I\'m Summer, a mouthy, sarcastic bitch. I\'m passionate about natural birth, long term breastfeeding, and living naturally. I curse too much, love tattoos, and will some day be crushed to death by my book collection. I homeschool, dream of gardening, and swing to the left. 
Dude, Homeschoolers Aren’t All Crazy Fundies!
Quick question? Describe a homeschooler…
If you answered anything about being extremely Christian, sheltered, or socially inept I’m going to smack you upside the head.
Thankfully this stereotype is slowly being eaten away at by reality. But it takes a long time to whittle away at a fear based image. For most people it’s easier to just assume all, or at least most people who do the opposite of what they do must be bad/crazy/wrong. They’d rather believe the stereotype, back it up with false claims and exaggeration, then spread it as gospel than take a look at the rational facts. To those people though, I like to serve a steaming helping of reality straight from the Hoover Institution. Homeschooling Goes Mainstream.
Survey research has revealed a heterogeneous population of home schoolers and higher rates of minority home schooling than expected. Economist Guillermo Montes’s analysis of data from the massive 2001 National Household Education Survey found that 70 percent of respondents cited a nonreligious reason as the top motivator in their decision to home school. Home schoolers whose motivations are primarily religious have certainly not gone away, but they are now joined by those whose reasons range from concerns about special education to bad experiences with teachers or school bullies to time-consuming outside activities to worries over peanut allergies
There’s an awesome graph over there that maps out people’s responses to why they choose to home school. Religion only gets 30%. That’s it. Not the 90%-95% that lovers of sterotypes like to claim. And here’s another thing. Think back to your stereotypical home schooled child. What color was their skin? Did you say white?
Increasing participation in home schooling among African Americans has drawn media attention in recent years. The U.S. Department of Education estimated that by 2003 there were 103,000 black home schoolers
And
Growth in home schooling can be spotted among other ethnic and religious groups as well. Native Americans in Virginia and North Carolina have founded home-school organizations in an effort to escape assimilationist public schools and preserve their traditional values. Hawaiian natives have found home schooling to be the solution to the gulf between tribal ways and public education. Jews, especially those who follow the Orthodox tradition, have been home schooling in much greater numbers in recent years
Oh, but what about socialization you say?
Many of the new breed of home-schooling parents, even if they do not become dues-paying members of home-schooling political organizations, still need help with pedagogical or curricular decisions, playmates for their children and companionship for themselves, and opportunities to get out of the house for a while. Home-school support groups can serve as remarkably diverse social networks. In a National Home Education Network online forum, Pam Sorooshian described her Southern California group:
My homeschooling group includes Moslem, Jewish, Quaker, Baptist, Messianic Jews, Pagan, Baha’i, atheist, agnostic, Catholic, unity, evangelicals, other Protestant denominations, and probably more. We have African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Middle Easterners, and other minorities. We have stay-at-home dads and single mothers. We are FAR more diverse than the neighborhood school I pulled my oldest child out of 10 years ago.
What can I say. This pagan, liberal, homeschooling mama loves watching stereotypes crumble. It makes me smile a little more.
You go girlfriend!!!
katie/kitten´s last blog post..Update on Momma
Amen to this! Oh, I mean, right on!
We may be crazy, but the whole “denim jumper, 15 kids, bible-memorizing, withdrawn from society” bit is just an easy stereotype. With time, it’ll change.
Fairly Odd Mother´s last blog post..In need of some elves. . .
hehehehe you rock. You’d think after watching me homeschool Jake Pete would get a clue. Nope. Aw well…sterotypes are pretty difficult to get rid of. Hey I wanted to draw your eye to my latest post. It involves a new fun cool way of decorating/crafting! (I’m not inventing the wheel or anything, I’m sure I didn’t create the idea….but its cool at any rate!)
Sara´s last blog post..no subject
My CoH post this week also deals with this topic. It’s a response to a claim I read in a recently published book on education reform by an ed school professor at Arizona State. Dr. Gene Glass accuses homeschoolers of being motivated by a “fear of mixing with the opposite class/race”, ugh!
Crimson Wife´s last blog post..153rd Carnival of Homeschooling is Up!
Hi, Summer, just wanted you to know I gave you a shout-out for this post over at Dale McGowan’s “Parenting Beyond Belief” blog, in my guest column about secular homeschool blogs. The community is building, I do believe!
JJ´s last blog post..Another Ethics Dark Zone? Choosing a Child’s Sport by Science
Hey, while we’re knocking down stereotypes, let’s let go of the ones about Christians too. We’re not all fundamentalists and we don’t all have a bunch of kids. We don’t wear denim jumpers or drive 15 passenger vans. We’re just people doing the best we can here.