A Post From A Homeschooled Weirdo

I ususally try to refrain from telling people I'm homeschooled right away when I meet them. It can definitely make people judge and take you for something your not, ex. a nerd, anti-social, a geek, ect. ect.


Even though homeschooling is becoming more and more popular, let's face it, if you're a homeschooler, most other kids/teenagers will look at you differently. Sure, the adults/old people automatically love homeschoolers, because we're so "Well behaved and adjusted.", but let's be honest, how much does that actually mean to homeschooled teens? Not much. Actually, it's kind of embarassing when people go around talking about homeschoolers, and how we're so "smart and behaved".


And I'm not saying there isn't any advantages to being a homeschooler, I wouldn't have it any other way. Actually, I'm technically out of school now anyway, but I'm still tagged as a homeschooler because if I went to public school, I'd still be in school right now. But anyway, there are tons of advantages of being a homeschooler, like for instance, the curriculum I used only took me an hour and a half a day at the most, and then I was done. Pretty sweet. But there are still some weird things about being homeschooled. People are weird and stupid about homeschoolers, and some act like we're from another planet or something.



The first question an un-educated adult mind asks about homeschoolers is, "Do they have social time?" or "Are they involved with other kids their age?". Gimme a break, no, we lock ourselves up in our house and never come out. Even other teenagers and kids ask that kind of stuff too, like here are two real-life, classic responses to my telling another kid I'm homeschooled:


"Really? Wow, I would hate not having any friends!"

and...


"So what, you sit around your house all day?"



I'm sure those responses would make anyone feel good!



Sometimes I just wanna scream, "I'M A NORMAL TEENAGER! I'M NOT AN EINSTEIN, I HAVE FRIENDS, I GO OUT AND DO THINGS, AND I HAVE A LIFE!". But, of course, I realize that the only reason people react this way to homeschoolers is because they are un-educated on the subject, and aren't really sure what to think of homeschoolers. Not that that makes it any less frustrating. It still is.


To tell you the truth, I think the reason we get such a bad rep. is from some of these homeschool parents that raise their kids to be weirdos. Don't get me wrong, I've had and have lots of nice homeschool friends, but I've known a lot of weirdo ones too. Since none of the "weirdo's" read my blog,  I'm not afraid to tell you about them. It's just that, a lot of the homeschooled kids that I've known, and that I do know, just...I don't know, they seem to think that kids that go to school are aliens or something, or even worse, that they themselves are better than kids who go to school. To be honest, a lot of the homeschoolers I know don't like me because I hang out with public school-ers. Which I think is really messed up. I don't think that we should ever think that we are better than someone else, which goes for both sides. Homeschoolers should accept kids who go to public school and vice versa. Correction, they shouldn't just accept them, we should all be able to be friends. But, unfortunately, until homeschooling becomes more known, it's hard for us all to accept each other.


But, it is always nice when you can actually find someone that accepts you even though you are a homeschooler, and I'm lucky to have many awesome public-schooled friends who don't care whether I go to school or not:)


-Marelle<3