The Secret Power of Homeschoolers

If you have 40-200 kids, it's not a homeschool, it's just another for-profit private school.

It's not homeschooling if you just make another school. There are many reasons to homeschool your kids, but letting people without any credentials become teachers doesn't sound like a great idea.

My Mom homeschooled me due to the fact that I had a learning Disability and the Public Schools didn't want to take the time to properly teach me,so they tried to sweep me under the Rug and pretend I didn't exist until she pulled me out and Taught me herself. I loved it! I was able to get the one on one teaching I NEEDED,I did other programs with other homeschooled children who later became my friends twice a week,I began to excel once we found a method that actually worked for me. I was always and will always be so grateful to my Parents for doing what they did,I wouldn't have changed a thing. I'm in my early 30's now,I graduated College,became a Welder for 3 years,a warehouse manager for 2,a CNA for 2 and now run my own Business. Homeschool is such an amazing tool for your child if done RIGHT.

I was a public school teacher who resigned and took early retirement to stay home and homeschool. Our secret power is knowing there's more to life than the robotic nonsense of the traditional classroom.

I wish they had highlighted the many people who homeschool for non-religious and non-political reasons. There are a lot of us out there. My kids are awesome people. I enjoy spending time with them and allowing them the freedom to learn based on their interests and in a way they respond best. Sometimes homeschooling isn’t about making any religious or political statement; it’s about loving your children and desiring them to reach their best potential.

The greatest challenge of this world is knowing enough about a subject to think you are right, but not knowing enough about the subject to know you are wrong…

I was “unschooled” as a kid, which is an extreme form of homeschooling where I was allowed to do literally whatever I wanted every day with no curriculum of any kind. My parents chose this just because we lived in the country far from school, not for any religious reasons. It sounds like a crazy way to do school, but what I realized once I got to college (and got a 4.0 gpa my very first semester) is that going to a traditional school is really not important for academic success. Same once I entered the workforce and realized that being able to read and learn things on your own, think logically and creatively, and be resourceful are much more important. 10 years later and I’m happily married with kids, living a pretty typical life. What I’m trying to say, I guess, is that there is no right or wrong way to do school. I think that parents and the support they give to their kids is way more important, whether the kids are going to school or staying at home

The teacher who almost started crying earlier in her interview and then started crying about not being able to buy her personal books, shows how stressed out teachers are and how broken this system is. I am worry about the mental health of public school teachers, if this is what comes out during an interview about being a public school teacher. Maybe, taking kids out of the home, away from their families, maybe taking parents away from their children to be raised by others isn't a great system. We took a potential great thing and used it and abused it. Public education was never supposed to replace the family, it was supposed to help it. I'm frustrated by the way this was framed. Do you know how much money is lost to families who homeschool? They do not stop paying taxes to the school system. All books, and all curriculum has to be bought by the family. The potential for an entire income is lost. Please stop framing it as if homeschool families are taking something away financial from the system. They're not. Homeschooling puts them at a great financial disadvantage. but apparently, it's worth it.

I think a lot of patents who had to help their kids with virtual learning during the pandemic realized they are capable of homeschooling. I think it's important to realize people pulling their kids out of public school is a symptom that public education in the USA is seriously flawed.

I was homeschooled, but my mother is a qualified educator. She was/is a teacher, a curriculum developer and was a deputy superintendent. We got an education that was almost on par with standard public school. So by the time we transitioned to public high school, we were able to just slide right on in B U T She never homeschooled us for a political/religious/conspiratorial reason It was simply because the school on the Reservation I grew up on didn't have quality education. She got sick of the GENUINE educational neglect, and decided to take things into her own hands These guys aren't even educated themselves 🤣

I was homeschooled up to high school because I lived in a terrible area. The schools were violent, even in the younger grades, and weren’t a great learning environment. From a social standpoint, I hated it, but I got to high school and felt way ahead of my peers. Also, it should be said my mom had to get her GED. She didn’t do well in school but she followed the curriculum and used videos as well as other teachers to give me the education opportunities she didn’t have.

I was homeschooled for a few years and skipped a grade and finished in public school. It's crazy how much better you can learn with homeschool. Most of my cousins were homeschooled and they all have university degrees and are insanely interesting as they have a huge capacity for critical thought. Religion aside, it is not hard for homeschool to be superior academically.

I am a homeschooling parent. Not all homeschoolers are as politically driven as some of these people being interviewed. In fact, I wish it wasn’t portrayed as such a political weapon rather than a powerful tool in a child’s education. Homeschoolers can learn and move through curriculum at their own pace. They normally excel because they don’t have to compete with a large classroom for individualized instruction that fits their academic needs. I also love that I can teach my children more about their culture. At the same time I think it can be a disservice for the ones who pull their kids and decide to not teach them about other cultures all in the name of “CRT” (which is not taught in schools k-12 btw). Homeschooling is a powerful tool and as mentioned I will fight for my right to homeschool because I know that it is what is best for my children. But I don’t have the same reasons as some of these people. It actually makes me annoyed to hear these people pushing their political agendas on to these children. In my homeschool I teach my children. As they grow older and learn about politics they can decide their own political stance.

"He doesn't have a background in education" Wow! SHOCKER!

For years Before the pandemic I ran a homeschool gardening / nature school from my home with an amazing small group of home birthing, freethinking, caring parents. This video is a different angle on homeschooling very politically/ religiously driven. I was a public school teacher for over 10 years but working with the hippy dippy freethinking, life living, family and nature oriented homeschool community changed my life . In my mind that is “homeschool”.

There are a lot of comments about the positive and wholesome homeschooling experiences that people have had in their lives. That is truly wonderful, but it's not the story for everyone. My best friend was homeschooled by her parents until she renrolled in high school. She was overwhelmed and struggled immensely in high school and the "real" world outside of her home. She was raised in a very isolated environment with parents who barely knew math, science, or grammar, and when she finally joined public school, she struggled immensely just to keep up and had to relearn almost everything on her own. She wasn't the only former homeschool kid I knew in high school who faced a lot of issues. Although not all of them struggled, most had emotional, social, and academic problems that followed them into college and beyond. I think it's important to remember that while most of the parents in this video are bright and responsible people that provide ample, positive education for their children, there are also many homeschool parents who lack education and awareness and are not actually capable of providing a proper and applicable education to their children. Unrestricted and unregulated homeschooling can give some parents the ability to isolate and control their children, causing only harm and doing minimal good. Not to mention the fact that here in rural Indiana, the majority of homeschoolers are indoctrinated hardcore into Christianity, which isn't inherently bad, but, again, it can cause a lot of awful and traumatizing issues when they finally leave home and go to college, get a job, and start socializing with people who are different from them. I can definitely understand the appeal of homeschooling, especially nowadays, but it is also far from a perfect system. Oversight and protections are needed for homeschool kids, too.

There needs to be 10 year follow up video on these kids to see how they fared post-home school. I have a feeling it won’t turn out all that well. Most in this video are being home schooled for all the wrong reasons. If you have a good reason, it will stand up to criticism rather than retreating to their bubble.

I have two sons, one in his early 30s and one in his early twenties. Both of them were home schooled for part of their education but not all of it. It was because I live in rural Virginia and the schools are much more regressive than the schools in Seattle where I moved from. There were a lot of discipline problems when my older son was in school, so he did middle school homeschooled and then went back to school for high school. My younger son is on the autism spectrum so I pulled him out after 6th grade and he finished school homeschooled. It was their choice, we did secular homeschooling, we did a lot of co-ops so they were around other children and I saw a lot of things that scared me. In the state where I live you can declare homeschooling for religious reasons and never have to show a test result. I saw kids that were woefully ignorant of common knowledge and I also saw two different occasions of abusers who didn't want their kids in school because counselors were asking too many questions. I think it's disgusting how children's education has been co-opted by the fear mongerers. at the very least someone who's homeschooling should have to test their child and they should have to pass a basic test for knowledge for their age.

“Play is a child’s work.” This is what we live by. Ironically, I began homeschooling just prior to the pandemic. It was due to my then 6 year old finding it impossible to adapt, and feel safe in the charter school chaos. He was anxious, and learning nothing. His behavior at home began to decline. The teacher he began with left for maternity leave, never returning. Replaced by a revolving door of substitutes that were not accustomed to younger students. The lack of consistency was counterintuitive. Then there was the long day, removal of outside recess as a means of discipline. The list goes on. His poor teacher would often get back to us at 11pm claiming to have just gotten home from school that late in the evening. My infant at the time got sick and hospitalized from the constant illnesses that my older child was carrying home too. We do know that there are detrimental effects of masking the faces of young children in terms of language, psychological, and emotional development. With very little proof of efficacy. As soon as these masked kids would settle to eat lunch, the masks are removed lol. It’s such nonsense. We don’t homeschool due to that or politics/religion. We homeschool because my child learns best when he feels safe, and when the curriculum can be tailored for his specific learning style. Once he was recovered from the trauma of his conventional school experienced, I could not have beenï prouder of how beautifully he has acclimated. He is mature, responsible, takes accountability, is kind, and he reads constantly for enjoyment. I think homeschooled kids are going go change their generations future.

I was homeschooled from K-8, and though this shows some aspects of the homeschool community I think it’s missing a lot. We had a large group of homeschoolers in my area who were generally leftist or centrist, and made up of people who didn’t believe the academics in public school were strong enough. There are MANY people that homeschool that come from the left, not just right wing extremists. Where I currently live in Oregon, most homeschoolers are the nature loving hippie types! People homeschool for so many reasons, and a lot of time there is a great community involved. This video shows such a narrow part of homeschool.