Yes, there were times when I disagreed with curriculum and teaching styles, but I didn’t pick up my ball and stomp home. I called, I attended conferences, I met with the principal, I spoke with the school board. I worked it out.

Do I have a problem with parents who homeschool – no. I DO have a problem with the way homeschooling parents view themselves. Do they really believe they are this repressed minority that the government and the NEA are secretly gunning for? Can they be that naive? Do they have any idea how little most people care whether they take their kids off the grid or not? I actually had one neighbor, who homeschools her children, tell me that she was not going to answer the county census because it was the government’s way of ferreting out homeschoolers? Really? Our census in Virginia is merely to cut up the pie by population. If you don’t choose to send your child to public school, then – MORE FOR THE REST OF US – we get the money anyway. I was amazed when she said this. Of course, she is also teaching her children that the planet is less than 10,000 years old, so I don’t know why I should have been surprised.

As far as reputation, most children that I meet from homeschools are high achieving children from involved and supportive parents. But once in awhile I meet the 10,000 year old planet types, and then I understand the concerns voiced by traditional educators. You in the homeschool community should address this issue in your own ranks. We have over 80 children in our neighborhood who are homeschooled, compared to a little over 1000 who aren’t, but out of all those children, you know everyone remembers the family with 10,000 year old planet theory and assumes that’s what is going on with the rest.

I don’t worry about socialization with homeschooled children. I do wonder exactly what happens when the bubble wrap comes off though. And it has to, doesn’t it? You can’t control their environment forever, so how does that work?
Are they the kids that cut loose in college? Are you going to let them go away to school then? At what age do they get out from under the constant loving scrutiny of their parents? When do they get to interact with their peers,or for that matter, with anyone else, without the parents around? How do they know where they start and their parents end?

I’ll be interested to hear from all of you about that.

I figure the teacher’s union is dedicated to forming a guild. Only they will be permitted to teach.

I have not seen that much difference in the educational system since I graduated from high school in 1986. True there are a lot of required tests that try to show the school systems and the students how much they have learned over the years, but is these test really working? If there is not changes in how school systems teach the students, I say nothing is working.

From all the results that i have read, home school has lighten up the charts on how much children are learning vs public/private schools. Since home school might not be for everyone, then I strongly suggest this: why are both parents and public/private schools working together? That answer is just about the simplest question to answer. The governments do not want parents to be involved with their own children. The governments of the Untied States of America wants to control all of us. To do so, they first much condition children to think not as individuals, but as mindless robots. If you do not believe, check out the videos of the old tv show, “The Prisoner.”

In the 1960s this one man, who played Number 6, was telling us all that our governments in the USA was slowly and systematically turning its citizens just like the ones living in “The Village.” If we can be easily fooled into accepting the NAFTA act into law in the early 1990s, then one can see how much influence our governments have over us all, and the “Big Lies” continues.

Brandon Bowers

Our two children are active in both church and homeschool organization groups and have a lot of friends, more than I did when I was their age and going to public school. They play soccer and softball on homeschool groups. My wife makes plans with other homeschool moms and they take the kids to the museum or out for a hike or some other sort of “field trip” activity on a regular basis.

When our kids interact with other (non-homeschooled) kids at places like the park, I’m often a bit surprised at how my kids are the ones introducing themselves, asking if they can join in a game, or organizing a game if there isn’t one already going. It’s usually (not always, but but probably 90% of the time) the other kids, the ones with all the social skills we keep getting told are so important, that don’t answer or don’t interact well.

The problem with the socialization perception is that homeschool parents are completely comfortable with (or, more often, even very thankful for) the fact that their children aren’t “socializing” with the random bunch of other kids lumped into the public school, and this drives the parents of those kids nuts. It’s a “oh, you think your kids are too good to socialize with mine, do you?” attitude, and that is pretty hard to overcome so that a rational, objective conversation on the subject can take place.

Now, the majority of kids in public schools are just fine, when taken alone. And odds are that most homeschool parents wouldn’t have too much of an issue with their kids socializing with most other kids. But at school you usually end up with the lowest common denominator, and the “herd” isn’t a herd most people who make the commitment to homeschooling want their kids exposed to. It’s not that Joe or Jack or Amy or Jane are bad, it’s that Joe+Jack+Amy+Jane+everyone are usually notgood at best. Plus, my 10-y-o daughter doesn’t have a clue who Hannah Montana is. That right there is worth gold.

All this, and I never even mentioned curriculum.