I had an actual teacher...it was a distance ed. course). In public school (I had a fairly good public school), I always got good grades, but I was horribly shy. After I was homeschooled, I learned how to overcome my shyness. I still have my friends from public school, but I have new friends also.
Many people say that homeschoolers are stupid because they are just ignorant. They've seen one or two bad examples and assume that all of us are like that.
Or, they're repeating what they have been told, so they don't know any better.
People don't like what isn't familiar to them. In this case, it's homeschooling.
I understand why you are upset. It upsets all of us, but you have to remember that most of them just don't know any better. Even if you respond to their ignorance, they won't listen to what they don't want to hear.
We all get angry about it, but anger doesn't make them any smarter (although it is healthy to get angry every once in a while, just so you don't hold it in.)
Also, they are showing their ignorance in a huge way, because Columbia U. did a study that showed that homeschooled children scored higher on college entrance exams than other students (quoted in the Sept. 2006 Reader's Digest).
Don't let their ignorance get to you too much.

Answer 2

ur right. the public school system is crap. they dumb down the curriculum so that the stupid students excel and the smart ones become dumb. i have a friend that i would love to be homeschooled because she is so smart but the public school system has addled her brain. homeschoolers far exceed public schoolers. what u said was a generalization. there are the ones who are smart but can't excel in the public school system. i was reading at a college level in 6th grade where i was a year younger than everybody. i had like the second highest lexile range in the class. my teacher told me i wasn't allowed to read below my lexile range. the library wouldn't let me check out books below it either. back then there was only a slight nagging at the back of my brain saying that it wasn't right. now if that happened i would say "excuse me? but who are u to tell me what i can and can't read? last time i checked America was a free country!". lol. but i didn't kno better then. public schools could be improved on so much but there are to many money hungry people in our government so they don't get the necessary people and funds to do what they actually need to do. either that or they just don't care. its probly the latter but hey i tried. lol. ne wayz i kinda feel sry for all those smart kids in a stupid system.

Answer 3

The concept comes from those who feel that because we, as parents dont have a teaching degree, we could not possibly have all the information to educate our children..What they do no consider is that many teachers have failed the highschool exit exam given a few years ago in some school districts to test their teachers...

And their lack of education on the subject does not take into account the homeschool groups we belong to and other outside resources...

Some people hear homeschool and vision children locked in the house and not being exposed to the outside world.. Which is also why we have the stereotype of being unsocialized...

No one person has the knowledge to teach everything.. Therefore we buy books, use online programs, use co-ops, and even friends and relatives share in the educational experience.. Feild trips are also wonderful learning tools.. With homeschoolers instead of being swept thru the museum in a pack of 20+ kids. we get to take our time and really learn.. We can talk in a one on one basis with experts in their feilds...

The knowledge learned may also be different... A public school student may be a whiz in math, but cant balance a checkbook when they graduate..

Dont let outsiders opinions bother you.... You have an ever growing group of homeschhol families that support you..

Answer 4

I've been a mom to 4 home-schooled children for 23+ years. I've never heard anyone call them stupid... well, not anyone that actually knows them! A few people on this internet answers forum tend to enjoy making statements that can't hold water.

I've known many children that have been home-schooled and are now adult college graduates, business owners, and more. None of them qualify as stupid.
I currently know quite a few home-schooling children and don't know any of them as being stupid.
I even know many, many students of public school -- none of them are stupid either.

Don't let the meanies git-yer-goat!!! Who cares what someone says if it isn't true?

Answer 5

Public education is a not so bad concentration camp in my view. It only takes about 100 hours to learn to read write and do the math that they teah you in public school. The rest is unessarry required work for children. Homeschooling can bypass some of the useless or harmful things they teach in public schools and let you learn useful things. Homeschooling is a very good idea. Homeschooled people arent stupider.

Answer 6

No, I've been homeschooled. And, recent studies were made that say that homeschooler's are more intelligent than kids who go to public school. Some people are born intelligent...I know.... but, most normal kids that are home schooled do better in there exams. I get annoyed when people just assume that if your home schooled you can sleep in every day, do your school in your pajama's, lounge on the couch, and do a few problems and then watch TV. We work hard in our studies...because we don't have our own personal teacher we have to practice good study skills. Hope I helped.

Answer 7

I don't think it matters where you're educated probably, it's up to the individual learner what they get out of their education. I'm sure there our many students who went to Harvard that didn't get that much out of it, and hopefully many who did.

I went to a public school that wasn't that good, but went to the library every week and checked out lots of books and self-educated, and thanks to that, I think I was able to do well in college. I was looking through a Sonlight homeschool catalog for the first time and was struck that most of the books I had read myself at about the ages they recommended. I had accidentally homeschooled myself on the weekends and evenings. I do think homeschooling can be conducive to a good education and self-learning, though.

Answer 8

No I don't think that they are stupid. Home schoolers need to be motivated and devote a lot of time to learn all the information that they need to know in order to pass their courses. Those that think that people who are homeschooled are stupid are ignorant of all the hard work home schooling entails.

Its great to see that you got high marks while in a public school, that should give you proof that home schoolers are not stupid.

Don't worry about what others think, focus on your studies.

Answer 9

I'm not sure I can answer your question, but it looks like you're looking for insight into what others think about home-schooled children. So, here's my opinion for your perusal.

I live in Texas, which allows homeschooling very easily - you basically sign a paper saying "yes, I homeschool my child." A good, dedicated parent can be an excellent teacher and give their child or children an excellent education.

However, not every parent is dedicated to putting the effort into homeschooling that is necessary. Unfortunately, many parents think that throwing a workbook at the child and saying "here, do page 5 & 6 in math and page 12 in the speller" is adequate homeschooling. I see this quite often, and it makes me both sad and angry.

Even my husband and his siblings, whose parents both hold doctoral degrees, has gaps in his education because they didn't put much effort into teaching humanities, instead focusing on hard science. (They lived in the middle of nowhere, so it was either an hour bus ride or homeschool.) So although he's not by any means stupid (I wouldn't have married him if he were!), he is somewhat uninformed on certain subjects, for example he doesn't recognize common literary quotes or know much about history. Also his handwriting and reading aloud are a bit below par, but that could just be his personality. :) Most guys I know don't have nice handwriting. Now, he can blow me out of the water in physics, doing some equations in his head, but he had some difficulty in his college English classes just because he did not have the same base of knowledge to work from.

I was a military brat, so I attended various public schools. The best school I ever attended was in England. You were tested regularly and moved up according to your ability to do the coursework. If it took you less time or it took you a little longer, that was fine, as long as you progressed eventually. I hated most of my time in US public schools, though - reading ahead or finishing work early was almost punished, and the 3 year teaching cycle was (is!) simply frustrating. My mother kept me sane by coming up with what I now realize were research projects, by continuing to make me correct my graded papers at home, and by pushing the school system to test me for the GT program.

We discussed homeschooling our child, and after a lot of thought and research, what we've decided to do is let him go to public school, make him correct his papers at home, and use the summers to do units similar to those I did in the gifted classes I was put into. If the public schools don't seem adequate, we may look into the local charter schools.

Answer 10

Don't take it personally, people are idiots, they don't think about what they say even when it's written right in front of them. They're just looking for an insult. I haven't met many people who were home schooled but I think most home schooled kids are smarter then kids in public school and in private school because their parents or hired teachers could devote all their attention to them and teach them in a way that was tailored just for them. Home schooled kids also avoid may of the social factors that interfere with learning. Early on kids in school will learn that school is not cool and neither is wanting to learn, so even kids who want to learn don't pay attention because they want to be cool.