This guest post by MaryAnna Cashmore at Tammy Takahashi’s Just Enough and Nothing More can be filed in the ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ folder. Click over to the site to get an explanation of all the contradictions.
Are YOU a Stereotypical Homeschooler?, Just Enough, and Nothing More
Homeschooling has been in the news a lot lately, and this has brought to light the fact that there are quite a few contradictory stereotypes out there regarding homeschoolers. Here are a few that I’ve seen (with maybe also a little artistic license taken by yours truly). But judge for yourself; are YOU a typical homeschooler?
1. All homeschooled kids are brilliant.
2. All homeschooled kids spend all day outside playing.
3. All homeschooled kids are well-mannered.
4. All homeschooled kids are kept at home all day to protect them from evil outside influences.
5. Homeschooling parents are the well-educated, financially elite of the community.
6. Homeschooled families pretend to be educating their children
7. Homeschoolers could be child abusers who are using homeschooling as a ruse
8. Homeschooling parents pressure their kids too much,
9. Homeschooling parents take their kids with them to run errands, use the kids to get chores and farm work done, and then call it all “curriculum,”
10. All homeschoolers are anti-evolution and anti-tolerance.
11. Homeschoolers are maladjusted and anti-social,
12. Homeschooled kids are out to make homeschooling sound like so much fun
13. Homeschooled kids are sort of like the Amish.
14. Homeschoolers are trying to make the statement that they don’t need anyone,
15. Homeschoolers are hippies.
16. Homeschoolers are extremely devout fundamentalists
17. Homeschoolers only associate with each other.
18. Homeschoolers think that homeschooling is the only good educational option,
19. Homeschoolers don’t know anything at all about public school.
20. Kids who are homeschooled have an unfair advantage when it comes to having more time to practice their sports training for competition, musicianship, dancing skills, etc.