Is it Being Overprotective to Homeschool Your Children?

There are many criticisms of homeschooling, socialization being the first that comes to most people’s minds. But I often hear that I’m being overprotective by homeschooling my children. With all the wonderful curriculum now available and even online schools, people accept that I can teach my children, but think the home environment is too closed and that a child needs to be exposed to people who think differently to get a good education. Is it good enough for one parent or maybe two to teach a child for most of their education, or do you need a different teacher every school year and a different teacher per subject later in school life?

What is the purpose of school or homeschool?

The purpose of education is to prepare a child for adulthood, to be a successful member of society. There are many additions to schools, such as socialization and extra-curricula activities, but the basic reason we put our children in schools is to educate them for their future lives as adults.

Why do people homeschool?

Homeschool parents have looked at schools and their educational experts and have voluntarily chosen to teach their children themselves, with the belief they can do a better job. By the very fact of doing so, they are criticizing the system that many take for granted will serve their children well.

What is school socialization like?

Socialization is often the reason homeschoolers do what they do. They want their children mixing with family and friends in small groups and not mixing in an environment where drugs are available, and true discipline is rare. School can be a place where it’s not cool to be clever, teenagers care more about fashion than education, and teachers and administrators care about standardized testing above the child. It is this that homeschool parents want to protect their children from.

How sheltered is the homeschool environment?

Homeschooling is largely unregulated. The parent has a lot of control over what the child does and when. A child has the potential to be totally isolated, but with homeschooling becoming more popular there are other homeschoolers they can socialize with. It is becoming more common for homeschoolers to get together for co-ops, where moms take it in turns teaching the children different subjects. One mom will teach all the children writing, another math, another science etc.

Many people think the school environment is too false an environment and the homeschool experience is more like the real world.

Do you want your children to learn your values or someone else’s?

When a child is in school, they are learning state standards from someone you’ve never met before they start teaching your child. You have no idea of their views and if they will teach their beliefs as well as the subject they are assigned to teach. You could be right wing and the teacher left wing, or vice versa. You could be Christian or not, straight or gay and the teacher will teach your child the opposite of your views. The homeschool child learns primarily the views of his parents, especially in the early years.

Do you want your children to learn from children or adults?

Even though the teacher in a school is the expert, children actually spend most of their time with other children and not with adults. As children learn from their environment, they are actually learning from their peers and not the expert teachers.

Is sheltering a bad thing?

I see homeschooling like raising a plant in a greenhouse. To start with, they need protection to nurture and grow, but eventually they will go outside to a harsher environment, but it is because they have been in the greenhouse environment that they are stronger outside the greenhouse later in life. It is my belief that children raised in a protected, sheltered environment do better later in life when they are adults.

Does a 3 year old need to socialize or are they better off at home?

A 3 year old needs to know they are loved and accepted. They need to build up a good vocabulary to speak and be understood. They learn that best from adults and not from an environment of many other 3 year olds. Where do you think your 3 year old would do best, at home with a loving mom, or with a paid teacher and maybe 20 other 3 year olds?

Homeschoolers aren’t social misfits

Most homeschoolers are socially balanced, well rounded people. They are raised in loving families who actively care for them, often at the cost of only having one parent working. It’s not sheltering to lovingly protect your children, but even if it is, then I don’t see it as a bad thing. It’s not the easy route, but many think it’s the best for the children who are homeschooled.