I don't believe that public schools are terrible places, or that the children in them are doomed to lives of misery and bullying. And I don't believe that all or even most homeschooling families are religious freaks, social outcasts, or unsocialized weirdos. Are there some? Well, sure. But it is unfair to judge all homeschooling families based on stereotypes about a few sensationalized situations we hear about in the news or through the grapevine. There are religious freaks, social outcasts, and unsocialized weirdos in schools, too!
I do not believe that public school offers children the socialization they "need". The socialization which children receive at school is largely comprised of things we'd prefer they were not exposed to. And by 'we', I mean most parents, not just homeschoolers. Until the 1840s, compulsory education did not exist in the United States; education was something done in the home and society functioned just fine. In fact, people were quite displeased with the idea of compulsory education! But I don't believe that children should be shielded completely from the outside world; that's just nuts. However, some bits of knowledge can wait.
I do not believe that homeschooling is always the better option. In fact, I think public school is sometimes the better option. Each family needs to assess their individual needs and values and make decisions that are best for their situation.
I do believe that learning about diversity and other cultures is important. I do not believe that public schools, at least where we reside, teach children anything about diversity and other cultures. College will probably be the first place they truly experience this. The most important thing now is to teach tolerance and acceptance of differences. And that will quite likely not be learned in any public school. In fact, I've witnessed quite the opposite.
I do not believe that bullying is some rite of passage that all children must go through, or that children need to go to public school to "learn how to deal with it". Bullying is not a harmless childhood experience, nor is it something that is a critical or healthy part of their development; bullying leads to poor self-esteem, academic failure, drop outs, a lifetime of trust issues, and even suicide. Though a lot of schools talk a good talk about bullying prevention and zero tolerance of such behavior, I've found that lip service is far too frequently as far as it goes. More often than not, schools fail to protect children who are targeted and fail to discipline children who are the perpetrators of bullying. It seems that children are viewed as almost inhuman by schools, with comments such as, "Oh, it's just kid stuff." If adults were subjected to the same treatment by their peers, it would be called stalking, harassment, or abuse, and criminal charges and restraining orders would be ways of dealing with the perpetrators. But when this happens to children, who are far less capable of dealing with these things emotionally and are still developing their sense of who they are in this world, the consequences can be utterly devastating for the victim and schools often dismiss it as child's play.
There are no bullies walking our hallways.
I do believe that all parents are teachers, from the moment their babies come into this world. I also believe that compulsory education and the sheeple mentality it drills into all of us has most parents convinced that they are completely unfit to be teachers. "I couldn't do it," is the most common thing people say to me when I tell them I am homeschooling my children. My response is always, "You absolutely could." It saddens me that parents, who are their children's first and most important teachers, do not see themselves as such. Homeschooling is not a new invention or some wild idea, but a natural continuation of a process already well underway since a child was born. Parents don't have to become teachers to homeschool their children, they already are teachers.
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