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Why Homeschool?

I recently asked Flynn Keith – who was a speaker at the pivotal conference we were at 18 months ago – the most common questions that I, as a homeschooling parent, am often asked.

1) What is the number one reason most families choose to homeschool?

The reasons are as varied as the people who homeschool. Some homeschool for academic excellence. Some want to protect their children from the desocialization taking place on traditional school campuses in terms of drugs, gangs, violence, and risky social behavior. Some homeschool because their personal beliefs are out of sync with the local public or private school. Some parents have gifted children or children with learning disabilities who thrive in the one-on-one, custom-tailored environment of a homeschool.

2) What are the biggest misconceptions regarding homeschooling?

That homeschoolers sit at the kitchen table and do school work from 9am to 3pm every day.  When you eliminate the time-stealers that are inherent in classroom crowd control, then studying academics only takes a couple of hours a day at the most. That means that homeschooled children have copious amounts of unconditional time each day to do what they enjoy. They explore their interests and learn about things that have relevance and meaning to them. They explore apprenticeships, volunteer opportunities, civic duties, and work. It is why so many homeschoolers become generalists (having a lot of knowledge about a variety of things), and/or specialists (having a great deal of knowledge about a particular topic.)  They often spend that time out in the real world community, and that contributes to the development of their exceptional socialization skills.

One more prevalent misconception is the idea that the homeschool parent has to do it all. The goal in homeschooling is to create self-directed learners; kids who love learning and will pursue it on their own. Parents show their children how to research and find answers, so that eventually their child can facilitate their own learning. Parents rely on other homeschool parents as well as mentors, tutors, and educators found in the general community (such as at museums, corporations, local businesses, and the community college) to help their children learn.

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