Today while browsing #homeschool on Twitter, I ran across a tweet that said that homeschool parents needed to find a life for their kids outside of home. That socialization is a key to survival in life and homeschool parents need to cut the cord and NOT HOMESCHOOL.
Well, to say that it initially really made me angry was an understatement. I wanted to blast off a tweet telling this person that my kids are both homeschooled and socialized but 140 characters just didn’t allow me enough space to say all that I wanted to say. So instead, I thought about it. Do people really still believe that homeschoolers lock their children in the house, pull the drapes closed and not allow their children to see the world outside? Hello! Wake-up people! Homeschoolers are not socialized? Come on. Get with it.
Do you know what public school taught me? That people beneath me in school were somehow inferior, that my parents were old and stupid, that people older than my parents were ancient and that if I was different from the “in crowd” I was somehow weird. Yeah. I learned a lot about socialization in school and it’s taken me years to unlearn it. I do not want the type of socialization that the school setting offers for my children. That is not real socialization. When in life will you ever again be surrounded with peers of the same age? Never.
At this exact moment, one of my unsocialized kids, who will talk to ANYONE, is in the camp office speaking to three retired Army veteran’s. He talks to them about Douglas MacArthur, WWII, Korea, Vietnam (can you believe there is a veteran who fought in all three battles?), pocket knives, muscle cars, church and God. My other unsocialized child is chatting with friends of all ages on Facebook and my other child is working on helping me plan a field trip for some area teens next week. Unsocialized? I think not.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
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It really surprises me that socialization is the same argument they used back in the early days of parents starting to homeschool and now. I mean seriously that tells me they don't know very many homeschoolers.
ReplyDeleteYou go girl!
ReplyDeleteJenn
Well, you're out of that category, right! You don't homeschool, you do School Abroad By RV! Pooh on naysayers.
ReplyDeleteYes Alisha, You're absolutely right! We don't homeschool- we ROADSCHOOL!LOL
ReplyDeleteLOVE this post!! My husband was homeschooled his whole life and is the total opposite of unsocial!
ReplyDeleteYou tell em!!! Most people who make comments like that have no idea what homeschooling is all about.
ReplyDeleteBlessings
Diane
Hello. I really like this post very much. You hit the nail on the head about public school. My children are in public school and my youngest is experiencing now what you were just talking about. She hates school and is persecuted all the time by other children because she has ADHD and sometimes acts w/o thinking (unfortunately, alot). She asks all the time to be homeschooled. I wish I had the patience to do that for her... Anyway, I just had to let you know that I also used to think that way about homeschooling, but have met many children who are probably more intelligent and well-mannered than others. (Sorry for the rant). I also wanted to let you know that I found you blog thru Adori(ble) graphics (I think) and was really interested as were are taking our children on a month-long RV trip this summer and I thought I could get some good tips from your blog. Thank you for blogging. Missy
ReplyDeleteI wanted to give you a blog site you might be interested in for science stuff, she is my follower, Jennifer Chase, she has two sites, one of which is THE SCIENCE MOMMY. She is a science teacher and devotes a site to science and experiments, etc., for kids. I hope you like it. Thanks, Missy
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