Hot on the heels of the much-publicized reversal of the California appeals court decision regarding homeschooling are the results of a telephone survey on homeschooling conducted by Lifeway Research. Responses from the survey participants bring to light some encouraging news for homeschoolers, but also some less favorable opinions that indicate that we may still have some “PR” work to do in order to change the American perception of our homeschooled children.
First the “bad” news…
The LifeWay survey revealed that 54% of respondents agreed with the statement:
“children who are homeschooled often lack social skills”
No surprises here. Which homeschooler hasn’t dealt with this “what about socialization?” criticism a thousand times already? I find it tiresome and uninformed, frankly. What about you?
Now the good news….
According to other findings, 86% of those surveyed agreed with the statement:
“Parents have a constitutional right to homeschool their children”
I honestly would have expected far more people to have responded negatively to this, but I’ll take good news where I can get it and accept this as an encouraging sign.
However, just because Americans think the Constitution provides us this right doesn’t necessarily make it so. To that point, Representative Pete Hoekstra has recently introduced a Parental Rights Constitutional Amendment bill in the House of Representatives as House Joint Resolution # 97. If this were to pass, this could provide homeschooling Americans with an even greater assurance of our right to teach our children in the manner we see fit.
I invite you to read up on this proposed amendment, pray about it, and then act.
If you’d like to learn more about this LifeWay survey, be sure to check out this Reuters article and the LifeWay Research web site.
Have a great day.
