Not too long ago, I was a homeschooler. I know all about the homeschool lingo—in fact, I lived it every day! I know all about homeschool co-ops, tutorials, and “independent work.”
I have no idea what public school is like. I’ve never ridden a public-school bus, eaten lunch in a public-school cafeteria, or heard the bell ring that alerts students to change classes. I’ve never been in a locker room or had an AP class or experienced a pep rally. (What are those anyway???)
Of course, since coming to college, I’ve become acquainted with eating in the cafeteria, having six different teachers for each semester, and taking especially stressful tests called “finals”. 😉 But not everyone I know was homeschooled.
What do non-homeschoolers think about the homeschool crowd? Do they assume we’re socially inept, nerdy, and uncultured?
I’ve known several homeschoolers who feared that public-schoolers thought they were weird or awkward. I’ve even experienced that fear, and you might, too! I want to address the fears of typical homeschoolers so that we can own up to our homeschooled-ness and not be ashamed of it! 🙂 ***
Fear #1: Homeschoolers fear that people will think they lack social skills. Okay, to be honest, some of us do lack social skills. But we all do sometimes (including me)! Why should we place so much emphasis on what other people think? As long as we’re trying to be godly individuals, it doesn’t matter if we know too much about Lord of the Rings or if we can’t name every trendy pop singer or if we go to mystical places called “co-ops”. After all, there would be no diversity if every single person went to one type of school.
Fear #2: Homeschoolers fear that they actually do lack social skills. As I said, some of us are lacking in the sociality department. We don’t always know what information to share, when to share it, or how to share it. We worry about how we’ll act in a college or career setting. Honestly, most of us can’t hide our homeschool—and that’s okay. It helps other homeschoolers relate to us, and it adds flavor to the lives of students who attend(ed) public and private schools.
Fear #3: Homeschoolers fear that they won’t be prepared for the “real” world. Trust me, being unprepared for the “real” world can be a beautiful thing. You’ll probably ve faced with worldly influences at some point in life, but being sheltered from our evil culture isn’t a bad thing. You’ll adjust to the non-homeschooled world if and when you need to. For now, just be thankful for the opportunity to be homeschooled.
Homeschooling is a good fit for some and a bad fit for others. I think homeschooling was the best choice for me, and I’m thankful for the years of teaching that my parents gave me at home.
But…
If you attend(ed) public school, you’re still an amazing human and I can certainly forgive you if you didn’t understand my joke about Lord of the Rings. 🙂
Besides, our main concern shouldn’t be where we go to school but how we act at school. Diligence is key whether you are in public, private, or home school (or beyond)!
The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich. (Proverbs 13:4 NKJV)
***Side-note: Just so you all know, I’m certainly not hating on any of my readers who are attending or have attended public/private schools. The world would be a boring place if we were all homeschooled! This was just a fun post for my homeschooled peeps, and I hope you still enjoyed it even if you’ve never been homeschooled. 🙂 I hope you have a fabulous day! Thanks for reading!
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