Saturday, September 3, 2011

You're Not Homeschooling Because....You're Worried your Kids will turn out Weird

Part 1:  You're Not Homeschooling Because...You Can't Afford to
Part 2:  You're Not Homeschooling Because...Your Spouse is Against it
Part 3:  You're Not Homeschooling Because...You're Overwhelmed by the Responsibility
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Want to know what I think is WEIRD?
  • When 10-year-old girls make fun of 9-year-old girls for being into Hannah Montana because it so BABYISH.  (Isn't Hannah Montana, like, 15?)
  • When a group of 4 boys around 12-years-old takes over the playground where my 3-year-old and 1-year-old are playing and they use the F-bomb as if they are being paid to promote it.
  • When a 3-year-old girl comes to play at my house and she spends the entire time pushing my 1-year-old and yanking toys away from him.
  • When a 15-year-old gets onto a public bus and carries on an obscene and offensive cellphone conversation and no one asks him to stop.
Do you think those behaviours are weird?

Do you think homeschooled kids could be that weird?  Maybe, but I doubt it.

A few years ago I was chatting with my neighbour who was 12-years-old at the time.  She was telling me about how a girl had just joined her class at school who had previously been homeschooled.  This is what my neighbour said:

She's so weird.  Like, she doesn't know how to act or anything.  She always sits by herself reading at lunch and even when we try to be nice to her she doesn't want to hang out with us.  And when she does talk to us, she doesn't know anything, like, what's cool or anything.  And sometimes she SINGS.  Like, isn't that weird?  Like, didn't her parents teach her how to act?
Sad, isn't it?  A girl who was confident enough to spend time alone, engaged in her own activity, was branded as weird.

I think that the scariest thing about public education is the hidden curriculum of conformity. 

Do I want my kids to be like everyone else's kids?  Not on your life.

I want kids who can think for themselves.  I want them to be creative and self-expressive.  I want them to grow up comfortable in their own skin.  I want them to be open-minded and accepting.  I want them to be firm in their values and priorities.  I want them to be kind and compassionate.

If that makes them WEIRD, then I'll be the proudest mother on the planet.

5 comments:

  1. Or, as my hubby says to people who fear our kids will be "weird" if we homeschool: "You don't want us to homeschool because you don't want our kids to look like anything other than mainstream?"

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  2. I happen to be a public school mama, but ours is no ordinary school. it is a small rural district. I am so happy, because my children are allowed to be individuals. I am afraid if they were at a bigger "normal" size school, they would have to worry about fitting in. Our little district is smaller than many private schools, and it has a four day school week. it really has been the best of both worlds for us.

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  3. @ Lisa
    Wow, your situation sounds superb. I attended rural schools as a child but they were as mainstream as their urban counterparts in those days.

    I'm always happy to hear from parents who have made an informed choice about public school and whose children are enjoying their school experience. Although I have rejected public school for my children (at this stage), I still believe that it serves a valuable role in modern culture. Throughout the fall I will be writing more about homeschooling and unschooling, and also about how to be successful 'consumers' within the public school system.

    Thankyou for your comment.

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  4. Love this post and couldn't agree more that helping my children be independent, confident, creative, free-thinking, and true to themselves without conforming to a group-think mentality is a primary motivator for homeschooling. -Kerry

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  5. Thanks for this, I was called weird for homeschooling my kids... My kids like me weird! And the thing is when we meet people or walk around nobody knows/ can tell that they are homeschooling/ unschooling unless we tell them. So we don't stick out as weird!

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