Decades-Old Views on Homeschooling - Who is Really Caged?


I was always deadset against homeschooling and the reason for my views against homeschooling had been based on one girl in our high school who had been homeschooled all the way up until they released her into our high school.  She was weird, too smart for the rest of us (haha) and just didn't know how to function in the environment or so it seemed.  I had let ONE homeschooled person influence my view of homeschooling as do so many others.

I know some people now that think just because you homeschool your child is living in a cage or something.  However, once you actually do homeschool (or get educated on the "current" homeschooling movement) you realize that they are actually LET OUT OF THE CAGE of the public indoctrination institutions!  You realize they are more outgoing than their peers, can talk with any age - from children to adult - and seem to have a better grip on "socialization" than those in the cage.  I've seen some local kids that attend PS and they can hardly even talk, much less socialize but they can sure act like some Hollywood starlet but that is another story........

Public school socialization teaches the kids to be like the other kids, mimicking the popular to try and be accepted.  They lose their own self and personality in their endeavor to be like Jennifer-Cooler.  In essence when released from the caged life of this improper socialization, they can't seem to function in the workplace with those that aren't their age.  So HOW did this 'associate with only your age' socialization really prepare them for REAL life?  It doesn't - very rarely will you ever been in a social situation of just those your age again, thus they are ill-prepared for real life scenarios and are those usually drawn to cliques.

There are some homeschoolers who have backward kids and its the parents fault!  If you keep that child locked up all day, everyday and never let them talk to people - then HELLO, you are setting them up for failure.  However, very rarely does that ever happen nowadays - maybe back in Grandpa's day when only one mom on the block homeschooled but honey, homeschoolers are growing at rapid speeds and we got several moms who homeschool on our block alone!  You can't take decades-old skewed views of homeschooling and demean those today who homeschool - things have changed!

This is where the homeschool group comes in.  The groups aren't just for the kids, in reality they are more for the MOMS!  I've met so many ladies in my area that are Christians, even though they don't attend my church - they exemplify Christ in their lives.  There is a camaraderie not only because we are all Christ-followers but also because we can relate to each other.  We are moms who give our lives to God, our home, husbands and children fully and we need to know there are others like us out there somewhere.

It is time to take off your worn decade-glasses so you can see that we are a group of moms who are training our children to make it in this world with a God-view, not an atheist-view!  Moms are producing better-educated children everyday that excel and even Ivy League schools are recruiting homeschoolers because, let's face it - a mom just knows her child and is the child's best teacher!  You can't look at my child and say she isn't socialized, on the contrary, she is one of the most social kids I know!  She invites complete strangers to church, talks them up at the store and doesn't fit the "caged-homeschooled" view that everyone claimed she would be.  So who is really caged?