The What
Well, in recent days, podcaster Jennifer Welch and her co-host, Angie Sullivan, shared their colorful thoughtson homeschooling after a caller expressed frustration that stupid people she went to school with were choosing to homeschool their children.
What followed wasn't simply a disagreement with homeschooling. It was a stream of insults. Homeschooling wascalled "the worst, worst, worst." Christian parents were portrayed as people who fear critical thinking. Homeschooling was described as selfish, andraising children with a Christian worldview was likened to child abuse. Parents were called "dumbasses," plenty of f-bombs were dropped, and the following day Jennifer doubled down on her view of homeschooling.
What struck me wasn't simply that they disagreed with homeschooling. People are free to have different opinionsand make different educational choices for their families.
What struck me was the confidence with which they spoke about a community they seemed to know very little about.
Their comments reflected a picture of homeschooling that simply doesn't resemble what modern homeschooling lookslike in America today. And judging by the response online, I wasn't the only homeschool parent who noticed.
I think many of us in the homeschool community were genuinely gob smacked. Wondering how someone couldspeak with such certainty and such contempt about something they clearly didn't understand. And when I say "ignorant," I mean it in the truest sense of the word: not knowing.
I wanted to talk about it almost immediately. Not because I wanted to keep an internet argument going, but because I needed to process what I had just heard. There wasn't really time to sit down with friends and think through it together. It was one of those moments where you hear something and your mind just starts turning.
I felt shock. Then disappointment. Then anger.
But if I'm honest, the emotion I kept coming back to was sadness.
Sadness that millions of homeschool families are still viewed through stereotypes that are decades out of date. Sadness that children who are being lovingly educated at home could someday hear adults describe families like theirs with such contempt. And sadness that so many people listening probably assumed those caricatures were true.
Because words matter.
When someone with a platform reaches millions of people, those words shape opinions. Opinions shape culture.Culture influences policy. And policy affects the freedoms families have for generations to come.
That's why I felt compelled to respond.
I posted an open letter, not because I needed Jennifer & Angie to agree with me, and not because I felt insecure about my decision to homeschool, but because I believe homeschool families deserve to be represented truthfully.
But here's the thing: this episode isn't really about Jennifer Welch.
Long after this particular controversy is forgotten, homeschool families will still encounter the same questions, the same assumptions, and the same misconceptions. So today, I don't want to spend our time dissecting one person's comments.
Instead, I want to talk about why homeschooling is worthdefending, not because every family should homeschool, but because every family deserves the freedom to thoughtfully choose the educational path they believe is best for their children.
Link to IG Open Letter: https://www.instagram.com/p/Da4hZvRFGfa/
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