Why are people so against homeschooling?

Question

I'm 15, homeschooled and it ROCKS!!! I now own and run a small business with passive income (It deals with electronic sales), get higher SAT scores than my peers and I have colleges checking me out. Many of my fellow homeschooling peers get this as well, yet so many people are against homeschooling.

Oh yes, and don't give me crap about anti-socialism. That's the biggest load of BS! I am in Speech/Debate, martial arts, tennis, Boy Scouts, co-ops and run my business. Don't say I'm not socialized or others are. So many of my friends take part in these activities.......

Why go against homeschooling?

Answer 1

I think the naysayers who have responded so far prove that it's really all about not having your facts straight and not understanding; about having complete misconceptions of homeschooling and homeschoolers. You just finished telling them all the stuff you participate in yet what was the first response? "How dus the kid make friends?"

People don't get it. They can't conceive of homeschooling as it really is so they are against it. They have all kinds of stereotypes running around their heads, like "Most parents who want to home school are psychos--religious nuts". Of the many, many families I have met in past years, only a few were highly religious.

I have to laugh at: "If only ALL homeschools would have an environment of a typical school (that is, you get to know, quarrel, gossip, learn and grow and get along with so many friends), then people won't be against it anymore. "

First of all, I think it's a horrible thing to be a gossip. I catch myself at it and it's just awful. I wouldn't want people to treat me that way, so I shouldn't do that to them. I do not want my kids to grow up to be gossips! Where does that get you in life? What kind of person does that turn you into? Even growing up, my friends and I saw the big gossips in the school as being so immature and stuck-up. I don't think that's such a great thing. As for quarrelling, you never quarrel with your siblings??? My kids get plenty of experience with quarrelling between each other and there are also things that happen when we're with other homeschoolers. This goes back to people having huge misconceptions of what homeschooling life is really like. "Learn and grow"? You're going to learn and grow no matter where you are. "Get along with so many friends"? A lot of people in school don't have that many friends. I know a number of homeschooled kids who have way more friends than I ever had. Again, total misconception of what homeschooling is like. Not to mention a total misunderstanding of people in general.

Answer 2

llordlloyd

Actually, homeschooling was first readopted in the late 60's and 70's by Progressive Libertarians.

Christians began to jump on the bandwagon in the 1980's in response to a growing anti-christian sentiment in some public schools.

By the mid 90's homeschoolers were about evenly split between libertarians and Conservative Christians.

During the late 90's homeschooling caught the attention of many in the general public and homeschoolers are mostly from the mainstream






Question: If parents are not to decide what, when where, how and by whom their children are taught than who should decide? The Government?

I grew up around the "experts" in education because my Dad is a third generation teacher and now school administrator. My father fully supports homeschooling as do many of his colleagues.

Answer 3

It's because they DON'T HAVE A CLUE. My children are homeschooled. They are very social, have tons of friends, go to scouts, martial arts/dance, the Y, lessons. I could go on. We are not religious. We don't even go to church. We aren't extremists about anything (except maybe my daughter being "library book greedy" where she takes as many books as she can each time). I don't even KNOW any homeschoolers like that, and I know many. We are out in the world everyday, not just on the weekends. I was public schooled my whole life. I didn't really start learning until I got to college, though. My learning started when a classmate laughed at me when I asked permission to go the restroom at college. How is public school like the real world? It's not. I don't even have any of the same friends I had before college (except one). People just don't like things to be outside the norm, that's all.

Answer 4

I agree, I'm 15 and I'm also homeschooled. My little sister is a social butterfly and she's homeschooled too. We can learn at our own pace, skip things we know, and get personal attention in our weak spots. If there is a homeschooler who is not socialized, it's not the homeschooling, it's the parents. I've been homeschooled since grade school and I've got PLENTY of friends and social outings. I think homeschool bashing people see the ONE homeschooler who doesn't like it, won't make friends, has bad BO, a learning disability, an no manners and judges ALL the rest on the one person. Grr...

Answer 5

I don't know, but I think it's a great idea. I think a lot of people don't want to take the time or effort to teach their kids at home. They have to work and would just rather "dump" the kids in a public or private school. Homeschooling has been around since the creation of man. I think some people think that it leads to "isolationism" . But that is not true. The people I know who homeschool take their kids on field trips with other homeschoolers. There are a lot of advantages to homeschooling - you can teach your own brand of standards and ethics . Discipline is not a problem. You move at your own speed. You don't worry about looking like your classmates or dressing like them or doing drugs with them. I think people just don't really know what homeschooling is all about.

Answer 6

People are afraid of the unknown, and have doubts about their ability or yours to succeed on their own, so they feel compelled to push their fears on to you. Personally, I think its terrible that its takes people 18 years of life to learn so little and end up with such a worthless high school degree that would give so little income potential. I see alot of potential in learning all that needs to be learned before college and passing the GED exam at an earlier age, taking the SATs and going into college at an earlier age. Noboby forces a homeschool to not participate in public school sports. If you pay taxes, then those opportunities should still be available to you.

Answer 7

I just think people don't understand. Um well I think that most people (i know you don't want to hear about antisocailism ) feel like or wonder why people would keep there children home and not let them experience public school (I thnk home schooling is awesome idea I've had a few friends that were they are the most social people I know and very intelligent. I think people have the view of well they won't make it in the "real" world they haven't exprienced working with other people but I know this is untrue. I also believe that people think children that are home schooled are shunned from society that's also totally untrue. So that's my opinion :)

Answer 8

Sir Nigel, this question is very similar to your last one, thus my answer is very similiar to the last one I gave.
But no matter how many times the question is asked and answered antihomeschoolers will still be antihomeschoolers.
Why? they want to be.
Homeschooling goes against the norm. It takes them out of their comfort zone.
And that is odd, because homeschooling used to be the norm, but children in our publicschools are not taught that.
In case no one has noticed, our rights are quietly slipping away in this country. Our history is being rewritten. Did you know that "one of our presidential candidates" has the brilliant idea to broadcast in "all areas where people gather together publically" information on how to raise children because "most people that choose to have children" know nothing of childrearing.
hmmm, having information broadcast all over the place about her (oops took away the mystery, didn't I?) idea of how to raise children....sound familiar? Sound like North Korea to you?
that's one of her ideas on what "it takes a village to raise a child" means.
Now you take ideas like that and couple it with the notion that only the "professionals" know what's best for your children, and you quickly have no more parental rights.
How many times have you been on this forum and seen "professional" teachers bash homeschool parents for "ruining" their own children and they should just "get with the program" and send their children to "real schools" and leave the raising and educating of their children to people that "know how to do it."
The idea behind this is the slow tearing down of the family:
parents do not know what they are doing
only those approved by the government are capable of making choices in the best interest of the children
going against the "norm" is dangerous
if you aren't learning what the government says you should, in the order they say you should, then there is something wrong with you.
So far, this is working nicely. Children graduating out of public education today have no idea that most of our founding fathers were homeschooled. They have no idea of the principles and ideals on which this country's governing documents were built.They have no idea how to think through something logically nor see the ramifications of the system they are in. Yet they accuse homeschool parents and children of the exact same thing.
And they prove I am right every time they come on here and say homeschooling is illegal, or only teachers are capable of taking care of children, or we are abusing our children but not allowing them to be "normal."

this is also the reason why homeschool families are so passionate about protecting their rights too choose. I will gladly give up access to extracurricular activities at the public school (the loss of which is made up by more and more homeschool leagues) in order to keep the governement out of my decision making process. That's why you will see associations like HSLDA and THSC working so hard to maintain freedom for homeschoolers in this country.
Just something to chew on this morning.


Edit to add: a good example of this "parents don't know what they are doing" mentality is evident in the answer, " you need a liscence to drive a car, but not to be a parent."
This isn't just a funny little quip, but an actual thought that parents should be required to go through a government approved education process before they are "allowed" to have children. That person may have thought they were being funny, but in fact, they were just parroting the that subtle indoctrinating thought that only the government knows what's best for us.

Answer 9

Because they don't like what they aren't familiar with. They've been told bad things about homeschooling, they keep spreading it, and they refuse to stop spreading the bs.
Also, some of them see a couple of bad examples and assume that all of us are like that. They don't like to think that there could be a different kind of homeschooler.
Basically, they just refuse to think for themselves.
Also, I agree with you. I was homeschooled when I was 16. I finished in 9 months. I loved it. And I don't understand why people don't like it. And it irritates me when they tell me that I'm socially retarded because I was homeschooled, and they don't even know me.

Answer 10

I'm not against it. We are from a small country town and just moved to a city. ( Not a big city though, But bigger than what I used to live.) Anyways, I was thinking about homeschooling my 4 year old daughter cause I fear big schools. But she's starting to get the point that she has no friends around. So, i'm not sure if I want to continue to homeschool or drive back and forth to where I used to live and take her to school there. I live like 30mins aways from the country town we used to live.