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I went to college to be a teacher and spent nine years in public and private schools teaching. Believe me, I heard a lot about homeschooling and not in a positive light.

I was taught by educators that pushed the belief that parents can’t possibly teach their children. After all, they aren’t a certified teacher. Only trained teachers can properly educate a child, and only if they attended a public school. And of course, homeschoolers sit around in their pajamas all day. I guess that is a bad thing.

As I said, I didn’t hear anything positive about homeschooling being in the education world. In all fairness, my educational training and teaching career were filled with negativity towards ANYTHING that wasn’t a public school education. 

It was almost 20 years ago I started my teaching career. It was 10 years ago when I left teaching in public schools. I loved teaching with all my heart, but I wasn’t blind to the limits of the public schools and the jaded view on anything different from public education.

Now, I am a stay at home mom of two kids, and I homeschool them. I have been involved in homeschooling for a few years, and I have made connections in the homeschooling community. I know a very diverse group of homeschoolers. We all homeschool differently and for different reasons. I have not found anyone that wholly fits the stereotypes about homeschoolers.

What are some of the myths and stereotypes? You have probably heard them, but here are my thoughts. 

Homeschool Stereotype #1

All homeschoolers are eccentric Christians that want to isolate their kids from the real world.

For some reason, people still like to conjure in their mind homeschoolers running around in bonnets and aprons out on the farm. Do some families fit this image? Yes. Do all of them? NO. Homeschool families are very diverse.

I know a lot of families that are strong in their beliefs. I know other families that are secular homeschoolers. I think as the years go by there are more and more families that choose to homeschool for reasons other than religion. We didn’t homeschool for this reason.

Homeschool Stereotype #2

Homeschoolers are weird.

Well, I joke with my kids they are weird homeschoolers. I also follow up with everyone is “weird” in someone else’s eyes. As I tell my kids, it isn’t that they are weird it’s they can express themselves more freely.

What do I mean by that?

I grew up going to public school. It is hard to be yourself. Unless things have changed, there is a lot of pressure to act a certain way and like the right things to fit in. If you don’t care about fitting in then this wouldn’t matter to you. I would argue most kids aren’t 100% themselves in school because they want to fit in.

I feel homeschoolers can be themselves a lot more freely. They can be who they want to be, pursue what they like without the pressure of a large number of peers looking on and judging. I’m not saying homeschoolers don’t judge others; I am saying they aren’t in large groups daily to feel the need to conform with others.

Homeschool Stereotype #3

Homeschooled kids play all day.

It may appear to others that our children don’t work when they see us out in the middle of the day. All they see is a kid playing in the park, out shopping, or at the library during school hours. If you are not sitting at a desk between nine and three, you must not be learning. 

You can’t blame people that haven’t been around homeschooling families for thinking this. They don’t understand we are not stuck learning during certain hours of the day or to a specific location. People don’t realize that homeschooling a few kids instead of twenty goes faster. Most people went to school so it is hard to break away from this mindset. It took me some time to adjust to school vs homeschool after being in education for so many years.

Homeschool Stereotype #4

Homeschoolers don’t have to earn their grades.

I have to admit this homeschool stereotype gets under my skin the most. Someone said to me, “It doesn’t matter if your son finishes his work. You can say he gets an A.”

What?!

Like you, I bust my butt planning and teaching my kids. I struggle to make sure my kids understand what they are learning. They bomb an assignment, we do it again, and again, and again. We keep at it until they learn the material. So when someone implies I just GIVE my kids an “A” I am very offended. Not to mention it is an insult to my kids who work hard every day. 

I know, people that make that statement don’t know my kids or me. If they did, they wouldn’t make that comment. However, some people believe that about homeschooling parents. What benefit is it to us as a parent to move our kids along and not ensure they learn. I can’t say I know a homeschool parent that keeps their kids home without worrying about their children’s education.

Homeschool Stereotype #5

Homeschoolers aren’t socialized.

We all know this statement is bogus. Homeschoolers tend to be around people of varying ages. They are also out in the “real world” often. Kids aren’t “socialized” just by being in the presence of a large group of same-aged peers daily.

I can’t say I’m 100% clear what everyone means by a kid being socialized. Do they mean carrying on a conversation with others? Do they mean being able to interact with other people in a socially acceptable manner? 

People learn to interact with one another by being around other people. It doesn’t have to be in a school setting. It can be at the grocery store, church, on the playground, or with family. You can’t tell me that early pioneers moving out west didn’t know how to interact with others because they weren’t around groups of people all day long.

I guess the assumption is that homeschoolers are isolated from others, therefore, they don’t learn social skills. I know of one organization that states a child can do the program at home without joining a unit if there isn’t a unit nearby OR they are homeschooled. Does this mean they assume homeschoolers don’t want to associate with others? I haven’t figured that one out yet. 

Do We Fit the Stereotypes

We all have our reasons for why we homeschool. Being homeschooled doesn’t make you act or be a certain way. Do we fit the stereotypes? Not really. The face of homeschooling is changing a lot nowadays. It isn’t only religious people or back-to-the-earth families. It isn’t to isolate our kids from the world or to keep them home to play. It seems most families homeschool to educate their children on how they think is best.

Stereotypes about homeschoolers persist because people don’t understand homeschooling. It is different so people seek to explain it. They see a snippet of what they think is homeschooling and generalize it to all. I think this is changing. I hope it is changing. Maybe homeschooling won’t have such a negative connotation to it anymore. 

Take a look at this article by Daniel Brown from Study.com called Homeschooling Today: Myth vs Reality. It is an interesting study on homeschooling today.

Do you fit any of the homeschool stereotypes?

Happy Homeschooling!