Not Far From Home

It’s a Tuesday night, during my nightly regimen of scrolling through TikTok right before bed, when I come across a video of two teenagers laughing and making jokes together. I open the comment section and to my surprise I see it flooded with negative remarks about “acting homeschooled.”

This handful of TikTok comments isn’t the only time I’ve seen a negative stereotype associated with homeschoolers, however I have noticed over the years how much homeschooled students have been stereotyped and made fun of on social media. Homeschooled students have been pinned as antisocial, dumb, unathletic and overall misfits in Instagram comments and TikTok trends. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

When I was 11 years old I left public school to join the Kansas City Ballet daytime program for ballet. All students in the daytime program were required to do online school in addition to their regular dancing hours.

A core memory of mine is after I began training at my new ballet school, and was over at one of my public school friends’ houses. We went on a walk and ran into my friend’s neighbor who was around our age. My friend introduced me and promptly mentioned me being “homeschooled.” I was absolutely mortified. The fear of being known as “the homeschooler” took over as I imagined all the things that could be running through their head.

I still was afraid of being stereotyped. The truth is, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being homeschooled and no reason to be ashamed of it. It’s simply an alternative form of education, and doesn’t determine a person’s character, intellectual ability or athletic ability.

Studies have shown that being homeschooled can bring your academics to a higher level. According to Thinkimpact.com, 25% of homeschooled students are in a grade higher than their age recommendation. As a matter of fact, many homeschooled students begin homeschooling because they aren’t being challenged enough in school.

Although it’s common to believe people who are homeschooled don’t participate in other activities or sports because of the way it is often portrayed in the media, this is actually highly inaccurate. According to Thinkimpact.com, 98% of homeschooled students participate in at least five other activities outside of school. A Lot of times kids begin homeschooling to pursue their outside activities more seriously, just like I did. Just think of all the famous child actors and musicians that were homeschooled like Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas.

And, contrary to popular belief, homeschooled students do get to socialize throughout the day, rather than just sit alone in their room all day. While schooling is done at home, there is lots of time for socializing through extracurricular activities. Many homeschooling programs even offer a structured learning setting for students to come together.
The close-minded ignorance of some people is what leads to the perpetuation of these stereotypes, ones that lead some to judge so harshly about something that may not be true. It’s important to make a more welcoming environment for unique situations and abilities, because you can never know someone’s story in full before you ask.