Over the last year, there's been a run of articles and blog posts featuring the experiences of working homeschool parents who defy the narrow (and unfair) stereotype of homeschool parents.
While researching my book, I encountered several doctors, including my family's own eye doctor, who pursue home education.
This morning, thanks to Parent at the Helm's Facebook feed, I discovered a new one on ChildrensMD.org, "18 Reasons Why Doctors and Lawyers Homeschool Their Children" by Kathleen Berchelmann, M.D.
She writes:
I’m going public today with a secret I’ve kept for a year—my husband and I are homeschooling our children. I never dreamed we would become homeschoolers. I wanted my kids integrated and socialized. I wanted their eyes opened to the realities of the world. I wanted the values we taught at home put to the test in the real world. But necessity drove me to consider homeschooling for my 2nd and 4th graders, and so I timidly attended a home school parent meeting last spring. Surprisingly it was full of doctors, lawyers, former public school teachers, and other professionals. These were not the stay-at-home-moms in long skirts that I expected. The face of homeschooling is changing. We are not all religious extremists or farmers, and our kids are not all overachieving academic nerds without social skills. {MORE}
She then proceeds to list 18 excellent reasons to homeschool.
While I found the "extremists" and "nerds" reference jarring (I'm friends with faith-based folks and am a supporter of Gifted Homeschoolers Forum), I understand what she's trying to do. She's trying to shatter the stereotypes about homeschoolers so that other people will see the reality of life as a homeschooler. I might have gone about that task differently. In fact, I do just that in my book's manuscript draft, focusing on the entrepreneurial impulses that homeschool parents have in common.
If you have doubts that anyone without the income or flexibility of a physician can homeschool, too, then go take a look at occupations held by "real life" homeschoolers (both faith-based and secular) listed here.
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