July 27, 2004

Excuse Me, Your Bias is Showing

On the homeschooling discussion board which I frequent, someone posted the following article on homeschooling: Correcting Misconceptions About Homeschooling
While I appreciate the article's point that homeschoolers are a diverse group, the author's tone and that of some of the people he interviewed annoyed me. Some of the people initially were opposed to homeschooling, because they thought that it was solely the domain of religious conservatives. They had this snotty, intolerant attitude that they didn't like the homeschooling movement, because it might produce more people who don't agree with them. Ho-nes-tly. And then once, they (and the author) realized that liberals homeschool too, then homeschooling became a worthwhile movement in their eyes and not something to attack. In my opinion, everyone should have the right to the freedom of thought that homeschooling provides. (I'm not saying that everyone should homeschool!) I roll my eyes when I read homeschooling articles when people feel like they have to justify that the reason they are homeschooling has nothing to do with faith or religion. Though I do have to admit, that I have downplayed that factor in the reasons why I homeschool when faced with a potentially hostile questioner: to my shame. Nobody wants to be labelled as a religious radical, though all of life is based on faith, admitted or not!

Posted by melissa at July 27, 2004 03:56 PM