[qstyk]

I'm not sure what you're encountering, but I have yet to meet anyone that teaches that Jesus rode a dinosaur and owned Exxon stock, or anything remotely resembling it.

One family comes to mind, where I have to question both their ability and motivation behind homeschooling, but that's out 100+ homeschool families we know. Even so, they're the parents, so it's their call.

That said, the success is largely based on the parents' motivation. If they're out to provide a better customized, faith-based, talent-specific, or special-needs accommodating learning environment, that's radically different than doing it to brag about what a great parent a person is, due to the extra hardship.

Beyond that, not everyone is qualified to do it, as it takes a certain skillset, education level, preparedness, and patience level that isn't ubiquitious. Some of that can be accomdated through homeschool enrichment classes, co-ops, and the aforementioned online learning.

[mavrc]

> I'm not sure what you're encountering, but I have yet to meet anyone that teaches that Jesus rode a dinosaur and owned Exxon stock, or anything remotely resembling it.

I had the same reaction as the previous poster; I'm from rural Idaho, where in my experience with it, "homeschooling" is a transparent veil for "too fundamentalist for government-run schools" (which in Idaho, is terror at a very special level). I'm sure it's not that way everywhere, and I'm sure that not all rural homeschooling parents are doing so for religious reasons. But there are places like my hometown, where that is primarily the case.

[kajecounterhack]

^ This. I have family that homeschools and it's for this reason, unfortunately. I also come from a fundamentalist background and almost all the families I know who homeschool do so to keep their kids away from the "ways of the world."

A lot of these kids (anecdotally) ended up seeming pretty weird to me. I've always wondered though if it was the homeschooling or religious schooling that was the reason, though I'm inclined to believe the latter.

[jacalata]

> One family comes to mind, where I have to question both their ability and motivation behind homeschooling, but that's out 100+ homeschool families we know.

So how do you meet homeschooling families? I'd expect that they are going to be self-segregating groups - where parents looking for materials on God Hates Fags are not in the same discussion as someone looking for a more advanced education for their kid - so it makes sense that if you are in the latter group, you don't know many in the former.