Defending Your Choice
Whether you have to explain to your husband again why you started homeschooling in the first place, or telling the new neighbor why your kids are always home, it’s good to be able to defend your choice to homeschool with intelligent and simple answers.
Always judge your audience carefully. There is no need for you to explain to the neighbor all the many reasons you decided to homeschool just because she is curious. But explaining it in detail might be important to your mother in law. Having your answers firm in your mind will often make an awkward situation fade away based on the fact that you answer confidently the first time you’re asked.
I’ll give you my own reasons to help give an example. I have three children being homeschooled, a 9th grader, a 6th grader and a 2nd grader. My 9th grader was who started us on homeschooling because we were unsatisfied with our school district. I often point out to people that in our case, it had nothing to do with the teachers, this has been a point I have learned to make. Not only is true, but everybody knows somebody who’s a teacher and with out explaining, they tend to assume a defensive position for teachers. The simple fact that we were already homeschooling her made an impact on the decision to homeschool the other two. Our 6th grader had brain surgery after public kindergarten. We sent her back to public school the following year, but due to medication and learning issues resulting from her surgery, we again decided that homeschool was best. By the time the next child was old enough to homeschool, we had already started schooling her while we schooled the other two. We saw no point in sending her to public school when she was already a year ahead of public school standards and the rest of us were at home and doing well. And when it came down to it, she wanted to be homeschooled like the rest of her siblings. This is more than I would tell a stranger at the grocery store that was curious, but maybe a good example of what I would tell an extended family member I run into at a wedding.
Think about it. What are the reasons you homeschool? They will probably change over time and maybe from child to child. I have found that giving a brief explanation like,” We love it and have found that our kids do best that way.” is sufficient to most.
You might have one reason that really commits you to homeschooling. If your reason is based solely on scripture, remember that some people don’t believe in the Bible and the people who do may have a very different perspective. Don’t let your determination to defend yourself ruin an opportunity to share Christ love with someone. If your reasons are academic, have a statistic you can quote from memory to give a little foundation to the belief it’s a better education. Although they vary from study to study, homeschooled children test on average 85 percent better than public school children and that includes a much higher percentage of special needs children being homeschooled. Or maybe you just have tried public and private and didn’t find what you wanted. I find this a fairly common answer. There is nothing wrong with protecting your child from what you believe is a failed system, even if your not sure where your going from here, sometimes the best thing you can do is stop everything and unschool while you work it out. And when it comes down to it, you’re responsible for how your child turns out. If someone else doesn’t like it, that is really their problem. Be polite and get on with your life!