A Harris poll of adults conducted between the 8th and 14th of March, asked the poll-ees why each one thought that homeschooling families homeschool.  And (in line with the Family Feud game show, on which, according to a contributor to Wikipedia, contestants are asked to answer according to, “what other people think are true”), survey says ….

• Harris Interactive, 14 April 2006, One-third of U.S. Adults Know Someone Who Homeschools Their Child    

  U.S. adults think that parents’ main reasons or say their own main reasons for homeschooling their children are dissatisfaction with academic instruction (65%), to provide religious or moral instruction (60%), and concern about safety at school or on the school bus (53%). Half of adults (51%) say one of their main reasons for homeschooling or think that other parents homeschool their children is because of dissatisfaction with state or government regulations at school.

A total of fifteen responses were given.

This looks reasonable, but one guess at why homeschoolers homeschool was left out – maybe it was one of the guesses that garnered less than 1% of the vote?

The missing reason, obvious to the well-trained homeschooling mind, is Joy.

All those poll answers are about school, school, school.  Honey, once you’re out, who gives a flying fig about ‘school.’  In that first year of homeschooling, if you haven’t been homeschooling all along, once you’re over that initial hump of reintegration, you may discover ‘We’re a family once again!’  

In many homeschooling families, parents rediscover that they and their children are not just people who live in the same unit in a bedroom community.  To quote more than one mother who’s posted to an email list, ”I’ve got my child back again.”  All for one, and one for all!  We’ve found Us again!

I’ve just used up my allotment of exclamation points for the year, but it was worth it.  Maybe homeschooling’s anthem shouldn’t be from Pink Floyd, but rather from Three Dog Night. “Joy to the world, all the boys and girls.  Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea, joy to you and me.”

Apr 20 2006 in Articles About Homeschooling valerie No Comments »