inluck777

I notice on this forum, and on others, that many people are very discouraging when it comes to homeschooling, to the point that I think they feel threatened by it. Why else would anyone be invested in another family's educational choices? I see attacks such as "better put him back in school so he can learn social skills" and "you can't teach your kid everything, put him in school" in the homeschooling Q&A section. I don't think that people legitimately believe that homeschooling creates ignorant misfits (if they do, then they are obviously not up-to-date on studies comparing homeschooled to traditionally schooled students!), so what's the problem?

Asking in all sincerety!

Every few years, an editorial written by a member of the NEA gets circulated among homeschooling communities. I'm wondering how individual teachers feel about homeschooling as a whole. Of course that editorial was only the opinion of one man. He basically said that amateurs have no business educating children. He compared teachers teaching children to car mechanics working on cars... the average joe will do more harm to a car without proper training, and the average parent will do more harm to a child without proper teacher training.

If you are a teacher, do you agree with this? What about your colleagues? Does the topic come up in general conversation, in the teacher's room or lounge?

Thank you for sharing your opinions!