What is so wonderful about being “normal?” I don’t consider myself normal and I grew up in public schools. I was shy. I have shy kids. They have some homeschooling friends who are shy and some who are extroverts, competitive and not, bookish and not. They are kids. They come in all flavors.

If the most important part of the public school experience is social interaction with one’s peers, why do the teachers always insist that students sit down and be quiet?

This isn’t the case anymore. I belong to an inclusive homeschool group and we have Pagans, atheist, agnostics, Muslims and a host of other beliefs in our group.

My children have always been involved in some sort of activity; recreational sports, Scouts, robotics etc. where they interacted with other children from the public school system.

In fact when my husband was coaching the soccer team I had a very productive conversation with the Mom’s about homeschooling. One Mom walked up to the group of Mom’s I was sitting with and she was ranting about how homeschoolers were all social misfits and the government shouldn’t allow people to homeschool. One of the Mom’s who was very supportive and helpful to me (and just happened to be a public school teacher) spoke up and said “Alasandra homeschools her kids”. Ranting Mom was embarrassed but stated that my kids were nothing like “homeschooled kids”. I then mentioned that two of the other boys on the soccer team were homeschooled. She had no clue and couldn’t identify either boy. And one of the boys was from a very religious family.

When her son came up to get something to drink she asked him if he knew that (she named the 4 boys) were homeschooled. He replied that he did and that it was cool and that he wished he was homeschooled. She didn’t have a clue and was very surprised by his reaction.

You are assuming the homeschooled child is separated from culture. I do not think your example relavent to elementary. The child is simply too young. But once a child has a sincere commitment to Christ, certainly it is time for them to become more active in engaging culture, so to speak.

School isn’t the only means.

I was likely the opposite of you in high school. Never invited to a party, didn’t go to prom, I did go to homecoming but rooted for the wrong team (oops!) and probably would not have been one you would have held up for my “social skills.” I was weird…I didn’t fit in.

I never blamed that on my educational situation…I actually always liked school.

The Bible does speak about having friends who will corrupt good morals. Again I think this goes back to parenting as well. In high school MOST of my close friends were non-believers. I preferred it this way honestly. They welcomed me more than my Christian friends did. Sounds odd believe me I know that. But they stuck up for my beliefs. They were always there for me. They never chose Christ and the never pressured me to do the things they were doing that went against the Biblical standards and values my parents taught me. They knew where I stood. Maybe God protected me in a special way. Maybe though God used my parents to instill within me principals and values that I could stick to becuase they were God’s. I’m not sure. Probably it was a combination of both.

I was a 4 sport athlete in high school. I was invited to every major party there was. People would even offer to provide cold pop for me if I would go. I chose not to go to any of them becuase I knew what was going to be there and I knew I was susceptible to sin. True I didn’t want to let my parents down but I didn’t want to let God down even more than that. My friends knew that. Is it possible to have no-Christian friends and not be influenced by them? I believe so. Jesus hung out with sinners all of the time and yet the Bible says his life was the example for us to follow. How are we following his example if we are separated from the rest of the culture…people who Christ would try to reach?

And don’t worry too much about perceived frustrations in comment boxes. I can only speak for myself, but I know I have a strong opinion, I do grow weary of being stereotyped and it can be particularly tiresome from fellow Christians. That, however, does not mean I took or meant anything in the discussion to be personal.

Most of what you are talking about sounds more like parenting issues than homeschooling ones. Parents who are overly isolating naturally will tend to wish to homeschool. On the other hand, I do see problems with putting too much responsibility for discipleship on children. I did not tackle the Great Commission in this post, but it is only applicable to those already trained in the Word and themselves following Christ. I would say that is only possible in elementary school in very rare cases.

You also brought up two things which I think would make for an interesting discussion of their own:

1) they really don’t have non-Christian friends

I am not advocating any stance on this issue, but I have read a lot of commentary regarding who we as Christians consider friends. (Please note that they are talking about close friends, not the plethora of acquaintances most Americans have in their social circle). Where is the boundary line between influencing other people’s children and protecting your own who may not be all that mature?

2) My respsonse: honestly I wasn’t speaking from a point of ’spiritual authority.’ Rather I was giving my honest opinion.

Another interesting thought. As a youth pastor, you are in a position of authority. Rightly or wrongly, people look up to you on the basis of your position. I thought about this more when I taught in the public schools (and it was at the core of why I was not legally allowed to answer the children’s questions about God), but when in this role one has to always be aware of that authority in what s/he says. I think this what sunniemom might have been referring to…your blog identifies you as a youth pastor and thus a man of spiritual authority.

Just some thoughts.