A Humanist Feminist on Homeschooling

Of course, someone took yesterday’s school shooting to comment on one of my homeschooling posts:

Today is 12-14- 2012 us homeschooled parents don’t seem that paranoid???? Seeing what happened in Conn??? Pray for the families

Fellow Patheos blogger Libby Anne knows a lot more about homeschooling than I do. Like me, she doesn’t like it, and for a lot of the same reasons, even though I’m a Christian theologian and she’s an atheist, humanist feminist. She has collected her posts on homeschooling on a page, which she introduces:

Homeschoolers are a diverse lot. Some homeschool for religious reasons, others for secular reasons. Some homeschooled children have a good deal of social interaction, others very little. Some get a first rate education, others suffer from educational neglect. Some use curricula and workbooks, others “unschool.” Some see homeschooling as a temporary option, others see it as a lifestyle.

The “Christian homeschool movement” is made up of those who homeschool in order to ensure that their children will hold specific religious beliefs and in the hope that their offspring will change America’s future direction. These homeschoolers use religious textbooks and limit their interaction to other like-minded families. Some educate well while others don’t, but all tend to see homeschooling as a requirement rather than an option.

I was homeschooled from kindergarten through high school, and my family was part of this Christian homeschool movement. College brought me out of the homeschool bubble in which I was raised and introduced me to new ideas and to people with very different upbringings than my own. Little by little I began to question the things I was taught growing up.

I now have children of my own and have decided that I will not homeschool them. While most of my criticism is aimed toward the Christian homeschool movement and the way focuses on isolating (aka “sheltering”) and indoctrinating (aka “teaching God’s truth”), I also have some critiques of homeschooling in general. I want my daughter to have teachers who are trained in their subject matter and in how to teach, I want her to have the same socialization experience as other children, and I see involvement in our local schools as part of my civic duty.

If you’re passionate about this subject, I encourage you to read all of her posts on Homeschooling.