Guest Author - Meg Grooms

Part Two

Welcome back to Combating Homeschool Stereotypes. We last spoke of the stereotype that homeschooled students aren't properly socialized. Let's move on.

2.Homeschooling parents are fundamentalist religious zealots.
Some homeschooling parents are very religious, I won't argue that. I also won't argue that just as many government school parents are very religious. In most likelihood the parents who send their children to private school are the most religious among us.

In the 1980s a revolution began and homeschooling was officially legalized in every state in the Union. The people who paved the way for the passing of the alternative education laws were, by and large, religious, specifically of the Christian persuasion. While we are very thankful for those who have come before us, many homeschooling families today do not fall into the religious or Christian mold.

Every six years or so the United States government takes an in-depth census of education, concentrating on homeschooling. The government created the National Center for Education Statistics (http://nces.ed.gov/) to do the research, as up until the 1990s there was no standardized, strings-free research on homeschooling. This is what the NCES found in 2003: The primary reason parents opt to homeschool their children is “concern about the environment of other [public and private] schools. These include safety, drugs, or negative peer pressure.”

There you have it. Religion is no longer the #1 reason parents homeschool their children. So, what is a secular or non-Christian homeschooler to do in a world that is still full of religion? Your best friend in this situation is the internet. There are secular homeschool support groups and inclusive religious groups that welcome “outcasts” with open arms, both nationally and locally. The people in these groups can help you track down supplies and books without a religious slant. Before you join any group read their mission statement carefully, find out how membership dues are allocated and ask questions.

3.The homeschooling movement is reactionary and losing steam.
This one won't take up many words. In their 1999 census of homeschooling families the NCES counted 850,000 homeschooling families in the United States, around 1% of the population of Americans of compulsory age. This does not count families who homeschooling using alternative methods such as online schools, umbrella schools or those who are “underground”. In 2003 the NCES counted just under 1,100,000 homeschooled students. In just six years the homeschooling population increased by 250,000 bodies. It is important to note that the incidence of children graduation or dropping out of school is rather close in number to the number of children entering the school system for the first time. This means that each year approximately 41,000 students do not enter school in favor of homeschooling. Bravo!

Please continue on to Part 3