Fact and Myth

I was talking with a friend lately who mentioned that she thinks many people still have many misconceptions about homeschooling and homeschoolers. So I thought I would take a moment to examine what seem to be some of the ideas floating around about homeschooling, and to sort fact from myth.

Actually, the first thing anyone should understand is that there is such diversity among homeschoolers that what is fact with some may be myth with others, and vise versa. There are atheist homeschoolers, Christian homeschoolers, Muslim homeschoolers. There are structured "by the book" homeschoolers, and there are extreme unschoolers. There are conservative homeschoolers and liberal homeschoolers. There are homeschoolers who watch TV and homeschoolers who don't (and among those who don't, by the way, some are Christian and others aren't - faith is only one reason people choose to forgo television). There are shy homeschoolers and outgoing homeschoolers. There are homeschoolers who are "advanced" academically, and homeschoolers who aren't. There are some "creative" (I think by that people mean "arts and craft-y") moms, and moms (such as yours truly) who aren't really into that. There are super organized homeschool moms, and moms who aren't. There are some really patient moms, and moms who are a little less easy-going. There are homeschool kids who do schoolwork at desks, and homeschool kids who do school outside, inside, ON the table rather than around it, in their rooms, in the car, on the couch , on the floor, on the trampoline, at the park, with each other, by themselves.... There are families who like to spend a lot of money on the unbelievable amount of curriculum available, and there are moms who don't.

Well, actually, that pretty much sums it up, so there's really no need for the rest of the post.

So - do you have an idea of what homeschoolers and their homeschooling looks like? You could probably find families to fit that image. But you should also know that there are hundreds of others who look and act completely different than that image, and any others that the uninformed might have, so it's quite inaccurate - and unwise - to put any labels on homeschoolers in general.

PS Occasionally I hear people acknowledge that "it's not like that anymore," at which I get a little bristly. Do they really know what it was like before, in the early days of modern homeschooling? Could they really pick out of a crowd adults who were homeschooled? Even back then, we weren't socially awkward, academically stunted wierdos. Just had to get that out there!