{"id":23320,"date":"2013-03-06T07:00:12","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T12:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/simplehomeschl.wpengine.com\/?p=23320"},"modified":"2026-01-28T16:17:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T21:17:40","slug":"critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/critics\/","title":{"rendered":"Responding to the homeschooling critics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"coffee<\/a>Written by contributor Sarah Small of SmallWorld at Home<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

I<\/span> am blessed to live in an area where homeschooling is not at all unusual. Everyone knows at least a few homeschooling families; nonetheless, we aren\u2019t immune to the naysayers, the critics.<\/p>\n

I used to be outraged. I used to bristle. I remember one of my first encounters with a lady who was quite vocal about her disgust with homeschooling. I had just moved to town and was attending a new church. Here is how my conversation went with this woman:<\/p>\n

So where does your son go to school?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am homeschooling him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh. Well, I would never do that<\/em>. We have the best schools in the state right here.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That was the end of the conversation. She actually turned her back to me, quite literally, and never engaged me in conversation again for the decade<\/em> I attended that church.
\n<\/p>\n

Most of us have had that conversation or one similar. We\u2019ve heard the common babble about socialization to the audacious \u201cwhy aren\u2019t you using your degree?\u201d and its strange partner, \u201cdo you even have a teaching degree?\u201d comments.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We wonder what would actually possess someone to say, \u201cI am a better mom because my kid is in school.\u201d<\/p>\n

We inwardly flinch when we hear, \u201cMy kid would like to be homeschooled, but I would kill him.\u201d Our hearts break a little when they say, \u201cI could never be around my kid all the time. She frustrates me way too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have zipped my lips a hundred times over the past 13 years. I have rolled my eyes to the back of my head while wearing a beatific smile and maintaining eye contact with someone who sounds exactly like Charlie Brown\u2019s teacher to me. (\u201cWah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah.\u201d) In my head, do you know what I\u2019m saying? Please stop talking. Please, oh please, stop talking.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you are a homeschooler, you\u2019ve been there. And you\u2019ve experienced that dilemma: should I keep my mouth shut, or should I respond?<\/strong> I think often we feel like homeschooling traitors if we don\u2019t respond, as if somehow we need to launch a counter-attack to set the critics straight.<\/p>\n

For me, there is absolutely no advice better than that given in Colossians 4:6:<\/p>\n

\n

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person\u201d (ESV).<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Years ago (and keep in mind, this is my 13th<\/sup> year of homeschooling!), I would stew on negative comments for days, pondering what I should have said, regretting what I did say, or having imaginary conversations in my head in which I set that person straight. (Oh, come on. You\u2019ve done that too, right?)<\/em><\/p>\n

These days I have a checklist I run through in my head when I find myself involved in one of these types of conversations. My mental checklist goes something<\/em> like this:<\/p>\n