Homeschool Is Not Anti-School

The goal of good homeschooling and good brick-and-mortar traditional school should be the same: the effective education of its students.

As human beings, we are sinful and imperfect. We can end up corrupting our true goals, cutting corners in the process, or even hurting the people we are supposed to help. I am a proud product of homeschooling. I am a primary administrator for a homeschool provider. But I have also been a classroom teacher. I have also witnessed the fulfillment and purpose to be found in the traditional school setting.

So very often, homeschooling families who are being unfairly vilified for their choice to homeschool can become defensive. I see all over social media people who are complaining about school in general (whether it's the schedule, or the teachers, or the classmates). Sometimes, the complaints are reasonable and true. They are reflections of imperfect people in an imperfect system. I am never the perfect teacher either, no matter how hard I may strive to be. Sometimes, however, the complaints that show up on my social media feeds feel more resentful and unreasonable than they are helpful.

Homeschooling done right has innumerable benefits.

Traditional school done right has innumerable benefits.

As someone who has benefited from both my parents and my school teachers, as someone who has been a teacher to both homeschooled and traditional schooled children, I embrace both.

They are not antithetical.

The unfairness can work both ways. Families who believe in their choice to homeschool can easily fall into the trap of accusing everything about school as bad. At the same time, individuals who do not prefer homeschooling can sometimes unfairly blame anything imperfect about a child on the fact that he's homeschooled.

Neither are true. Neither are fair.

Homeschooling in and of itself is not a magic potion. Just like traditional school, there are good days and bad days. There are easy subjects and hard subjects. There are challenges, and there are rewards.

Many of my dearest family and friends choose the challenges and rewards of homeschooling, and I am here to cheer them on and do whatever I can to support them. If the Lord allows my husband and me to have children of our own one day, we also hope to use homeschooling to educate them.

But I also know families whose children are being benefited by the traditional school set-up. Maybe, at some point, the topics truly are too hard, and the family believe it's best for the children to learn from professionals in a school setting. Maybe their parents wish to educate in a more hands-on way but are unable or unavailable because of other responsibilities.

Homeschoolers don't like their choice being dismissed or considered inferior.

They have every right to feel that way.

But may all of us who are involved in the homeschooling world be equally fair to our brethren who choose traditional education for their children, either for a season or for life.

Neither is exclusively superior over the other. The Lord can use both for His glory!