Homeschooling From the Student’s Side: 5 Myths I Can Bust

Article By Carter Cada - Written 7/14/2025

I’m sure you’ve heard it at some point in your homeschooling adventure. In fact, it’s probably one of the first things you heard before you decided to homeschool: “homeschoolers don’t this”, or “homeschoolers can’t that”.

And it’s never anything positive either, like “homeschoolers can’t get involved in the dangerous situations public schools foster because of the lack of proper supervision”, because that’s not as catchy.

From someone who spent most of their education as a homeschooler (with just enough time in a public school to know the other side), here are five myths (busted!) about homeschoolers that just aren’t true.

1) Homeschoolers can’t/don’t socialize

Alright, let’s start with public enemy no.1, the infamous “homeschool kids are weird” argument. It’s the one I heard the most when my parents first decided to homeschool us, and even as a kid, it worried me a little.

However, as soon as we made the switch to school at home, we found that there were several options for not only socialization, but ways to meet friends with similar interest. A few of these were:

  • Local '“homeschool groups”

    When our family began homeschooling, my parents were able to build connections within the larger community of our local homeschoolers, who hooked us up with all sorts of activities: picnics, parties, hang outs at the local park. There was even one group that rented out the gym of a local college once a week and hosted “homeschool gym” on a regular basis. Every week the place was packed!

  • Community events

    Just because your kids aren’t going to public school doesn’t mean you’re sheltering them from the rest of society. When I was about 15, my parents had been given 300 “layer” chickens (long story), and we began selling the eggs at a local farmer’s market. Admittedly, my sisters went with my mom more often than I did, but whenever I did go, it was a blast meeting the other people who came to buy or sell at these events!

  • Homeschool conferences

    As a teen, these were always a highlight for me. Workshops, (with a specialized “teen track” where we got to do things like Project Joshua and hands-on bilogy expiriments), highlight sessions, activities for all ages, and vendor halls packed to the brim with bookstands, gamesellers, and more extracurriculars than there are subjects!

    I’ve actually made a lot of my lifelong friends from conferences like these, and have been privleged to even be able to work for a few of them. If the opportunity presents itself, or if you’ve never been to a conference like this, take a look at what’s going on near you!

These activities aren’t just for the kiddos, either. They’re great opportunites for mom and dad to make new friends, too!

I could go on and on with stories like these, but the point is, homeschoolers are absolutely not limited in the social sphere. I’d contend they have even more opportunities than kids stuck in a public or private school for several hours a day!

2) Homeschooling is “too easy” for kids

Granted, I’ve met a lot of homeschoolers in my time, and yes, there was the occasional, “let’s count the chocolate chips in the cookies for math class” kind of family. But far and away, the homeschool families I knew turned out kids who, on average, were more intelligent than their public-schooled peers.

One of the common misconceptions I’ve heard about homeschooling is that people think the parents (or, more often, just the mother) is teaching the children purely from her own knowledge. What they don’t realize is that there are several academic resources, curriculum providers, and even accredited courses easily available to homeschool families.

Veteran homeschoolers would agree: homeschool curriculum is more challenging, not less, than the common core curriculum touted by public schools.

Over the course of my own education, I’ve used teaching textbooks, Abeka Academy, and Sonlight learning…all just for math, and those weren’t even the big ones. Most other families I knew were using Bob Jones or A.C.E. for their children…again, just for math.

To say these programs are just as rigorous as any public school would be an insult to the people designing them: they are easily several times harder than what is required of “common core” curriculum that public schools use, all while being easy to approach, applicable, and understandable.

So the next time someone questions you as to whether your children are actually getting an education at home, quickly (and kindly!) remind them that only about 70% of public school graduates are able to read at an 8th grade level (according to The Nation’s Report Card.gov)

3) Homeschoolers miss out on extracurriculars

I understand where this thought comes from: after school activities are for students who, you know, “go” to school. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Homeschool students, by request, are able to have their children enrolled in after school activities like speech, sports, or a math club. In fact, in most places, its encouraged! My older sister (a volleyball star) was actually on our local school’s varsity team for a time before she became too busy with other activities.

If you’re looking to get your kids involved in your local schoo'l’s programs, don’t be afraid to reach out! Some schools may be abrasive, but many others would love to have you!

I’ve also known homeschoolers who’ve bene engaged in activities across the gambit: robotics, theater, speech, reading clubs. All of these don’t even take into account the extracurriculars outside of school. Does your city or town have a local bake group? A writer’s guild? A History society? An equestrian club?

With everything available to families with a local community (even if it’s small!) or internet access, the opportunities are usually numerous enough that you can afford to be picky!

4) Homeschoolers are “sheltered” from the real world

Before I go into this one, I’ve always thought, to some degree, that this was a bit of an odd concept. Sure, there are some people who are concerned that their children might not grasp the nuanced morality of many public or historical figures (it’s not exactly the kind of jaded material we’re used to handing seven-year-olds).

And sure, maybe that’s a valid critique (I suppose none of us are perfect, right?. But what’s really strange to me is the way I’ve heard most people use this idea. More often then not, I was told that I was too “sheltered” because I didn’t understand things like:

  • Poverty and gang impressment

  • Recreational drugs, their consequences and (god forbid) their “benefits

  • Socialism (okay, I guess?)

  • Nihlism (same guy as the last one)

  • Violent crime

  • Anything outside of my parents’ belief system (we were pretty small-town, so I heard this one a lot when I lived in Lexington, KY)

  • The normalcy of “explicit” or violent media

Shelter is a good thing. In fact, it’s one of the three requirements for survival. When did “sheltered” become a bad thing? There are things that children should be protected from, to learn about at a proper time.

Now, there’s a point to be made that, at some point, people are going to have to understand that some of these are realities, albeit sad ones, of life. That being said, my parents never taught me about these, and yet, as I grew as a young adult, I did learn about these things in a safe and healthy way.

The other part of this argument that I find strange is this: public schools aren’t teaching these subjects to children either. Kids in these sorts of schools learn about topics like these, sadly, through the illicit things that happen outside of teacher supervision.

I have good friends who grew up in public school and remember seeing kids abusing drugs in the bathrooms, or being recruited (or threatened) into gangs.

When it comes to violent storms, perhaps being sheltered isn’t such a bad thing?

5) College and careers are harder for homeschoolers

I can’t speak to everyone’s experience, but I can speak to my own. When I went to college, an unusually large number of the student body were also homeschoolers. There were also a decent number of Christian schoolers (we liked to give each other a hard time) as well as your average public schoolers.

Now, college is hard. Harder than high school, anyway. There’s a lot more for you to do: more essays, more projects, more research. It’s not just, “read the book and select an option on the test” anymore.

Most things in life don’t actually reward superior education: they reward superior character. Discipline, a good work ethic, and a willingness to grow will take someon much further in life than any memorized equation could.

What I found? That the self-reliance many homeschoolers had developed in their highschool years actually helped them in college, whereas a lot of the public school students who were used to doing the bare minimum found it difficult to continue their studies outside the classroom. When you’re a homeschooler? Everywhere is the classroom.

 

The same goes twice as much for homeschoolers finding a career. Many of them have had their interests fostered by parents who cared, rather than a half-interested teacher with 30 other students to look after. Even the best meaning of teachers would struggle to help each student find their calling in that scenario.

In summary, you’ve got nothing to worry about.

At the end of the day, most people aren’t scared of homeschooling because they’re worried about any of these five points. It’s because they’re not sure they can give their children the education they deserve.

But when you step back and take a look at the larger picture, when you look at how some of the greatest minds of all time were education, how men and women with great character were educated, you’ll find that, often, it wasn’t in some great study hall, or even a formal schoolhouse.

Often, it was at home, surrounded by siblings, and with a lot of chores to do. Speaking of which, maybe your kids had better get going on those…

About the author

Carter John Cada is the founder of and head author at Quips from the Quiver. In his free time, he loves to read, cook, read, hike, read, write, read, and read.

He also enjoys eating.