I was recently approached by a 15-year-old girl in public school whose best friend is homeschooled. She was concerned about how much her friend talked about homeschooling and wanted to debate the virtues of homeschooling versus public school. Frankly, she was beginning to worry her friends intentions as was feeling quite anxious about an invitation to spend the holiday at her home.
This message is to homeschoolers, parents and kids alike. It is not our job or responsibility as homeschoolers to recruit others for the team. Now if someone asks you a question and seems interested in homeschooling feel free to give them information and let them know how great it is. However, constantly challenging friends to debates about homeschooling will only alienate them.
Let’s face it; we are doing something different from many of our friends and family. Some of these people will even become less friendly to us because of our choices. We hate that, don’t we? We need to be careful about the way we approach those who don’t homeschool so as not to make them feel the same way others make us feel.
Sure there will be cases where such “recruiting” is in the mind of the “recruitee”. They will feel that because we homeschool and we like homeschooling that we are pressuring them to homeschool to. I am not really sure what to do about that. I guess in these cases that it is best just to get all feelings out on the table. Tell them you enjoy homeschooling and why, and let them know you respect their decision to do otherwise. You may even want to respectfully and with boundaries learn about each other’s experiences. There is no reason that we cannot all get along and feel comfortable about too.
*Have a question about homeschooling? Just ask.
*Words a homeschooler Should Know