Homeschool Lies that Irritate Me

We are currently in Oklahoma City.  I always watch the local news wherever we are, especially for weather and traffic information.  A story made my ears perk up as I was working and listening the other day.  They were running a story about homeschooling.  Of course I looked up the story the next morning to see what it was all about.

Apparently there is a group seeking to get more restrictions on homeschooling in Oklahoma.  But in Oklahoma your constitutional right to homeschool is written into the state constitution, so the people wanting to make restrictions will have a difficult time.  Currently they have very open laws, to the point where you do not need to even register with your local district.  (I admit I am jealous!!)

I understand that some people may have had a hard time homeschooling.  Maybe a poor home environment or bad homeschool group.  Some parents go to the extreme to protect their children from what they see as dangers.  There are also parents who are seeking the easy way out and under the cover as "unschoolers" just let their kids do whatever they want and do not take responsibility for their education.  (Now I am not calling any religious group "extreme" or saying Unschoolers are irresponsible, because I fall between those areas.  So don't get upset.  I am all for whatever works best for each family.)

But my question is, why lump all homeschoolers into your bad experience.  Not all of us:

1.  Discipline our kids in an extreme way to the point of leaving bruises.

2.  Make our kids think only one way and not allow them to think freely.

3.  Not take our kids into public for fear of "religious" confusion.

Everyone I know:

1.  Encourages their children to make educated decisions.

2.  Encourages their children in outside of the house activities

The majority of homeschoolers (all the ones I know), encourage their kids to take part in outside activities.  In fact they spend hours driving their kids between activities.  They learn how to balance lessons at home and on the road to make sure their kids are getting a well-rounded education and life.

Even the unschoolers I know make sure their children are constantly learning in some way.  Life provides so many examples for kids to learn from.

Unfortunately there are some that are hiding abuse, and those are the ones that we need to be pointing out.  Not as homeschoolers, but as abusers.

No system is perfect, even the public schools have abuse cases that fall through the cracks.  Yet I am not hearing a warning about sending our kids to public schools being issued as a special report on the evening news.

So all the people out there that are rallying to make more strict rules for homeschooling, step back and ask yourselves, why are you attacking the homeschooling community as a whole?  Why are you trying to punish everyone who is working hard for the benefit of their children?  Why are you trying to make life harder for them?  I have listened to your points.  I understand your concerns, but they don't apply as a whole to the homeschool community.

Millions of people are homeschooling and "rocking the boats" of the educational system.  Colleges would not be begging for homeschooler to apply if they didn't see this movement as a great change for society.

Maybe you might want to step back and take a look at your experience again, and know that you can change your own family.  Stop trying so hard to change mine.