Why do people in Canada think the people that are homeschooled are homeschooled because they got in ...(more)?

Question

trouble?

this does not apply to all Canadians

I remember a few years ago when we had a family camping trip to New Brunswick and when my mother told this lady that we were home schooled she asked if we got in trouble at school.

Answer 1

Just like the huge population of people who don't understand homeschooling and spread the giant "S word" (socialization for those that don't know) myth, they equate homeschooling/home education with home*bound* learning (or whatever it's called in Canada).

Homebound learning, here in the U.S., is for those that are either medically fragile, or who have extreme behavioral issues.  So when ignorant people don't know the difference between the two, they equate them.  It's our job, then, to educate them ;-).

Answer 2

Well, you were in New Brunswick, a place where homeschooling almost doesn't happen, numbers-wise. Has nothing to do with being Canadian. You wouldn't get that type of reaction here in Alberta.

Answer 3

Yes, Glurpy is right.   I don't think the Maritime provinces have many homeschoolers.  I knew a family who moved there and they were received with shock when it was discovered they home schooled.   In BC there are homeschoolers, but they are scattered, not organized and frowned upon by the government at times.  

Alberta truly has it together with home education.  There are so many options, they are organized,   and it is well funded.

Answer 4

I'm a Canadian and I am home schooling my dd (14).  

I don't know why some people think this, but my daughter was even asked that question by a boy on our street (same age as her) that used to go to the same school that she went to before.  When she told him that she was home schooled, he assumed that she had been kicked out of school.

I think that it is just something that seems so foreign to them.  They have never really been exposed to it, or thought about it in any way.  You always hear on the news about kids who were kicked out of school for some horrible deed.  I guess that they think that is the ONLY reason anyone would home school.

Perhaps they are just envious!

Answer 5

Its just another case of mass ignorance. Mabe they knew or heard of on child that got home schooled because of bad behavior now that stigma just stays with the whole idea of home schooling.

In my experience everyone i know of who has been home schooled is due to an unsatisfactory eduction system or an incident in which the school itself was at fault.

Answer 6

Because Joe or in that case Jane Public really knows bog all about it so falls back on the tiny bit of information they do have, i.e. Some kids get kicked out of school for causing trouble. You are educated out of school. Then they add 2 and 2 together and get 7.