My daughter is 10, and we have homeschooled for all but one year so far. What I found is that there are a good many secular homeschoolers all over montgomery county and the greater DC area, and most I would not call education purists.

A great many are educated and capable parents who saw the system not working for their children, and decided it wasnt worth the torture of forcing their kid into a mold and watch the devastation unfold on their limited time with them. They chose to reclaim their family, trade their career for time with their children and an opportunity to better prepare them to be functional adults.

It was, but now it can be anything and anybody.
Left wing crunchy-chewy, centrist, fed up, whatever. I wish I had 15 years ago! And I am a left wing public school teacher.

Anonymous wrote:We homeschool and are politically progressive to moderate (vote Dem, pretty middle of the road within the party).

I did have a midwife birth in a bathtub (in a hospital) and breastfed everywhere, though.

Same here for first part; hated breastfeeding and was happy to get the epidural going asap.

Anonymous wrote:75% right wing nut jobs
20% left wing nut jobs
5% education purists

In my experience

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well if you look at the Well Trained Mind forums you will see that homeschoolers come in all shapes and sizes so to speak. They range from atheist to conservative Christian and from liberal to conservative and everything in between.

We homeschooled previously to meet my kid's special needs and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I never imagined that I would ever homeschool since 20 to 30 years ago I thought all homeschoolers were conservative Christian nut jobs. Boy was I wrong.

Goddamnit you are really offensive!!

If this had said "Muslim nut jobs" Jeff would have locked it or removed it all together within minutes of it being posted!

+ 1. And ignorant. Home schoolers come in all shapes and sizes, religions and creeds and do it for a variety of reasons as PPs said.

We are part of City Kids: citykidscoop.com It's a secular homeschool cooperative program. The parents are not extremists in any way--they all have their own reasons for homeschooling. We have religious parents, atheists, and all in between. We do a lot of amazing things with the kids--I think homeschooling gets a bad rap from what people see on reality shows, but here in the DC area, the homeschoolers are pretty much the same as any other parents.

If there is very little action about homeschooling here on DCUM, it is because there are other groups to discuss issues. I have had to homeschool my DS for several reasons, but mostly to do with his special needs. I am finding that it is a diverse group of people in the DMV who homeschool and includes evangelical Christians, Muslims, people who kids have special needs and schools don't work, as well as the crunchy granola types. They post and ask questions in several Yahoo groups that are not actually easy to find. The harder thing is actually finding homeschool curricula which isn't oriented toward evangelical Christianity, but it us out there to find.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just ask Carol Black: http://carolblack.org/on-the-wildness-of-children/

Thank you for posting this. Its a wonderful resource.

Why dont all the anti homeschoolers go away from the homeschooling forum. This is not for you any more than the special needs forum is for parents without kids who have special needs. In both cases, if you want to learn, fine. I dont see that happening here.

We dont need or benefit from your input. Just go talk to people who feel like you do so you can justify your POV or whatever it is that your needs are. You don't need or benefit from our responses to your input either!

Do you teach intolerance for dissenting opinions in your home?

The reality is there's so little interest in homeschooling, people who are opposed to it chiming in now and then may be the only thing keeping this forum alive. Jeff was plenty skeptical enough when he started it, and the lack of posts after it began validated that skepticism.

I have a very gifted kid with some special needs, the kind of kid who isn't well served in most schools despite the best intentions. I guess I could also be called an "education purist."

My son and I both love homeschooling. I have absolutely no doubt that he is receiving a much better education than he possibly could in public school--and he isa lot happier. Maybe in rural out-of-the-way places, many homeschoolers are not jobs but around here, it's a pretty mainstream group.

Anonymous wrote:I think it depends on location. In my area, it is more religious right, just 20 miles north it is less because of religious views. In some place like California it is more common so therefore more likely to be a diverse group of families.

In my experience, I've seen the same thing. In some areas it's associated with far left, hippy types.

Anonymous wrote:75% right wing nut jobs
20% left wing nut jobs
5% education purists

In my experience

And your experience is...?

I was homeschooled my senior year because I was being bullied and begged - begged! - my parents not to make me go back.

I work as a sub and hate how teachers pigeonhole students both positively and negatively. I've been really disillusioned by my experience, and it's making me rethink my plans for schooling my own children.

Anonymous wrote:75% right wing nut jobs
20% left wing nut jobs
5% education purists

In my experience

+1

Anonymous wrote:Just ask Carol Black: http://carolblack.org/on-the-wildness-of-children/

Thank you for posting this. Its a wonderful resource.

Why dont all the anti homeschoolers go away from the homeschooling forum. This is not for you any more than the special needs forum is for parents without kids who have special needs. In both cases, if you want to learn, fine. I dont see that happening here.

We dont need or benefit from your input. Just go talk to people who feel like you do so you can justify your POV or whatever it is that your needs are. You don't need or benefit from our responses to your input either!

I think it depends on location. In my area, it is more religious right, just 20 miles north it is less because of religious views. In some place like California it is more common so therefore more likely to be a diverse group of families.