beanmommy2

I recently had an interesting conversation with someone I had just
met.

She had several grown children that she homeschooled for over a
decade, beginning in the eary 90's. She was telling me about their
experiences learning about homeschooling, how the support groups have
changed over the years, etc.

Anyway, she said, "There were some people in the groups -- not many --
who weren't really homeschoolers. They were just using the
homeschool laws to hide behind their kids' truancy."

At first I thought she meant the kids were getting caught for
skipping school, and were telling the authorities they homeschooled
just to get off the hook.

But then she went on: "They were basically imposters. They filled out
the paperwork claiming that they were homeschoolers, and they called
themselves homeschoolers, but they weren't actually doing it. So
their kids were actually truant. They were neither homeschooling nor
attending school."

I asked (as politely as I could), "But how could you know that they
weren't truly homeschooling? You weren't in their home 24 hours a
day."

She said, quite confidently, "I knew these people personally, and I
knew what their kids were like, and I knew how they said they were
spending their days, and it clearly didn't add up."

Anyway, I thought this was all very interesting, and somewhat
amusing. I tend to assume these "imposters" were unschoolers, but it
did make me wonder if there are people who "use homeschooling laws"
just to be negligent, or if that's even possible to do.

I also wondered if it was common for traditional homeschoolers to
view unschoolers as being negligent, or imposters, or "not really
homeschoolers," or something similar.

Jenny

harmony

I have a friend who is doing this. She pulled her kids out of school to "homeschool". When she does attend homeschool get togethers (about once a year) she tells people "I homeschool, but I don't" If they ask what she means by that she says that she "unschools, kind of" She really does nothing with them. She doesnt work, but lives off of welfare, her house is beyond messy, and her kids are always playing video games at the neighbors house or running around outside unsupervised. She admits that she doesnt do anything with them, but someday she'd like to. It's been 4 years.

There is a huge difference between unschooling and not schooling, but to "outsiders" they probably look the same. People question all the time what we are doing and they agree that it is good educational stuff, but most people not familiar with it, still want to see book work and test scores.
Harmony


> -------Original Message-------
> From: beanmommy2 <beanmommy2@...>
> Subject: [AlwaysLearning] "Imposter" homeschoolers
> Sent: Oct 11 '07 1:57pm
>
> I recently had an interesting conversation with someone I had just
> met.
>
> She had several grown children that she homeschooled for over a
> decade, beginning in the eary 90's. She was telling me about their
> experiences learning about homeschooling, how the support groups have
> changed over the years, etc.
>
> Anyway, she said, "There were some people in the groups -- not many --
> who weren't really homeschoolers. They were just using the
> homeschool laws to hide behind their kids' truancy."
>
> At first I thought she meant the kids were getting caught for
> skipping school, and were telling the authorities they homeschooled
> just to get off the hook.
>
> But then she went on: "They were basically imposters. They filled out
> the paperwork claiming that they were homeschoolers, and they called
> themselves homeschoolers, but they weren't actually doing it. So
> their kids were actually truant. They were neither homeschooling nor
> attending school."
>
> I asked (as politely as I could), "But how could you know that they
> weren't truly homeschooling? You weren't in their home 24 hours a
> day."
>
> She said, quite confidently, "I knew these people personally, and I
> knew what their kids were like, and I knew how they said they were
> spending their days, and it clearly didn't add up."
>
> Anyway, I thought this was all very interesting, and somewhat
> amusing. I tend to assume these "imposters" were unschoolers, but it
> did make me wonder if there are people who "use homeschooling laws"
> just to be negligent, or if that's even possible to do.
>
> I also wondered if it was common for traditional homeschoolers to
> view unschoolers as being negligent, or imposters, or "not really
> homeschoolers," or something similar.
>
> Jenny
>
>

Sandra Dodd

-=-it did make me wonder if there are people who "use homeschooling
laws"
just to be negligent, or if that's even possible to do.-=-

It's easy to do that.

Just this morning I had surprise correspondence with someone who's
been saying "unschooling" for many years. The oldest ran away, the
second is in school and the third is considering school.

More than anything academic, what a family needs is happiness and
joy. Learning can flow in, when there are smiles and there's
relaxation and humor. Nothing but more negativity can flow in when
negativity is valued and encouraged.

Last week I gave a talk about how important it is to find ways to be
happier.
I've really become to believe that cynicism is one of the worst
traits a person can have, and it's contagious, and cynics shame
others who don't share their twisted view.

-=-I also wondered if it was common for traditional homeschoolers to
view unschoolers as being negligent, or imposters, or "not really
homeschoolers," or something similar.-=-

Yes. I've heard many times that unschooling is lazy and
irresponsible and ungodly and neglectful.

My kids are really good people, but some of that is probably
genetics, some is luck (horrible things could have happened to us but
haven't, yet; might not at all), but much is joy and opportunity and
loving support and stimulation of all sorts.

Sandra







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