A friend of mine posted this on another board. I thought it was funny/interesting. Since I have nothing great of my *own* to share tonight I will share it. I've only homeschooled for 7+ years but have gotten ALL of these questions/comments from the public. It's amazing! Much like the issue of how many children one has, homeschooling (or however you choose to educate your kids) has become everyone's business!! God Bless your day!
The Bitter Homeschooler' s Wish ListFrom Secular Homeschooling Magazine, Issue #1
1 Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is ? and it is ? it's insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?
2 Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my children, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts.
3 Quit interrupting my son in his karate lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask if, as a homeschooler, he ever gets to socialize.
4 Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.
5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.
6 Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You're probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you've ever heard. We all hate you. Please go away.
7 We don't look horrified and start quizzing your children when we hear they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.
8 Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.
9 Stop assuming that if we are religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.
10 We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.
11 Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn't have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don't need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-em-up-and- spit-em-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can't teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there's a reason I'm so reluctant to send my child to school.
12 If my child is only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't be shocked if I decide to respond in kind.
13 Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool, " we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky.
14 Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in "homeschool, " we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your child does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education ? and many of us prefer a more organic approach ? we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.
15 Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my child might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of teens who do go to school don't get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I'm one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else.
16 Don't ask my child if he would rather go to school, unless you don't mind if I ask your child if he would rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.
17 Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.
18 If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our children. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.
19 Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child's teacher as well as his parent. I don't see much difference between bossing him around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.
20 Stop saying that my child is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the children who attend public school can be as annoying as they want to be without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.
21 Quit assuming that my child must be some kind of prodigy because he's homeschooled.
22 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my children.
23 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my children.
24 Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my children won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.
25 Here's a thought: If you can't say something nice about homeschooling, shut up!
Above - Jackson with his birthday cake (Star Wars of course!)
