When searching for information on homeschooling, please consider the source from which your information comes. I am a subscriber to Google Alerts and get a daily list of anything recently published on homeschooling, home school, homeschool, and home education.
I have several problems with items featured in these alerts:
Automated Articles: The information I get about homeschooling on Google alerts often appears to be automatically generated. There are programs that many online “writers” use to generate slightly altered duplicates of the same article. The information that results from these programs is rudimentary at best. It is doubtful that the sites often featured have any experienced homeschoolers writing for them.
Misinformed Information: Alot of the homeschooling articles found online is based on rumors and misconceptions. It is as if web content writers have done some basic surface research on homeschooling, and then written articles. There is no depth in these articles, and they often offer wrong information.
New homeschoolers may be using them: It saddens me to think that homeschoolers who turn to the internet for information are being misinformed or misled. If you are a new homeschooler, reading information found online, I beg you to look at the source of the information. Look for credentials, and how long they have been homeschooling, or working with homeschoolers. I mistrust information on homeschooling written by teachers and administrators who do not care for homeschoolers, writers who have not homeschooled, and even by homeschoolers with a rigid bias toward a certain type of homeschooling.
I am not saying that all of the homeschooling articles that come across my email box are useless, but one would think that of the many homeschooling articles I read each day, I would find a good piece of information each and every day. If I find a good article each week, I am lucky. It would do Google Alerts well to add families.com blogs to their listings.
*Have a question about homeschooling? Just ask.
*Want to know more about homeschooling? Start here!