Examining Some Common Questions About Homeschooling
by Alicia, 1993
How different are homeschoolers from public or private schoolers?
M
any people in this
day and age have several misconceptions about “homeschoolers” that I believe need to be
addressed carefully. It is now commonly accepted that just because some people may look or act
differently than others doesn’t make them either “weird” or degraded. Homeschoolers should fit
without question into this belief. Although their way of schooling may be different, the people
who comprise this “group” are only set apart by the beliefs and principles they may share.
How could anyone -parents or children- stand being with their family almost constantly, as
they are forced to be when schooling at home?
Although it’s often thought that being with a
certain person or people all the time will cause you to “get tired of them”, and I’m not saying that
there are not at least occasional times when this is true (especially when you first start
homeschooling), homeschooling families learn to get along with each other, becoming more
“family-oriented” in the process (which, I believe, is part of the Grand Design that is often
overlooked nowadays). In consequence, the children learn to respect the rules of the household,
and, hopefully, the authority of the parents, two important principles that are most commonly
bemoaned as lacking in the teenage years.
Are homeschoolers not “involved” in very many extracurricular activities?
This question
goes right along with the first one, because if the parents and children in homeschooled families
weren’t able to “get away from each other” occasionally, to participate in activities with others in
their age-group, they would most likely become more than tired of each other. Although
homeschoolers may not be as pressured to get ‘involved’ where they may not want to, there are
plenty of opportunities for them. Homeschoolers are also allowed to decide which extra activities
(to a certain extent) they want to pursue. Unfortunately, there are some homeschooling families
who are involved in even more activities than public (or private) schoolers. This syndrome is
similar to the pressure on many private-schoolers to “show up (or at least, keep up with) the
public-schoolers”. Busy is not always good, but usually (if they don’t get too caught up in the
rush called life), homeschoolers have more time for the important things in life.
Is it harder for homeschoolers to make friends?
This question really means ‘Are
homeschoolers shunned [by society or other families]?’ While it’s probably true that
homeschoolers aren’t in as many situations, or at least, not as often, where they can meet and get
to know other kids, often (because they had the time to develop in themselves [and to recognize
in others] the qualities of a good friend) when they do make friends, they are lasting ones. And
even if homeschooling families may not get along, for some reason or another, with
“other-schoolers”, the growing number of homeschoolers today has resulted in the forming of
many groups specifically for homeschoolers, for the purpose of doing activities together, and for
the “moral support” of the common type of schooling. If other people don’t attempt to get to
know a family just because they’re “homeschoolers”, it’s their loss. Most homeschoolers have no
real desire to be “part of the crowd”, anyway. To use the old adage, “Different is good.”
O
f course, the reasons for a family’s type of schooling are most important. As with anything else,
you should only embark on the journey of homeschooling if it’s what God tells you to do.
Homeschooling isn’t for everyone. Some prefer the environment of public or even private school
for the potential of being a witness for God, while others prefer the freedom of home for installing
life-long principles and ‘a heart for God’ into their child. Others think a mixture of the two is
best. No one can say which is best for everyone, because each person is different. But no matter
which type of schooling you decide upon, have some respect for the other kinds. Because no
matter how different the various types of schooling are, we should all be trying, in the best way
we know, to serve God in the way He set it up that we should.
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