A Homeschool Exploration: Summary

A Homeschool Exploration: Summary

Over the course of half a dozen interviews, there were several main focuses on the topic of homeschooling. Behind the scenes of each essay, I was asking questions about the social, educational, and personal aspects to various homeschoolers’ educational experiences—as well as the benefits/deficits of each person’s current situation.

In these essays, I heard many, many conflicting insights, perspectives, and views on the different aspects of homeschooling. For example, on the topic of the reactions to homeschooling—elicited from other people, a third of the interviewees exclaimed that they felt they received mostly negative reactions from people outside of the homeschool community, while the rest of those interviewed said they felt that it was positive. In addition to that, on the topic of socialization, Lucy examined her social life and explained that she felt it was harder to meet people who are differ from her, while Kyle said things like, “People say that homeschoolers are unsocialized, but I don’t feel like that’s the case. I feel like I definitely got a lot of socializing done in high-school. I feel like I’m very good at talking to people, and I’m very comfortable in social situations—and that’s partly due to the fact that I’ve had experience with so many different people.”

This isn’t to say that there aren’t aspects of homeschooling that are widely considered in the same way. In fact, without fail, every single homeschooler mentioned two things that they loved about homeschooling: learning what they’re interested in, and going at their own pace.

While these interviews were intended to provide information about the common practices of homeschooled students across St. Louis, as well as eradicate misconceptions and provide a very personal introduction to the lives of homeschoolers in our community, it is clear that by doing so, I have put excessive clarity to one important detail—one that should be remembered by everyone who interacted with this series: homeschooling, by nature, is different for everyone.



Leave a Reply