by Lorinda K. F. Newton
Home education has been legal in all 50 states for a few decades now. Yet, misunderstandings or negative news stories continue to bring up objections. During the holiday season, friends and family, who you don’t often see, may question your educational choice. To help you respond to these, here’s a list of common objections and some answers.
What about socialization?
To answer this classic question, you can ask in return, “Besides your school years, has there been a time in your life when you only interacted with people of your own age?” You want to point out that spending your day only with people of the same age rarely occurs outside of school.
Or you might ask, “Which situation do you prefer? Having your 13-year-old socialized by a classroom of young teens or by guiding adults in a multi-age group setting? It’s better for kids to learn social skills from their parents than their peers.
You may also want to ask what they mean by socialization. People can have different ideas for what that means. Then you can form an answer based on their reply.
How will they function in greater society if they are “sheltered”?
One of the reasons many people choose to homeschool is to shelter their kids from the evil in the world until they have reached the maturity level to handle it. Today, so many children are prematurely exposed to adult ideas and images. Such exposure causes some children to develop emotional or mental problems such as anxiety or identity confusion.
Home educators prefer to protect the innocence of their children. Only when they reach a certain level of maturity will we parents discuss the uglier side of life. At that time, we can guide them through the information at a level they can understand.
Granted, life events can bring such issues to the forefront, and we need to help our children process the information at that point. As a parent, I’d rather be the one to explain the horrors of the Trail of Tears or the sexual deviancy of our culture to my children than have a school teacher, whose worldview may differ from mine, teach it.
How can your children know about people different from themselves?
To begin with, you may want to ask the questioner how she might envision homeschooling. Does she imagine your children spending every day sitting around the dining room table reading books or listening to mom teach a lesson? For many home educators, the term “homeschooling” could be replaced with “carschooling.” More often than not, we home educators are transporting our children to various learning experiences throughout the week and only enjoy a couple of days at home.
Even during my first year of home education in 2004-05, we participated in activities outside the home. My kindergarten son attended Home Zone (PE, art, and swimming lessons for homeschoolers) at the local YMCA each week. In addition, we had regularly scheduled playdates, weekly women’s Bible study with childcare, and the occasional field trips to factories or the zoo. As a family, we regularly attended church, and my son attended AWANA on Wednesdays.
Because I rarely hired a babysitter, my son joined me as I ran errands. Consequently, he saw much more of his community than the average kindergartener who spends three to six hours at school and then perhaps a few more hours in before- or after-school daycare. As my errand buddy, my son became familiar with grocery clerks, the woman at the local post office, and other people and places in our community. Over the years, my kids have participated in community sports and clubs, youth group activities and camps, and volunteer opportunities in the community.
As part of our school, we attended several plays and other performances, some of which expressed messages contrary to our biblical worldview. Sonlight’s Eastern Hemisphere curriculum, which I highly recommend, exposed my children to various religions, cultures, and worldviews that differed significantly from our own. Novels and nonfiction narratives read for school depicted people from many walks of life and times in history. In science, we looked at both evolutionary books and creation science books. All of these opened the door for discussions about people different from ourselves.
These activities and educational experiences have equipped my kids with a broad view of our society. Other homeschoolers have done the same. Thus, I believe that homeschool children actually experience a higher level of socialization than classroom-educated children.
How will they learn all they need to know?
To answer this question, I consider my audience. If a parent wants to learn about home education, I point her to books that list what a child should know at a specific grade level. If the question comes from a skeptic, I ask if he has any gaps in his education.
We all have educational gaps, especially those who moved frequently. Fortunately, I attended school with the same kids from first grade on. Yet, gaps occurred. My class of 1985 was taught Maps & Globes for two different years. My sister’s class of 1986 didn’t receive that instruction. But her class learned the capitals of the states. I never did.
Yes, even home educators miss covering some material. This often happens when parents let their children’s interests guide some of the curriculum choices. We strove to meet English and math standard requirements, but I have been somewhat flexible with history and science topics. For instance, my daughter loves nature. So, from second grade on, all her science courses covered the natural sciences: biology, botany, oceanography, and astronomy. She didn’t have physical science until her sophomore year.
As another example, my son never studied the last 500 years of world history as a course. Our chronological history plan was diverted to accommodate other topics. He studied the wars of the twentieth century and current events.
Educational gaps, however, must be avoided in the three R’s. You can explain to a concerned friend that home educators often use standardized tests to determine whether their children are on track. In Washington State, all home educated students from ages 8-18 must be either assessed or tested annually. Many other states have similar requirements.
Through these tests, a home based educating family can see how their children compare with other children in English and math. Typically, home educated students score well on these tests. Such results will soothe a worried grandparent.
So, before you meet with friends or family who may challenge your educational choice to school at home, review these questions and prepare yourself to answer them in an engaging way.
Lorinda K.F. Newton began homeschooling her children in 2004, and her family joined Academy Northwest in 2014. Her family lives on beautiful Whidbey Island north of Seattle, Washington. She writes about faith, culture, and governing from a biblical worldview at Lorinda’s Ponderings and Lorinda’s Ponderings on Facebook.
