Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 18, 1992 TAG: 9202180356
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ABBEY JOHNSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
NEVER DEPRIVED DUE TO HOME SCHOOLING
I AM WRITING in response to the column Feb. 2 on home schooling by Margie Fisher. I am 13 years old and have been taught at home all of my life. There has never been a time when I felt I had been deprived of anything or hindered in any way because of my school setting.Ms. Fisher's two main concerns about home-schooled children seem to be that (1) they would not be able to keep up with their peers academically and (2) they would not know how to get along with children who were at all different from themselves, and other children would treat them like freaks.
To answer her first fear: My brother and I have consistently scored in the 99th percentile on Scholastic Aptitude Tests. As for her second concern, I have never had any trouble making or keeping friends of all backgrounds, and no child has ever even insinuated that he thought I was the least bit freakish because I do not attend a "regular" school.
In fact, when I was in elementary grades, most children, upon learning that I was home-schooled, would say, "Lucky! or, "I sure wish my mom would do that." Now that I'm a little bit older, most kids just say, "Neat," or simply ask me about it. Curiosity, not contempt, is the typical feeling among my peers.
Ms. Fisher also made the assumption that home-schooled children are denied access to great literature, fine art and good music. That is simply not true.
For as long as I can remember, my parents have encouraged me to read numerous classics such as "Robinson Crusoe," "Jane Eyre," "Treasure Island," "Pride and Prejudice," "The Screwtape Letters," "Little Women," "Kidnapped," "Lorna Doone," etc.
Art appreciation, along with field trips to museums around the country, has been very important to my curriculum, and my family has several hundred cassette tapes with a wide variety of music. True, my parents do not want me to listen to heavy metal rock groups and such, but I don't think many parents want their children to listen to music that openly encourages violence, drug use, brutality and suicide.
Ms. Fisher's other generalizations are interesting because, of the many hundreds of home-schoolers I have met, none of them fit the stereotype she described. The only statement even close to the truth was that many home-school families are Christian.
If I were to describe most home-school families, I would say they tend to be middle-class, either one or both parents having a considerable amount of higher education. Many times one of the parents is a certified teacher.
It is hard to make any other generalization about home-schooled families, because every one is different. With one or two exceptions, home schooling tends to spell excellence.
Abbey Johnson is 13 and lives in Roanoke.