The Single Story of Homeschoolers

Homeschoolers are portrayed throughout the media as socially inept, awkward, and educationally challenged individuals. Despite the increasing percentages of families that have flocked to this alternative educational method, the social stereotype surrounding homeschooling is centered on the idea that homeschooled children are social misfits that lack in some capacity or another. This stereotype promotes the idea that children in the United States are becoming more deficient in their social and personal skills due to the fact that so many families have turned to homeschooling as a means of education. The theory, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” is equally comparable in terms of education. Some of the brightest individuals in history were self-taught or tutored at home, yet the social perception of homeschoolers depicts a group of misfits.

    In the film Mean Girls, the protagonist Cady Heron is portrayed as a homeschooler who struggles with social acceptance and can only find it with individuals that are considered social outcasts themselves. The only way she is accepted into the “popular” social scenes run by the “plastics” is through suppressing any signs of her unusual upbringing. This film promotes the conception that homeschooled children are socially inept. This misconception creates boundaries that limit homeschoolers from experiencing the same treatment as their public and private schooled counterparts.

    The media artifacts I chose articulate the disdain accompanied with the unknown factors associated with homeschooling. The initial response to an individuals claim to homeschooling is often questioned and even scorned. Rather than being open to an alternative method to education, individuals at times tend to question why someone would choose to participate in an alternative method to begin with. The questions, “Why?” and “What is wrong with you?” prove the social stereotype that accompanies this growing cultural group.

    Homeschoolers have been the brunt of jokes in the media for decades. Despite the derivativeness of these social claims, the homeschooling community has continued to grow and develop. Regardless of this growth, homeschoolers would benefit without having to live under this confining stereotype. The conception that there is something wrong or lacking in the social, educational, and personal attributes of a homeschooler should not be automatically attached to their social perception. An individual’s decision to pursue an alternative method of education should not need the validation, “Oh but you seem so normal!”

http://boards.atlantafalcons.com/topic/3985633-has-anyone-on-here-ever-met-a-normal-homeschooled-kid/ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3Nr6RrD5c4