From preschool to my senior year of high school, I was homeschooled. I never went to a public school and never got to experience what it was like to sit in a classroom setting until I got to college. People would always ask me, and sometimes still do, if I liked being homeschooled. My answer was always yes because I didn’t know anything different. And I never wanted to. I liked being homeschooled. I think there are stereotypes surrounding homeschoolers because people don’t really understand what homeschooling entails. I’m here to debunk some of those questions.

One of the biggest questions surrounding the homeschool community is whether or not homeschoolers actually do school. The answer: yes. Homeschoolers actually do school work. I learned the different types of sentences. I learned how to construct a proper essay. I learned about the different wars in U.S. history. I learned what atoms and molecules were. I did dissections. I learned how to do fractions and how to find X. I did online classes and was part of different science classes. What was even better was that I was able to take college classes while I was still in high school. I did school while being homeschooled. The difference was, everything I learned, I learned at home without having to go to a school setting.

Another question that I wish to debunk is whether homeschoolers have any friends, and, if they do, how they meet those friends. I had friends while being homeschooled. I knew people. It wasn’t like I stayed at home at day. I was friends with the neighborhood children. I had church friends. I was part of a science class and homeschool band where I met and knew people. I got out and did stuff. Yes, there were some days of the week that I didn’t have to go outside of my house. But there were also days where I barely spent any time at home. Maybe I didn’t have any specific “school” friends, but I had friends.

Going along with the previous question is the idea of homeschoolers being sheltered. This idea, while true in some ways, are false in many other different and special ways. There were TV shows and movies that I was not allowed to watch. There was music I was not allowed to listen to. However, I was not oblivious to the world around me. I knew what was going on in society. I knew who the big stars were. I might’ve been sheltered from things that were inappropriate, but that was for my benefit. Maybe I was sheltered, but honestly, I’m okay with that.

While being homeschooled, there were many other questions that I got asked. These included whether or not I did school in my pajamas. No, I did not. I got dressed in the morning, ate breakfast, and did my chores before I started any school work. Some people asked me if I got to sleep in as late as I wanted. For some homeschoolers, this might be true. But for me, it wasn’t. My mom got me up at 7:30 am every morning. I could have slept the day away, but I was disciplined to wake up and get my work finished. There was always the question of whether my mom was qualified to teach me or not. Maybe there were certain subjects she knew more about than others, but I still learned. I still got an education. Honestly, I probably got a better education at home than anywhere else.

There is nothing wrong with being homeschooled or being a homeschooler. And every homeschool family is different. Some fit into the stereotypes better than others. For me, it depended on the stereotype. I’ll be a senior in college in the fall, but I’ll always be a homeschooler at heart. To all you homeschoolers out there, be proud and don’t let those stereotypes get you down.