Question:

Is it stupid??

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I am homeschooled.People are always telling me that thats weird and unusual.I HATE THAT.Just because I'm learning things in a different way doesn't mean that I'm strange ........does it? For you people who are homeschooled......do you ever get told that being homeschooled is stupid or weird? If so don't you hate it? For those of you who aren't homeschooled do you find it weird? I'm a pretty intelligent person even though I'm homeschooled.I used to go to a private school but I hated it.I wasn't learning anything that was worthwhile to learn.I find that being homeschooled gives me the one on one time with my mom so that I can learn things properly and learn things that should be taught in school!

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  1. Yes, it is stupid. It just shows up their ignorance and prejudices.

    In my country, one never hears rubbish like homeschooling is weird/stupid/only for people who can't handle school/for people with no social skills etc etc. I've only ever come across such attitudes on this board.

    I think (maybe) it is because people in my country tend to celebrate difference and individuality and encourage self-reliance and independence; whereas many North Americans here seem intimidated and threatened by peoples' decision to reject the mainstream.

    Do they feel personally rejected by those who openly reject the decisions they've made i.e. to go to school/send their kids to school?? I don't know. I don't know why they even care how their neighbour chooses to educate their kids, let alone how complete strangers choose to educate their kids. It's just stickybeaking.

    I just find it funny though when you think that America is supposed to be the great capitalist nation and we are historically a heaps more left-leaning and socialist country...and yet we're the ones who better handle everyone's individuality, right to choose and to do what is right for them, their kids, their families, their lifestyles.


  2. Yeah, there are a lot of people out there who think it's weird. I know one homeschooling teen who has even had someone who was becoming her friend tell her, upon finding out the girl I know is homeschooled, that she was a social r****d because she was homeschooled. Great, huh?

    People tend to be hesitant/resistant to things they don't know. I've discovered in here that a lot of people tend to be prejudicial against things they don't know, including homeschooling. Quick to judge and put down, for whatever reason.

    You may very well be different from the typical public/private schooled student and being different means "strange" in their eyes. But being different from the stereotypical schooled student isn't a bad thing imho.

  3. My friends used 2 be home schooled, and I was jealous of them.  Kids who are home schooled often learn more stuff.  Learning things in a different way doesn't mean you're strange, it just means that you learn better differently than some people.  If someone says that it's weird, just tell them that it works for you and anyways, isn't be strange and weird sometimes cool?!  : )

  4. I think that homeschooling is thinking outside the box, is unusual and is a bit radical. For many people, different means wrong, weird, stupid, etc.

    The root of all it, as of many prejudices, is ignorance.

    Tell those people that they should read and inform themselves better about what exactly homeschooling is, tell them to go to their local library and ask for books in homeschooling, and after reading and being informed, then take an educated decision or make their opinion about it.

    Homeschool is a really awesome way to educate kids. It means that your parents love you, thay they want the best for you. Homeschooling is a sacrifice of time for many parents, so they are offering a better life and better opportunities to you.

    Tell those people also that they should look better at how public and private schools are doing, how they don't respect every kid's needs, goals, learning style and pace (because they just can't, having 25 or more kids at the same time). tell them to look at how "socialization" is working there, and to ask the kids how they feel about school.

    You'll find many annoying people in your way. You have to learn how to deal with their comments and prejudices.

    Take care

  5. I don't think it's weird.

    However, home schooled kids risk falling behind public schooled kids. Private schools are even more advanced than public schools. If you are not behind, then congratulations! But be careful...my worry is that what you think you should be learning is not what the people who design college curricula think you should be learning.

    Public and private schools intentionally teach you what you need as a basis for entering college and university. If you're not learning all those things, then you could be behind when you think you're ahead.

    Home schoolers also miss out on socialization. In other words, the don't develop "people skills" as quickly or as well as kids who spend every day around many people.

  6. Of course its stupid !!

    .....

    Nahahaa I was kidding  =D

  7. We get it much less than in years passed, but that is because people have known us for a long time now, and their children have grown up with ours; they have seen the results.

    To address one of you comments though;

    "I am a pretty intelligent person even though I am Home schooled"?

    Child most  people who  have chosen an alternative to conventional schooling did it because they were intelligent enough to see that there is a major difference between "schooling", and learning.

    They have chosen an alternative because they want to pursue an education in a different manner; traditional schooling was not cutting the mustard for them academically, socially, and other wise.

    Don't dislike the comments, use it as an opportunity to educate  them on the advantages.

    If they are not open to it, and continue to be close minded, or rude, simply thank them for noticing that you are different, and unique, because that's what being an individual really means.

  8. im  kinda homeschooled too, i dont really care what people say about me.i went to private school for 3 years and i hated it too. i go to like a school for homeschoolers 3 times a week. and the other 2 days we do homework. you shold try doing something like that.

  9. Hannah M... great answer!

    It is sad to me to agree with your perspective on America... it is all about politics and politics have become an integral albeit sometimes subtle part of our public school system.  People are programmed to think one way and ... well we see the results don't we?

    Hannah - there are still some independent, self-reliant, Americans!  We are just not as loud as the others.

    To the Asker: Think about people who have really made contributions to mankind.  Most if not all of them, before becoming successful, were probably considered strange by the lemmings of society.

    I think Robert Frost captures my attitude towards homeschooling:

    ---

    ...

    I shall be telling this with a sigh

    Somewhere ages and ages hence:

    Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

    I took the one less traveled by,

    And that has made all the difference.

    ---

  10. Definately not stupid or weird .

    I think if anything people who are home schooled have an advantage. Although if you do go to regular school you have a better way of making friends and learning social skills. If your social, then there is no problem at all .

  11. Yep, I do hate it...funny, my son (10) just looks at people like they've got a third eye or something when they ask him things like that, lol.  Of course, by the time he gets done describing his day, the kids next to him are usually asking to be homeschooled :-)

    People sometimes tend toward ignorance...sad, but true.  Anything that deviates from their world view, for people like that, will set them on the defensive.  They've got to find something wrong with whatever you're doing in order to justify their own choices.  It's really pretty sad and shallow that they can't be satisfied with their choices, in and of themselves...they've got to put others down in the process.

    What you're doing isn't wierd, though in some areas it might be termed unusual.  What you're doing is right for you, which makes it pretty cool.  Keep it up!

  12. It may be unusual, but not weird. Last week, I dropped out of public school and switched to homeschooling, so I haven't been told that I'm weird because of it. Not yet, anyway. But when I was in public school I didn't find homeschoolers weird at all.

  13. SOOOOOOO NOT WIERD. It shouldn't be considered wierd to practice one of our freedoms!!! I now attend a public school and people do act wierd when I tell them I was homeschooled, they just need to get over it, though I don't think I have actually been discriminated because of it!! Plus most kids in PUBLIC SCHOOL are really really stupid cause most of them are really woried about the DRUGS thier taking!!!! I hear parents of PS kids complain about thier childrens education and they blame the school board and teachers when They SHOULD be blaming thier KIDS!!!

  14. I know the feeling. I've got a councilor at the blind center I go to for braille lessons and this sort of after school club for college-bound blind teenagers (talk about carreers, assistive technology, go on campus visits, play sports and games, etc) She knows I'm homeschooled and I'm the only kid in the weekly program who is homeschooled. She never really said anything to directly express disapproval of homeschooling, (though she did ask a lot of ridiculous questions when I signed up about curriculum standards, socialization, and who grades my work, and seemed to find it weird that I was capable of answering for myself, and moreso, that my mother let me speak for myself). I just get this feeling from her. I can hear it in her voice whenever homeschooling comes up. I can't see her, but when I'm in her office talking about job shadowing opportunities and mention that homeschoolers have flexible hours, so we don't have to limit things to after 3:00, or that a particular suggestion she makes like visiting the computer science lab of a near-by college would tie in nicely with a unit I just started on.... I imagine by her tone of voice that she's rolling her eyes. Sometimes we'll go around the table durring the teen program and each share a struggle we have with school (lack of braille/large print materials, getting lost, trouble taking notes when you can't see the board, self-concious about using a cane, etc) and brainstorm solutions to the problem with the other students. When it's my turn to share, she always skips over me. I spoke up once and asked why she skipped me, and she replied with "well you don't go to school". That made me kind of mad. Another time I was playing scrabble with three of my friends in the program and we were talking about finals. They were complaining about how hard they were, and I said kind of jokingly "Glad I don't go to your school. My finals are projects and I finished them weeks ago." They laughed a little and started talking about how cool they thought homeschooling was... Then the councilor speaks over all of them and says "You're homeschooled, Jamie, so it doesn't count". I wanted to get up, grab my cane, and walk right out the front door... but of course I didn't. I didn't say a word.

    It's tough, but sometimes you have to take the things people say or do because you're homeschooled with a grain of salt. It isn't always their fault. They just don't know better. And sometimes even when you try to inform them they don't listen. The best you can do is have confidence in your decision to homeschool. Know that you are not well educated "even though" you were homeschooled, but BECAUSE you were homeschooled. Realize it isn't for everyone, and we have freedom of choice. Respect others' choices, but when you encounter someone who doesn't respect yours, don't let it get to you. If nothing else, they'll see just by getting to know you that homeschooling works, that it's a legitimate alternative to government school and that they are wrong to believe stereotypes or make generalizations or just decide streight out that it's stupid. Just don't let it get to you.

    ADDED: Lyndsey's post just made me think of something. She's right. It is just fine to do things differently. All of the kids and adults and seniors and babies who visit the blind center each week learn to do things differently, but they still accomplish the same thing. And when a person is feeling embarassed by their cane or their magnifier or the way they have to do things, they're told that doing something differently doesn't make it a lesser way of doing it. We're all accomplishing the same thing, just in ways that work best for us. I think the next time my councilor says something about homeschooling, I'll reply with something like that. ANd it's something you should remember as well. Good luck!

  15. And if you told them your mom cooks a sit down dinner every night they'd probably say that was weird and unusual.  Everyone does KFC or Pizza Hut these days.

    Most girls I know don't even know how to cook.

    You see you drop your car off at the car wash, you eat lunch at Applebees, you pick up your dry cleaning, put it into your shiney, washed car and go pick your kids up at school.

    Personally I think this whole fad started with the TV remote control device.

  16. Boost your confidence in yourself so you won't have to worry about what other people say.  Feel good about what you are  doing and know that it is write for you.

    Arm yourself with information you can give people about homeschooling.  Here are some homeschooling statistics which show that homeschoolers outperform both public and private school students.

    http://www.successful-homeschooling.com/...

    The link below has info on homeschooling vs. public schooling and other factual information.  Don't worry about what other people think.  They simply don't have the facts!

  17. I think its fine.

    Well, if someone has been homeschooled since kindergarten, i dont think its very good.

    Kids need to develop social skills.

    I think that if a child goes to elementary school for a few years but then in 5th or 6th grade doesnt like it, homeschooling would be appropriate, because by then the child has friends and knows how to deal with authority.

    I am homeschooled, myself, actually.

    I went to school my entire life up until I started high school. It wasnt right for me, so I joined a new school called JE YOUNG. Its for middle & high school students. We go one day a week, and the rest of the week we spend at home. Or, we can take more classes throughout the week. Its fun, kind of like college.

    Good Luck with everything. Hey, whatever works for you!~

    :)

  18. im homeschooled, but its actually cyberschool. i dont necesarilly like cyberschooling, and i do think its unusuall, but im ok with that. i dont mind when people think its weird, just its when they call me weird i hate, like yes i am weird, but in a funn way. soo whatever there. i get alot of good grade, conpared to public school, because you can study a subject for as long as you need, compared to a 45 min class. yes i agree, i get *some* one on one time with my mom, to read over my lesson, and if i dont get it, to have her, explain it, whereas you wouldnt have that kinda time with a teacher who has 20 kids
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