Homeschooling in the media

 

Home schooling in the media

In my first post I mentioned that before I started home schooling my impression of it consisted of large, Christian families being taught by a heavily pregnant mother. It also consisted of socially awkward children who were 'nerds.' Since then I've met a diverse range of families who home school for many, many different reasons. The one thing that they all have in common is that they want what is best for their kids, even if it isn't the easiest choice. So then I began to think about why I might have had such a narrow view of home schooling.

 

The answer is simple. The media. No, correction. The mainstream media. If you look at mainstream media, movies and TV shows they will often show home schoolers in a certain way. I find the two main ways they are portrayed in the media are either religious families or socially awkward students.

In this clip we see the Duggar family of "18 kids and counting" and their typical homeschooling day.















In this clip from "Mean Girls" we see a snippet of what 'you may think a home schooler is.' Again, religious families are in there, as are socially awkward kids.

Law and Order SVU: Season 5, Episode 16 "Home"

Synopsis: When a boy is found going through the garbage for food. It is discovered that the boy's mother has him on a strict diet and home schools him and she appears to be a bit paranoid. They sense that the woman's a bit off so they try to get social services to look into it. And when the boy is found dead, they learn that his brother killed him. They think his mother made him do it but he won't tell them.

Access to this episode on Youtube is restricted, but if you've seen this episode the detectives refer to home schooling as 'a cover for abuse.' Nice.

This clip is now 'unavailable' but I'm leaving my thoughts up about it and I'll check every now and then to see if it becomes 'available' again.

This clip aired on Sunrise on August 29th of 2014 and featured a "Sunrise psychologist" - Tanveer Ahmed and Carly Landa of the Home Education Association. I'm having trouble respecting this guy's opinions as he doesn't seem to have a good grasp of what goes on in schools or in the home schooling community. At one point he states that we use "more of our brain navigating the playground than in Maths and Science." Not sure what point he is trying to make here? That home schoolers don't play on the playground? He also states that "parents are giving up" when their children are having anxiety or bullying issues. He also goes on to states that instead of homeschooling kids when they have issues they should learn coping skills and resilience... How would he like someone to cope when they are put into a rubbish bin daily? Or bullied to the point of suicide? How is a child meant to learn when they are fearful or sad daily? I wonder if this guy has kids, and if he does, have they been physically assaulted regularly by their school peers. Tanveer also states that home schoolers aren't going to be able to avoid bullying because bullying in the workplace mirrors what happens in schools! He's acknowledging that the anti social behaviours learnt in schools will become life long issues. He also states that it 'de-professionalises" teaching. He gives the analogy of 'you don't go to the doctor and say 'I'm going to take out my own appendix.'' Hhhhmmm really? People don't question their doctor? I know of many people questioning their doctors and treating themselves! God forbid you question a doctor! What concerns me about this guy is that he is a 'former columnist' for the Sydney Herald Sun. Good grief! How many people would be reading this kind of rubbish and believing it... cause it's in the newspaper...

Karl Stefanovic talks about home schooling.
This interview with Vivienne Fox, Vice President of the Home Education Association.

Here is an interview with Bob Osmak on The Project.

 

 

Alexis from "My life as a home schooling teacher" talks to Leon Prittard from Fair Dinkum Radio about the current state of the Education System as well as the benefits of home schooling. This woman is brilliant... ;) P.S. This is an hour long... enjoy the sound of my voice...


Homeschooling sees large increase in Victoria in The Age on October 12th, 2015. The thing I find interesting about this article is the quote "Teaching a child to read is one of the most complex and difficult things that a child will ever undertake. Some children will require intervention by experts and we call them teachers." I look at this as fear based propaganda aimed at scaring parents into believing they aren't good enough or don't have what it takes to teach their own child. Yes, I'm a teacher, but teaching a child to read isn't rocket science!

So what do you think about the way home schooling is portrayed in the media in general? Often home schoolers are looked upon as being weird kids who have been locked away from the rest of society. Home schoolers know that this just isn't the case. These negative portrayals of home schooling certainly isn't helping us gain acceptance and support from our families and friends.

 

 

Please feel free to leave a comment, like and share on Facebook. Feel free to "Like" my page on Facebook called "My life as a home schooling teacher." Please message me with any edits or typos.

 

Happy home schooling

 

Love Alexis