Opinions of Homeschooling

Dave Ramsey recently asked, on his Facebook page, "Which is better? Private or public school?" He was asking from a financial standpoint, but he got nearly 1000 responses of which I estimate that nearly half said to HOMESCHOOL.

The homeschoolers listed all sorts of reasons why it works for them, from a financial standpoint to a theological standpoint. Some who responded were students, and some were parents.

What I thought was funny were some of the responses from those opposed to homeschooling. These are some of the responses that I found funniest, most ironic, and uninformed:

• My ex-wife homschools our child, and she is a terrible speller and not good at English. She thinks she's so much better because she graduated with honors. (Okay, where did she graduate from? Public School? Private? Apparently that honors tag can't be any worse than homeschooling.)
• How qualified are parents to teach homeschool? They need interaction with others their own age. (Great, I'll let my child's whole world of influence come from other children the same age and zip code. I don't my child to see what else is out there in the world.)
• Why are the homeschool kids on Facebook? Shouldn't they be schooling? (It's summer? We don't live in prison, after all.)
• What about socialization? (You knew that one was coming.)
• They will miss out on group sports, prom, and other stuff. I know homeschool kids have their own sports and proms, but they're not the same. (Yes, we know. That's why we do it that way.)
• (commenting on someone else's list of notable homeschool graduates...) Sure, there are famous homeschool graduates, but there are a lot more famous public school graduates. (Let's do the math...there are a lot more public school graduates, so maybe that's why there are more?)
• Homeschoolers can't learn leadership skills. You can only learn that in public schools. (Is that "Lord of the Flies" style of leadership? Only the strong survive, and the weak get tossed aside?)
• Going to the local orchard, visiting with artists, and traveling doesn't count as having a vast knowledge of the world. (Then why do public schools go on field trips?)

I can't list them all. There were just too many. We homeschoolers hear these comments from uninformed people all the time. It gets old, and "those people" never learn. Fortunately, we homeschoolers DO learn, outside of their negative influences.