For many, the mention of “homeschooling” conjures negative stereotypes about the people who practice it: Homeschool families are religious fundamentalists who shun secular society, or libertarian ideologues who reject the whole idea of public education on principle.
Homeschool parents are conservative, controlling. Homeschool kids are sheltered, and suffer developmentally from a lack of socialization with their peer group.
A visit to the Squirrel Hill home of Beth and John Freeman easily dispels any such misconceptions. On a Tuesday afternoon, Beth Freeman is working with 5-year-old Karis, the youngest of the five Freeman kids. Karis’s older sister Kayla, 8, sits across the kitchen table studying language arts.
The environment is relaxed, and the kids seem to enjoy learning and being together. They’re friendly and outgoing – to all outward indications, very well-adjusted. The parents have no ideological quarrel with public education. Both attended public schools they remember fondly, and both went on to earn degrees at the University of Michigan, one of the nation’s most prestigious public universities.
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Article: Who Homeschools? Demographics Don’t Tell the Whole Story by Josh Raulerson – 31 March 2015
