What Homeschooling Actually is; Dispelling Misconceptions; How the Right to Homeschool is Under Attack
- rstinson10
- Nov 1, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 5
What is homeschooling (actually)?
We are veteran homeschoolers. We invite you to browse our website for more articles about school choice related issues, navigating the homeschool world, limiting screen time for your family and more. This site is not monetized.
Homeschooling is a Lifestyle
Public schooling is also a lifestyle even though it's not considered in such a way. The homeschool lifestyle is best described as taking upon ourselves the responsibility of educating our children and preparing them to enter the real world as adults. We may use a variety of different methods, classes and resources, but we all have the same goal: educating our children. We enjoy a slower pace life with less "rat race". We out-source sometimes, by using teachers, tutors, family members and extracurricular activities to homeschool. We may use curriculum that sometimes comes in form of games, such as Scrabble or Monopoly. We go on field trips and adventures.
Many well known athletes and actors were homeschooled: they benefited from the flexible schedule to travel for tournaments and practices. They were able to focus on developing their careers while still learning. All homeschoolers do this as well.
Homeschooling is an extension of parenting: there is no difference in teaching a toddler to say please and thank you and to take turns or making sure children eat their vegetables and teaching them how to read and write.
There is an illusion that the public school system performs all of the education for attending students, but this is a fallacy. In reality, it is parents that retain the responsibility to educate their children. The courts have ruled time-and-again that public schools have bear no responsibility to educate or train a specific child. There's a well-known rule in leadership: you can delegate authority but you can't delegate responsibility. The same is true in parenting.
You can choose your "hard".
Homeschoolers excel academically compared with their public school peers.
See this link for a detailed analysis for how homeschoolers compare to public school students (on average).
Every state has their own homeschool laws
Generally, you cannot just immediately pull your child out of public school to homeschool (if you do, you may run a-foul of truancy laws). Depending on the state there is usually a process homeschool families must follow. HSLDA (the Homeschool Legal Defense Association) is an important organization in the homeschool world and can help in navigating your state's homeschool laws.
If you are interested in homeschooling, here are some tips to get started.
There are many common misconceptions surrounding homeschooling. Here is the truth.
For homeschooled children, parents are not their only teachers and their home is not their only school
Homeschooling is inherently social
Homeschooling can be done on a "shoestring budget"
There are many curriculum choices available for homeschoolers
Homeschooling is Under Attack
The homeschool community needs your help to stop invasive and unconstitutual anti-homeschooling laws, which includes school voucher legislation. I wish we could all be informed voters who would show up at the polls during an election after researching ballot initiatives. Unfortunately, this is not the case. We must all be proactive and diligent in protecting school choice and education freedom.
Our legal representatives often do not give us as an option to vote on (many) important laws, such as school choice bills. Instead, they often vote on tyrannical laws in a congressional setting behind closed doors or with limited exposure to the public. Hearings may not be well-publicized or advertised before they occur, or posted at all. This makes it so instead of just showing up to vote a few times a year at the polls, citizens must make an effort to contact our representatives to make our will known to our legislative representatives, so that they will attend congressional hearings involving education and vote in the way that we want. We have to do this, as our freedom is at stake.
The homeschool community needs your help!
Join the fight. Some bills are good bills we hope to pass and some are dangerous. If your state has a school choice bill out, there is likely homeschool groups organizing practical ways to get involved.
School choice voucher programs harm our community.
Click here for a list of true ways you can help the homeschool community without voucher scams.
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