Why Homeschoolers Get Crabby When Alt. Ed. Programs Use the Term

I use the terms “de-facto homeschooling,” “legal homeschooling” and “independent homeschooling” to distinguish between public programs that are largely administered at home, HBI status, and HBI homeschoolers who don’t participate in public school programs.

It seems to me that a lot of this comes down to a “states rights” type issue, which is, in part, delineated in RCW 28A.200.020.

As a “independent homeschooler,” I face a steady barrage of questions about:
a) the “legality” of what I’m doing (what? I’m not credentialed? I have no oversight from a school?)
b) the “unfairness” that we don’t have to participate in the WASL
c) our “lack” of sorting (no, I don’t actually know what grade my daughter is in — were she in school, they’d subtract 5 from her age and place her in that grade, regardless of how bored she was with the work — actually, this is one of the reasons she is no longer in school).
d) our freedom to pursue our interests (what? no curriculum? how can this be “school”? [um, it can’t–we call it an education, because we’re not, as it turns out, providing a schooling]).

and (and this one cracks me up the most):

e) our bending of the space-time continuum (which is, you know, also unfair).

Because of my position as leader of a local support group, and because I truly think that there is no one size fits all, and I truly want to support families finding the right educational opportunities for them and theirs, I do my best to support those choices . . . including alt. ed. programs, online hybrids, part time participation in public
schools, and even folks going back as full time students in the standard public school programs.

But I feel a constant push back against independent homeschoolers to conform to curriculum and testing and “doing school” at home . . . and it’s probably as aggravating as being told you’re not a homeschooler.

And I don’t have a good answer for the linguistics (which it why I created the terms above) of the whole thing, but I think that language has an impact on reality, and as public-school-at-home programs grow and continue to use the term “homeschooling” to define what they’re doing, I see independent homeschooling coming under pressure to conform. The NEA already wants all homeschooling to be outlawed; my paranoia is not misplaced.

Well . . . I’ve got no good answers, but I’m happy for the dialogue.
Want to tackle world peace next week?

–Jen