Homeschooling & Unschooling Not the Same Thing

Momania is pursuing the Should we be ‘Unschooling’ our kids? topic.

Personally I am getting fed up with all the whiny anti-homeschoolers who refuse to recognize that there is a difference between homeschooling and unschooling. The Good Morning America show was obviously edited to make unschooling look as bad as possible in order to stir up controversy. In fact the same couple are guest on  The Joy Behar Show and present a much better picture of unschooling.

One of the interesting things I have noticed about the anti-homeschooling crowd is that a majority of them insist that homeschoolers are STUPID, DUMB, LAZY etc. , when presented with evidence to the contrary they start screaming THAT HOMESCHOOLERS ARE ELITIST.

Why are kids falling behind in education? Because people today who have kids are not parents, they are caregivers and buddies. It’s tougher to set rules and to be consistent and guide your children by those rules and dole out punishments and rewards when necessary. It’s so much easier to just placate kids with time-consuming (and mind-numbing) alternatives like video games and television, most of which has no redeeming educational value whatsoever.

 The parents who are choosing this option are those who got tired of calls from the schools, from teachers and administrators, and chose the path of least resistance (and least work) and “home schooled” their kids. It also allows an easy out for one parent who doesn’t want to burden themselves with a job and real world responsibilities, so they come up with this crap as a viable excuse to stay home.

Posted by That's called "Laziness" 

As a retired Homeschooling Mom (both my children are now in college) I really resent That's called Laziness' attitude. Homeschooling certainly isn't the path of least resistance and if anything it involves MORE WORK, then simply shoving your child out the door and sending them off to public school. There are lesson plans to develop, educational field trips to plan, papers to grade as well as researching which textbooks to use, researching what different colleges require and maintaining transcripts and other paperwork. We choose to homeschool because we wanted our children to receive the BEST education possible. Our eldest son started college at 16 and is now working on his Masters in Computer Science, our youngest son is a freshman in college, and both work part time. They are both happy successful young adults.

I’m sorry, but you two sound like “those parents.” You know, the ones who think that since their children are SO smart, they must not be challenged enough by the lowly curriculum, teacher, etc., etc., ad nauseam.

I also want to point out that being bored is NOT  an excuse for misbahavior or bad grades. In the event that your child is stuck in a class that is truly beneath him or her, he or she must learn how to deal with it and still come out on top. Being bored is NEVER an excuse for any type of negative response–whether it is physical or academic. If that’s your attitude, then your children are in for a shock when they enter the real world. “Oh, I’m sorry, Boss. I didn’t do the work because it is beneath me and I was bored.”

We’ll see how that one works out.

Posted by V for Vendetta


 Typical those of us with smart children capable of doing advanced work should just leave them to stagnate in the public schools. How dare we take them out and homeschool them so they can reach their full potential. If we insist on "giving them more" we should be content with limiting it to the few hours we see them after public school or during public school breaks. Baloney homeschooling is a valid educational choice and those parents who are willing to put in the time and effort to homeschool should be allowed to do so without having to put up with the blatant disrespect and harassment of the anti-homeschool crowd.