“Homeschoolers are weird”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s understandable there’s a stereotype. Hilarious that so many people here buy into it while admitting it’s a stereotype.

I think that we are all shaped by our own experiences. In my experience, the homeschooled kids were weird religious nuts. I cant say that about all homeschoolers, of course there's going to be a few normal ones in there! Add in that it's grown more popular than when most of us were growing up, there is a much more diverse pool of children being homeschooled. We can acknowledge that we have had these experiences, while knowing that they don't apply to every child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My neighbor decided she was going to homeschool her kids until high school. She had 2 boys. Everyone just believed it was her way of justifying a stay at home mom position for herself. They had to sell their house and move into a condo. Her kids were well educated in tv shows and water pistols.

LOL yep sounds about right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where does the “homeschoolers are weird” trope come from? Most of the homeschoolers I have met are intelligent and interesting, and have unique passions.

Your experience clearly does not reflect the larger societal experience. The only homeschooled people (kids) I knew growing up were religious fundies who were absolutely weird, annoying, lacked social skills, talked down to normal kids and were quite far behind in actual intelligence and learning. They seemed to feel superior to others but really had nothing or any justification to back it up.

Your "experiences" back in the 1990s are outdated and irrelevant, Karen.

Quite defensive there! Are you homeschooling your children? Are you teaching them to insult other people online and call them "Karens" because they have a different POV than you? Sounds like the experiences I, and pps have had arent quite so outdated...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s understandable there’s a stereotype. Hilarious that so many people here buy into it while admitting it’s a stereotype.

I think that we are all shaped by our own experiences. In my experience, the homeschooled kids were weird religious nuts. I cant say that about all homeschoolers, of course there's going to be a few normal ones in there! Add in that it's grown more popular than when most of us were growing up, there is a much more diverse pool of children being homeschooled. We can acknowledge that we have had these experiences, while knowing that they don't apply to every child.

Nah they are mostly religious idiots.

There are a few outliers but most are not.

NC homeschoolers did not have to follow any state curriculum, state testing or any other real requirements except send in attendance sheets to the state.

Many states are like NC.

[Anonymous]

I live in Maryland between Baltimore and DC and I’ve encountered a number of homeschool families while I’ve been out with my youngest (who isn’t old enough for school yet). I see many “meet ups” at large playgrounds for example- they are obvious to spot since the kids are 8-10 years old amongst 2-3 year olds, since it’s 10am on a school day so most kids their age are in school. The ones I see have children who are very verbal and talkative to adults (they approach me to say hi with unusual frequency considering I don’t know them), their parents seem to trend liberal/ libertarian based on conversations I overhear. I hear a lot of discussion about how public schools couldn’t accommodate their incredibly intelligent child who just learns differently from other kids and how they were so focused on test scores being low that they couldn’t see his unique abilities . Now don’t get me wrong, I kind of agree with this sentiment. But it seems to be a common reason why, in my liberal area, people are homeschooling their kids. The kids mostly seem at least mildly on the spectrum to be perfectly honest. Hence the “poor test scores but incredibly intelligent the teachers just don’t see it” conversation I’ve actually overheard more than once.

[Anonymous]

My experience with home schooled kids, both as a child and now was a scout leader, rec league coach, and parent is that they are used to everything being about them.

If they have a thought, they share it and they expect everyone to stop and listen to them.

If they want to do or say something, or changes an activity, they are very confused when they aren't permitted to do that.

They are generally respectful and polite. But they definitely think they are the main character, even when its their turn to the NPC.

They just don't "get" some of the social expectations of them, that other kids do.

And now, as an employer, I can almost always pinpoint when a resource was home-schooled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s understandable there’s a stereotype. Hilarious that so many people here buy into it while admitting it’s a stereotype.

I think that we are all shaped by our own experiences. In my experience, the homeschooled kids were weird religious nuts. I cant say that about all homeschoolers, of course there's going to be a few normal ones in there! Add in that it's grown more popular than when most of us were growing up, there is a much more diverse pool of children being homeschooled. We can acknowledge that we have had these experiences, while knowing that they don't apply to every child.

Nah they are mostly religious idiots.

There are a few outliers but most are not.

NC homeschoolers did not have to follow any state curriculum, state testing or any other real requirements except send in attendance sheets to the state.

Many states are like NC.

This. Religious nut job who teach creationism instead of evolution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because think about why someone would decide to homeschool their child. Probably because mainstream school didn’t work for their child- or, they knew ahead of time that it wouldn’t work. Because their child is different.

Or, because the parent has strong beliefs about what and how they would like their child to be taught, and the parent doesn’t care about social norms (one of them being to send your child to school). Think about how that type of parent might mold their child as their child spends every waking hour with their parent. This isn’t bad- but it’s different.

Or maybe neither of the above is true. But all of the other kids in the neighborhood go to school. They have a routine. They follow the same fads (or at least they’re aware of the fads). They spend all day talking to other kids, working with other kids, from a variety of different backgrounds (or, maybe not such a variety, but at least from a variety of different personalities and interests). Now imagine a kid who spends their day doing things differently, and who has WAY less practice interacting with a bunch of kids all day. And who is used to perhaps a more self guided approach to doing things. And who has it imprinted on them that they are different or special- because they don’t go to school and they know it and they’ve asked their parent why and their parent says, because this is better for YOU or better for OUR FAMILY despite it being different. Do you think this child will fit in easily , immediately, in a summer camp or on a sports team? Get along with everyone, follow the crowd, not stick out?

Also these kids are good at interacting with adults because that’s what they tend to be doing all day and also a majority of them are on the spectrum in some way (be honest, guys). Those high functioning, 2E types of kids often prefer conversations with adults.

This is pretty accurate. Of course, none of this means that any given child is necessarily going to be a good person, or a bad person, or extraordinarily more motivated or intelligent, or poorly motivated, or not as bright. You care going to have a lot of outliers of all kinds, but they are more likely to be "different" kids because they are taking a different path than the norm for the community.

Some of those differences make them better or worse people, but for the most part, whether or not you are a good person isn't necessarily tied to whether you have autistic traits, or are great at sports, or have strong political opinions. Kids can be different than the norm and be good people or not. Hopefully none of us need to put others down to feel good about ourselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My experience with home schooled kids, both as a child and now was a scout leader, rec league coach, and parent is that they are used to everything being about them.

If they have a thought, they share it and they expect everyone to stop and listen to them.

If they want to do or say something, or changes an activity, they are very confused when they aren't permitted to do that.

They are generally respectful and polite. But they definitely think they are the main character, even when its their turn to the NPC.

They just don't "get" some of the social expectations of them, that other kids do.

And now, as an employer, I can almost always pinpoint when a resource was home-schooled.

Spot on. This has been my experience as well, all of the above. They are the sun and the rest of us are the planets. They might shine brightly, but we are expected to revolve around them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Homeschooling is typically based on zealous religion beliefs

+1 The only homeschooled kids I know are from weirdly fundamental religious backgrounds. The Bible forms a huge part of their education (I had a friend/neighbor growing up who was homeschooled and she was very preachy about the Bible over science). I’ve also seen TikTok videos from “crunchy” moms who think having their kids man a garden and count eggs while baking is a sufficient education (now it can be part of it), but these women don’t seem to believe in any sort of formal phonics lessons or the like.

However, I absolutely believe there is a subset of homeschooled kids who come from homes where the parents are well educated and can provide them interesting hands on opportunities for learning. I know a family that “world schooled” their kids throughout elementary before settling down once the oldest hit middle school (for social reasons). That seems like an awesome childhood and requires a lot of money and a very well paying yet flexible remote job to pull off.

Unfortunately I think the weird religious or crunchy/off the grid type families are the ones most likely to home school, which is where the weird stereotype comes from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where does the “homeschoolers are weird” trope come from? Most of the homeschoolers I have met are intelligent and interesting, and have unique passions.

Your experience clearly does not reflect the larger societal experience. The only homeschooled people (kids) I knew growing up were religious fundies who were absolutely weird, annoying, lacked social skills, talked down to normal kids and were quite far behind in actual intelligence and learning. They seemed to feel superior to others but really had nothing or any justification to back it up.

Your "experiences" back in the 1990s are outdated and irrelevant, Karen.

Quite defensive there! Are you homeschooling your children? Are you teaching them to insult other people online and call them "Karens" because they have a different POV than you? Sounds like the experiences I, and pps have had arent quite so outdated...

I'm not being defensive, Karen. I'm attacking you for being old and stupid. You don't need to teach kids to point out when others are being stupid, this comes quite naturally.

[Anonymous]

I only know two homeschooling families. One has a bunch of kids—I think 5–definitely very religious, but the kids are incredibly smart and really interesting people.

The other is because mom is still afraid of Covid. Very interested to see how that all turns out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My experience with home schooled kids, both as a child and now was a scout leader, rec league coach, and parent is that they are used to everything being about them.

If they have a thought, they share it and they expect everyone to stop and listen to them.

If they want to do or say something, or changes an activity, they are very confused when they aren't permitted to do that.

They are generally respectful and polite. But they definitely think they are the main character, even when its their turn to the NPC.

They just don't "get" some of the social expectations of them, that other kids do.

And now, as an employer, I can almost always pinpoint when a resource was home-schooled.

Got it, regular schools teach kids to be NPCs who know they are supposed to shut up until the teacher calls on them, and that's what you want as an employer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where does the “homeschoolers are weird” trope come from? Most of the homeschoolers I have met are intelligent and interesting, and have unique passions.

Your experience clearly does not reflect the larger societal experience. The only homeschooled people (kids) I knew growing up were religious fundies who were absolutely weird, annoying, lacked social skills, talked down to normal kids and were quite far behind in actual intelligence and learning. They seemed to feel superior to others but really had nothing or any justification to back it up.

Your "experiences" back in the 1990s are outdated and irrelevant, Karen.

Quite defensive there! Are you homeschooling your children? Are you teaching them to insult other people online and call them "Karens" because they have a different POV than you? Sounds like the experiences I, and pps have had arent quite so outdated...

I'm not being defensive, Karen. I'm attacking you for being old and stupid. You don't need to teach kids to point out when others are being stupid, this comes quite naturally.

If someone was in school in the 90's, I don't think theyre that old LOL.

But question asked, and question answered. You are clearly a religious fundie homeschooling your children. Probably teaching them that dinosaurs didnt really exist and the earth is flat... good luck to your children with their dim futures having you as a parent/teacher. And yes, dear, you are being very defensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Probably from the people who are threatened by any better alternative to the failing public education system.

The only people I know who are staunchly against school choice and homeschooling are democrats/pro-school unions and very defensive when any of those topics or policies are mentioned. Any “threat” or perceived threat to public school is insulted or shot down as an “attack on our education system”. Their jobs are at stake if fewer students go to school. https://cei.org/blog/homeschooling-growth-worries-teachers-unions/

Well, no. A robust public education system is in the nation's best interest. Redirecting tax dollars and resources away from one is bad for national security in the long run.

While there are some exceptions, homeschooling by and large is wildly substandard to traditional schooling and provides too many opportunities for children to be abused and neglected without notice. And then there is the curricula that many follow, teaching that people and dinosaurs shared the earth, or that some dude 2,000 years ago was a zombie and so forth.