Mr. Devon White extrapolated quite a few negative views of homeschooling, given his extremely limited contact time with a single homeschooled child, and, based on his guest opinion, he has no trust based relationship with that child’s parents.
Homeschooling was a very realistic option for my family. While we used public schools through most of elementary, both of my sons were homeschooled through middle and high schools. I was in the military and my sons grew up in 11 homes, often changing in the middle of a school year, and always being the “new guy.” Simply placing a human in a room with other humans of the same age is not an automatic recipe for healthy socialization. My sons developed friends who are still there for them now in their 30s. I had to monitor testing by what the requirements were in whatever state we lived in at the time. So those long, stressful tests were made more stressful by being among total strangers. And, believe me, there is no shortage of know-it-all home education experts like Mr. White trying to tell folks what they should do, or more importantly, to tell them what they’re doing wrong.
There are great benefits to homeschooling. Today every state has a distance learning academy that provides curriculum, coaching, testing … all for free. It’s a really great resource that I wish we had available to us. I would encourage anyone who is facing challenges with traditional education models to consider homeschooling as a responsible, and effective alternative learning environment.
Steve Bentley
Boulder