What’s in A Name

O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, 1594
If you haven’t read it yet Dana took apart yet another anti-homeschooler’s irrational claims that homeschooling is what it isn’t. A good tip would be to actually spend time researching a subject before attacking it, it helps avoid those embarrassing moments of misinformation.
It’s actually not this post that I wanted to mention, but the post previous where she first mentions the person’s arguement. A great conversation breaks out in the comments over the word (or words) homeschool and whether this term creates the limited image some people see homeschoolers with. One commenter Julie says
But, I have stumbled upon the word homeschool too. Oh, I use it because then everyone knows what I am talking about and it is the agreed upon word to describe Marissa’s school experience, but it is far too narrow to describe what I see as my role.I know it is silly, but I would even prefer that we all wrote it as two words. You know home school, with “home” an adjective modifying the noun school (like public school instead of publicschool, private school instead of privateschool). How legalistic is that? Frankly, if all I planned to do was to teach reasoning, communication and math in my home, it wouldn’t be worth staying home to do.
If I remember correctly the correct way is home school, but so many of us put them together into one word that it has become an accepted use of the term. I know I’m guilty of it myself. Does the “school” part of the word encourage people to assume children are sitting in little desks all day while mom reads to them from outdated books? Does the “home” part add to the belief that we keep the kids locked up in the house all day? What happens when we put them together?
A similar problem sometimes occurs with unschooling as a learning style. People see the “un” and jump to conclusions about what it means to them. Does that mean those who practice unschooling should use a different, less controversial term, or work to educate others on what unschooling really means. The answer depends on who you ask.
Homeschool, or home school, is such an umbrella term for what we do. That alone can make it difficult to grasp. The family using a stack of workbooks and teacher’s manuals are home schoolers just the same as those letting their kids flitter to the subject and books of their choosing. When the stereotypes only cover one small portion of all the possible styles a great number of families are overlooked. Those who are in the daily grind know how amazingly diverse home schooling can be, but those on the outside seem to be hung up on that one image.
So do you call your child a homeschooler? A home schooler? Are you a home educator, a home schooling parent, just a parent? Does the terms that you use change how others look at you?
homeschool, home school, names, stereotypes

March 22nd, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I just call myself a freak, to save people the time and effort!
I don’t think it will matter to the Average Joe if we change our own label. Until the misinformation can be corrected in the minds of the general public, the label won’t mean diddly-squat.
Maybe that’s what I’ll call us - diddly-squatters!
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:32 pm
I tend to use ‘home education’ and ‘home educators’ when referring to what we do and how we live. It is becoming more of a lifestyle, IMO, not just a means to confer academic knowledge onto our children. And folks do get stuck on words like ’school’, but before they spend time and effort on a diatribe against it, they really do need to find out what they are talking about first.
As for Mr. Downes’ comments, he has just informed us via his OLDaily newsletter that he wasn’t actually talking about homeschoolers, and that he is being misrepresented and misunderstood.
http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=43862
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:51 pm
I noticed he responded to another commenter in a similar fashion.
“Your criticisms are unreasonable. It’s hard enough sticking to real science and logic, much less the odd made-up kind.”
I find it a little rich that he talking reason, science and logic when his criticisms of homeschooling seemed to lack exactly those qualities.
Justs pisses me off.
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:14 pm
How funny that he claims the “it” didn’t mean home schoolers when right before the word he said “My own criticism of homeschooling …” What else would any reasonable person assume the “it” be?
Clearly, he knows he’s in the wrong but instead of admitting it is trying to sidestep his way around and claim he means something else. So much for logic and reason!
March 23rd, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Parent educated or family educated seems to fit better, doesn’t it?