Dealing With Homeschooling Nay-Sayers

by Isabel Allen

Everyone will run into at least one person, maybe more, who will tell them that they shouldn't homeschool. The decision to homeschool often isn't popular, and isn't an easy one to make. Dealing with homeschooling nay-sayers will have to be dealt with ahead of time, and the choice in how your child is educated is entirely up to you.

Regardless if you have a Bachelor of Arts in Education or not, one of the quintessential arguments of a homeschooling nay-sayer is that you're not qualified to teach your own child. I say poppy-cock to this argument! You have already been teaching your child since birth, if you're a parent. Why wouldn't you or your spouse be qualified to teach your child how to read or do math, if you could teach them how to talk, walk, and use the restrooms themselves?

Besides being "unqualified," other nay-sayers will tell you that teaching a child is too difficult. What I find even more difficult is the thought of having to teach with 18-20 five and six year old's several subjects all in one day. That is a difficult job; teaching one child to read is not. You can do it!

If you are wanted to homeschool, another argument you might hear by nay-sayers is that children need socialization. I'm not sure I want my children to learn all the things they learn at school and I am sure you feel the same way. Not all lessons are given by the teachers but rather are learned as the result of being with other children.

To this argument, I say that 95% of the children in public schools are less socialized than homeschooled children. Homeschooled children can deal with their peers and can carry on intelligent conversations with people of all ages. Public schools are artificial and create not true to life societies. It just doesn't happen, and it won't happen, that there won't be a time at any point in your life that you're not going to deal with people of all ages.

These are just a few of the comments that you'll likely hear as you are researching the possibility of homeschooling your child. All I can say is that it's okay if you don't know everything you're told you need to know. Take that as an opportunity to learn right along side your child. Since you want what is best for your child, you will be giving them the opportunity to learn at their own pace and concentrate on the things they are interested in learning.

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