Are homeschoolers less exposed to the world around them?
I often hear among the arguements against homeschooling that children who are homeschooled are not prepared for the “real world”, that they are kept in bubbles and unaware of how the rest of the world works. I think that this depends on the family itself. Some parents choose to expose their children to more things than other, meaning that some children reach puberty only knowing how their family works while others know more about the world around them. But this does not affect just homeschoolers. A quote in a post at Find Religion by a high school student named Rachel stuck out to me.
I was very unaware and naive of what middle school, even high school, would be like for me. I could truthfully say that I thought that other people who I would come in contact with would not use profane language and they would be Christians.
I don’t mean to point out rachel here in a negative light, but the quote really struck out to me. I am sure that Rachel is not alone, there are surely many more children who are in public schools and still protected by their parents from things that they do not feel their children should not be exposed to. Does that mean that they are unable to cope in the real world? Of course not! From Rachel’s post I can tell that she is a very bright girl and a loving sister. She is currently in high school so I can only assume that at some point she became aware that there were tohers unlike her and her family. While she might not have made that discovery at a very young age as some children, that does not make it a bad thing. Knowing when your child is ready to handle how different the world can be, no matter what age that may take place, is a part of parenting rather than something exclusive to homeschoolers.
homeschool, homeschooling, socialization, Christian, public school
May 2nd, 2007 at 8:11 pm
I had a weirdly parallel experience today that really made your post resonate. My sister’s public schooled 6th grader came home with a drug-education handout that the parent was to fill out. My sister filled it out with the following line, “I’d just like to thank you for teaching my 6th grader, who had no idea that such a thing was possible, that sniffing White-Out or glue could make one high. Thanks so much for educating my innocent daughter.” (This is one of the many reasons I homeschool…some stuff kids don’t need to be exposed to.)