yes, I was homeschooled. what's your point?

I was homeschooled--unschooled, technically--for five and a half years from a fairly small age. I never had behavior problems--certainly not more than what most little kids go through, at least. So it was a teensy bit annoying to hear, during a discussion of a little boy's behavior problems in the VBS I'm helping with this week, "I've got one thing to say to you--homeschooled."

Homeschooled? I thought. Now there's a word that I never associated with bad behavior. Sure, there are bratty homeschoolers, just like there are bratty public schoolers. But to say that homeschooling actually CAUSES bad behavior seemed a bit over the line.

"They have no structure," the woman continued.

No structure? My surprise increased. A good amount of the homeschoolers I know are very nearly as structured as public school--they worry about due papers and homework just like public schoolers. They borrow textbooks from resource libraries, they go through lessons. In many cases, it's not all that different from "normal" school (note the quotation marks).

"They don't have to learn," she said.

Okay, stop right there. Seriously. I was unschooled, which is the least formal method of homeschooling out there, and even I learned things all the time. I didn't learn one new math concept a day, I didn't do English worksheets, but it wasn't like I sat around and played video games constantly.

I'm sorry for the rant, but this is something that seriously bothers me. Homeschooling a child does not suddenly turn them ugly.

Honestly.