Homeschooling is a bad idea, and there are plenty of great reasons that you shouldn’t homeschool your children.
I know, because I hear them all the time!
Maybe you do too? Everyone seems to know ALL about homeschooling, even if they’ve never done it, and they’re very happy to share their extensive knowledge about all the horrible homeschooling things.
We’re incredibly lucky to have such concerned citizens helping us out – and to celebrate that, I’ve collected 15 of the best reasons NOT to homeschool.
After reading this you’ll be totally convinced that homeschooling is a bad idea, and ready to fill out those school enrollment forms and save society from this scourge.
Let’s get started.
Why Homeschooling is a Bad Idea
1. Your children will not be ‘normal’
Because my kids are just plain strange. Seriously. So are most other homeschooled kids I know (hi friends! You know it’s true).
Conformity is MUCH better. Our ultimate goal is for your children to be just like everyone else in every way – and you need school for that.
2. You’re not a teacher
Well, you certainly have ideas above your station, don’t you? Thinking you can reproduce what multiple professional teachers can do, at home? By yourself?
Sheer arrogance! Like you could ever teach your children anything without a degree!
3. You’ll have to spend ALL day, EVERY day, with your kids
And they’re such horrible little creatures that it would be pure torture.
You can’t do that to yourself, it’s cruel.
Remember, you’re not meant to enjoy your children. You’re meant to join in the collective sigh of relief at the end of summer holidays.
4. Your kids will have no friends
Because how can you make friends when you’re locked in your house all day? And being friends with your parents and siblings is just lame.
If you want to socialise your children, placing them in an artificial environment surrounded by children of the same age is really the only way to get them ready for the real world – ask anyone who doesn’t homeschool, they’ll agree.
5. Other people will care
Other people will think bad things about you. They may even SAY bad things about you. Even, sometimes, to your face!
You need to avoid this at all costs. What other people think is the most important factor in any decision – so ignore your own ideas and keep people-pleasing.
6. You don’t know advanced maths/physics
So what will you do in 10+ years if your preschooler needs to learn it? I mean, there are no other options than you teaching it, or school, right?
Obviously, homeschooling isn’t an option.
7. Homeschooling is selfish
Why should your kids be lucky when others aren’t? Share your time and volunteer at your child’s school. Help those other kids out.
Put that selfish homeschooling effort into revolutionising the public schooling system to make it better for everyone, not just your special snowflake.
8. Your kids will have an opinion about their education
And that’s not a good thing. We all know that kids should stick to the curriculum, at all times, even when it seems boring or pointless. Kids know nothing about the world and what they’ll need, so don’t give them that control.
There will be plenty of time to follow interests as adults. After the university degree, corporate jobs, and wage slave time has been fulfilled, of course – priorities first.
9. Neurodiverse kids NEED specialists
Look, it’s bad enough you think you can homeschool a neurotypical child, but a neurodiverse child?
Now THAT’S arrogance. Everyone knows rigorous education and therapy is necessary to force your child to conform as much as possible. Even if that will never actually be a possibility, you have to keep forcing it.
Remember #1? Conformity is always the goal.
10. Homeschooled children will be weak, pampered, special snowflakes
Being trapped in difficult, stressful, and even traumatic situations builds resilience. Bullying will toughen those little darlings right up!
PTSD and anxiety are all made up conditions anyway – children just need to harden up and deal with the reality of life and learn to live in the real world.
11. They won’t learn to focus or sit still
Children have to learn to sit still and concentrate from a young age. It’s the only way to learn anything. They’re empty vessels that need to be filled by adult experts, so passively waiting is essential. That urge for hands-on experience and interaction must be crushed.
And if they insist on being difficult and wanting to move all the time, medication can fix that.
12. People will think you’re broke
Otherwise, why wouldn’t you just pay for private schooling? Or they’ll think you’re just doing it for the money.
The government pays you to homeschool, right?
13. Your house will always be a mess
All those projects, activities, and papers everywhere…..argh!
Not to mention the piles of library books, kitchen science experiments, and the backyard full of strange animals and obscure plants.
Obviously, home cleanliness is the number one priority. Better send them to school.
14. They’ll NEVER get into university/further education
Everyone knows it – the only way to be successful is to finish school with a high ATAR, because that’s the ONLY way to get into university.
Nobody else has ever managed it. It’s school or nothing.
So it’s obvious – without a high ATAR your child is doomed to a lifetime of entry-level jobs, poor wages, and possibly homelessness. Better send them to school at 4 to prepare for it.
15. You can’t be mum/dad AND teacher
It’s just too confusing to everyone. You’re going to melt your poor child’s brain with the cognitive dissonance. Choose one role (obviously, parent, because you’re stuck with that one) and stop perplexing people. And yourself.
Now, there may be some truth to some of these – but everything is figureoutable, and if you believe homeschooling is the best option for your family you can fix almost any problem that comes up.
If your kids wants to learn advanced subjects you can’t teach, you can find a tutor or online classes.
If the mess in your house is driving you nuts, you can overhaul chore charts and get everyone helping, or get a cleaner.
If your kids want more friends, you can help them find some. Join homeschooling groups, sports clubs, hobby groups….there are plenty of ways to meet people.
If you have a neurodiverse child you can access therapies and specialists outside of school, and work precisely to your child’s needs.
If your homeschooled child wants to go to university there are dozens of options for entry – and they’re all much less stressful and time-consuming than a high school certificate.
That’s the best thing about homeschooling – we have options. We’re not helpless. We can take our problems and fix them. We aren’t limited by a rigid system, so we can be as creative as we want to reach our goals.
And that’s what makes me believe that homeschooling is actually an excellent idea for us, no matter the comments I get.
Special thanks to Rae, Cyndall, Joanna, and Amna for contributing to this post.
I loved this email Kelly. I have learned so much from your zero to homeschool course and we are loving homeschool.
We wake up when we had had enough sleep, we learn with passion and interest, my 12yr Autistic son can learn standingup, hopping on 1 foot and shaking his hands if need be. I love to see him exploring a subject futher with his own questions and interests.
As for being social, he catches up with his old school friends every afternoon and even haas the confidence to go to the park with his friends now as going to school isnt telling him he is “below average” as the assesment computer marking system was constantly telling him. He isnt getting an E for music because he was missing the lesson to go to counselling and the most shocking thing i almost did was thinking of putting him on medication to get through school!!
Thakyou for giving me the guidance i needed to begin this journey. We are gratefull every day to have this amazing experience together.
Linda and Joshua
Hi Linda,
Thanks so much for your comment, it’s wonderful to read! You’ve made my day.
xxKelly.
Homeschooled child here. I hated homeschool. Every. Second. Of. It. It was horrible. I had to teach myself everything starting from age 13. I got behind by years because my parents eventually just told me to manage my own education.. Lots of responsibility to give to a kid with no discipline at all.
You better think about what you’re doing before you potentially ruin your child’s future. This article is horribly written and does not show any problems that you need to watch out for as a homeschooler. If you knew the actual weaknesses of homeschooling, maybe you could plan around them and teach your child better than I was taught by my parents. Look elsewhere if that was your goal.
Hi Andrew,
I’m sorry to hear about your experience, it sounds more like neglect than homeschooling.
This article is not serious and is aimed at parents who do put a lot of effort into homeschooling, yet are regularly confronted with the same round of inane questions and comments. Sometimes it’s a relief to poke fun at the silly things we get asked, it helps to put them into perspective.
All the best,
Kelly.
Ahhh homeschooling. Something that I’ve always wanted to do with my kids. After seeing all those “debunking myths”videos and the ones about organization. Also hearing about the statistics on how homeschool kids learn faster and consume less television. But I’ve now opened my eyes to the realization that homeschool kids miss out on a lot of important things and there’s not really a valid solution to everything. Homeschool kids will never get to go to their proms or school dances. They are not guaranteed to make friends with kids of different ages and kids with something they can relate to in their education. So it’s hard for them to find friends when they’re not being put in a place where they will be brought to socialize with others and have fun. They won’t get to form a bonded connection with their teachers, and parents don’t know everything.. so unless they have a degree in education, they shouldn’t be the ones put fully in charge of their child’s learning and have the responsibility of teaching them all subjects. Also online learning can be hard for many children and it’s better to see the actual teacher in person rather than them taking courses online. And I agree it can be quite hard and stressful on both the child and the parent when they have to play the roles of parents and teachers at the same time. It all takes away from the time you should have to either go to work, or clean the house, or take care of your babies and play with them. It’s a big waste of time when you could send your kids to professional teachers who will teach them multiple strategies in subject efficiently, and you can add on to their education from there. So not only do they learn common core methods to have in their back pocket, but old school methods that might be easier as well. And lastly, kids will be ready for the real world. They can deal with bullies and socialize and communicate, all because they’ve experienced it before. You can’t be afraid of your child being exposed to those things because it’s a learning and growing experience. It’s very stressful and not how people make it seem, plus there’s no reason to do it. Just put your kids in regular school and if you don’t like that school, switch to another one. Care about all the other kids and help to contribute to the system that you don’t like about the school. Don’t just worry about your kids and keep them home so they don’t have to experience the school life and you can run away from helping out the school and the kids. And children shouldn’t be put in charge of their own full curriculum, as they don’t know everything that they need to learn… teachers should be the one in charge of that. Selfish and pointless. This is why I will never homeschool or unschool my kids.
Hi Kylie,
Wow, I think your comment is longer than my post!
I think that no lifestyle is perfect, we’re always going to miss out on something – we just need to choose what we’d rather miss out on. Homeschooled children may miss out on some experiences from school, but schooled kids miss out on homeschooled experiences, like having plenty of time to follow interests and learn at their own pace, or in our case extended travel. Also, parents have been able to build the sorts of experiences that they didn’t want their kids to miss out on. There are plenty of homeschool proms, camps, excursions, lessons with qualified teachers – it’s all a matter of creating what you and your children want rather than looking at it from a scarcity mindset.
But the great thing about where we both live is that we get to make the choice of what’s best for our family, whether that’s school or homeschool or a mix of both – I think that freedom is precious.
All the best,
Kelly.
Exactly! Homeschooling helps the public assume that “anybodycan teach,” and that’s just not the truth. I know plenty of parents who cannot teach their own children; too many emotions on both sides that complicate the learning process (and have a negative effect on the parent-child relationship.)
The pandemic and subsequent lockdown proved that most children learned better in a school environment: look at the lower test scores for the 2 years following the lockdown!
Further, our kids learn far more than the 3 R’s in public schools. Socialization DOES suffer
What you say is completely true in a school-at-home model – it usually doesn’t work, it leads to arguments and conflict in the family, and it’s not especially effective. Comparing schooled children who were yanked out, forced to do school at home with busy parents, and then returned to school, doesn’t reflect on homeschooling at all.
Actual homeschooling, though, (interest-led learning, co-ops, working together) is quite capable of great results in academics, family relationships, and social skills.
Sorry your experience was so bad. Perhaps your parents were giving you freedom to explore your interests? I’ve homeschooled for 17 years. My oldest is now a content manager making almost $70,000 a year (she’s 27). My second is earning a degree in Japanese and plans to spend at least a year going to school in Japan. My 3rd is dyslexic and nay not go to college. Who cares, college is not the only road to success. She reads well above her grade level, is highly creative, and skilled at thinking outside the box. Homeschool doesn’t have any greater challenges than any other form of schooling. I have 1 grandson bored to death in his private school because they won’t teach to his actual level. I have 1 grandson bored in public school and he’s been bullied and exposed to questionable material during tablet time. Maybe look for the blessings in your experience.
Thank you for this tongue in cheek article- it made me smile. We have been homeschooling for nine years and my kids enjoy it immensely. They play multiple sports and are getting the chance to try all sorts of new things and meet new friends between that and 4-H (Blacksmithing anyone?? So cool!). My daughter just got the chance to travel with the State 4-H team halfway across the country for a competition!
I have watched as my children get a much more full and varied education (while I still insist on one that satisfies college entrance requirements to keep that option open to them) than I received in public school. We are in a rural area and the opportunities afforded to my children (with a little research and networking!) are far beyond what most in the area can access due to the small nature of the school districts.
As a homeschooler, I think it is imperative to think of education as a whole-life process. Yes, we have basic academics (that become more rigorous as they age) that we have to pay attention to, but the flexibility of our schedule allows our kids to have amazing experiences, and meet amazing people that they wouldn’t otherwise have. Maybe we should change the name to parent-led schooling, lol- I feel like we’re hardly at home some days!
Completely agree Melissa – when we don’t fill up 6+ hours of their day with school and homework it’s amazing how many other activities we can fit in over the years. I love hearing about the huge range of stuff that homeschooled kids choose to do.
Also, I really wish we had 4H in Australia. It sounds amazing.
The negative comments on here crack me up. My homeschooled kids went to a formal dance. They all have plenty of social interaction. Unschooling rocks! My favorite word in this article was “figureoutable.” Fantastic!
Know thyself. I know I cannot be a homeschool teacher because I don’t have the patience , but I am happy for people who do. Unfortunately, I have family members who say they are home schooling but really are not and do not have the educational background to be doing it. It sucks to see their children suffering as a result and getting further and further behind. Anyway great article and comments. I mostly always wondered about the social aspects of it, so it is good to see people work around it. For me I thank god for my experiences at school the hood and bad and how they shaped my life.