Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Things You'll Hear if You Homeschool

"What about socialisation?" (This is everyone's Biggest Concern. And I mean that Pooh-bear style with capital letters. Because if you homeschool, you clearly never leave the house.)

"I could NEVER spend that much time with my children!"

"What year was the civil war?" (Borders employee. Yes, he should have said "years." And yes, he felt it was his right to grill us because we were homeschoolers.)

"I could never homeschool. My kids don't listen to me."

"We don't give homeschool discounts." (a different Borders employee, who wanted proof of teacher status when I accidentally gave her my Barnes and Noble educator discount card. Yes, Borders DOES give a homeschool discount, but MuNKi had our card. Note: MuNKi NEVER EVER EVER gets hassled about the hs discount. EVER.)

"What about high school? They'll miss Prom." (For some reason, Prom seems to be the only valid reason people can come up with for attending high school.)

"Are you qualified?"

"I wish I could homeschool."

12 comments:

armalicious said...

"What about lockers? What about being judged for not wearing the right jeans? What about constant worry about how they look, feel, and act because someone might think they are 'different'? What about their actual education being devalued because the school cares more about the football team?"

They might as well ask those if they are going to ask the prom question. I mean, really - why would you homeschool your kids when you could send them to a public school and get to deal with all that stuff! What a deal!

Just saying.

mallemaroking said...

Have you seen The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List? http://www.secular-homeschooling.com/001/bitter_homeschooler.html

The best response to socialization in school that I have heard was one man reassuring the person that he would be sure to 'beat up his son in the bathroom once a week for his lunch money."

Radioactive Tori said...

I just typed out a whole comment about this and it didn't go through. I hate people who judge other people. My brother was home schooled and I was public schooled. We are both productive members of the world. I never went to prom.

On the days I home school my son who is home sick all the time so I have the classroom curriculum, we have a lot more fun (and probably learn a lot more) than my kids who go to school and have to wait for al the other kids to quiet down so they can learn.

Anonymous said...

What about sexual harassment?
What about being bullied?
What about shitty lunches in the cafeteria?
What about easy access to drugs?

Jay said...

Frankly though, you have to be at least a little relieved that the morons with such ignorant comments are NOT homeschooling. God forbid they should teach their children such guff.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps you should answer these lame questions with, "See, if you had been homeschooled you probably wouldn't be as stupid as you are, and you'd have better manners."

Recently, a fellow tutor said she was going to be tutoring a young man, age 16, who's essentially illiterate. His father just found out, and when he demanded an answer from the principal, the principle basically said that he was too worried about keeping people from getting raped in the hallways to deal with a problem like a 16-year-old passing English with B when he couldn't read.

I've already decided that if I have kids, I'm homeschooling them. I might even homeschool them so they can't do things like going to Prom or being a cheerleader. I shudder to think...

Anonymous said...

Principle = principal. I don't know how I missed that.

Trundling Grunt said...

I don't think I could do the homeschooling thing as I am ok with some subjects and poor at others. And crabby/impatient.

jlmack said...

I was in a Borders in Bangor over the summer and it seemed, I dunno, disconnected. I did get Escoffier for 20 bucks, though, which was sweeeeeeeeeet.

I know you know this, but you're totally doing the right thing by your children. If I ever have kids, I'll homeschool or send them to an international school with a British curriculum.

I hope that Borders employee also finds out what year WWI and WWII were, along with the Vietnam War.

To me, "They'll miss Prom." is the best argument ever FOR homeschooling.

egan said...

The best thing is they can blog during the day and are available for housework all day long. Homeschooling rocks the way I see it.

tshsmom said...

We're on the same wavelength this week. I posted the "Bitter Homeschoolers Wish List".

Z is so tired of the prom question that he's started getting a bit snippy with people when they ask him that.

"...he would be sure to 'beat up his son in the bathroom once a week for his lunch money."
I am soooo going to use this line the next time someone mentions socialization!! Z was horribly bullied in school and was constantly having things stolen from him. LOVE IT!

C said...

Arm - yeah!! LOL! ^_^

Mallemaroking - I hadn't until just now. That's great, LOL! Thanks!

Tori - I hate comments that don't go through!

Yes, it sucks to be judged for our choices! I don't judge people for hsing or not hsing. It's a deeply personal decision with a different answer for everyone.

I didn't go to prom either, LOL! Absolutely NO desire. ^_^

Cindrarella - Yeah! That too, LOL!

Jay - Good point, LOL! VERY good point. ^_^

Kitkat - There are definitely more things to worry about than education at a lot of schools these day (though not all of course.) A friend of mine teaches at a local high school and has no end of "interesting" stories. :-P Yoikes!

Kitkat - ha! No worries! I know you can spell. ^_^

TG - Me too, LOL! I'm learning a lot.

Jaichan - Yeah, I think the Brit curriculum is still way ahead of the American one. We keep dumbing stuff down for statistical reasons (so it looks like everyone's doing great.) Ugh.

Egan - Now you know all my secrets. ^_^

Tshsmom - OMG, that's a hoot! I don't blame Z one bit. :-P

Yes, that is a hilarious quote. I think I might pull that one out next time I'm getting grilled by a moron. A lot of people are just genuiniely interested, which is nice - if I have time. . . :-P

I think I have a funny hs cartoon to post if I can find it again. . .