An Atheist Homeschooling Parent Comes Out

Leanna, good for you!  And your kids. I wish you well.

Way to stand on your principles, Leanna.  Sorry you don’t have that support system available but know that there are people here who are behind you.

Is it really? I was homeschooled, but I became an atheist. Homeschooling is not as bad as many might think. (Although, my experience as a homeschool student might give me less aversion to homeschoolers.)

Way to go Leanna!

A lot of people confuse “home schooling” with “CREATIONIST home schooling” because the latter are a very vocal and dangerous subgroup. There’s also the element that atheism in the US is noticeably biased towards people who live in areas with better public schools and can probably afford to put their children in secular private schools if they really want to. These two things combined make homeschooling something that only the religious fringe would ever want to do in the minds of many atheists. This is of course not at all true, as the secular homeschoolers of the Kentuckies of the world can attest to!

My son is quite gifted and I’d LOVE to homeschool.  He currently goes to a Charter school (public school with special curriculum) which is housed at a church… and the majority of the families are fundie or evangelical or Mormon.  One of the families go to that church and lead a mom’s prayer group that meets in a non-school rented room for prayers once a week.  They do their best to cover all religious stuff, but it still bugs me that there is a huge cross in the lunch room (social hall).  A regular public school couldn’t meet his needs.  And I work at home, so I’d need a good homeschool group to partner with… and there are none that are secular.  We homeschooled for preschool and he entered kindergarten writing paragraphs, reading at a 3rd grade level, and doing multiplication.

Anyway, kudos to Leanna for making this very difficult decision!  We need more moms out there who are willing to do this!

I’m an atheist homeschooling mom in Missouri. We’re lucky to live in a liberal college town, with plenty of other secular homeschoolers. The homeschool group we joined is a secular, inclusive group. We have religious members, but religion usually isn’t why they are homeschooling, and it isn’t a primary focus for them. We have to be careful what we say, because we are spoiled, and forget that not everybody is atheist or agnostic!

Best of luck to you Leanna!  I think the “problem” with homeschooling is the religious stereotype.  Where I am from the only people you SEE or hear about are the super religious born agains that are basically keeping thier children home to 1. be preached to and avoid outside non religious based influences and 2. provide childcare to younger siblings 3. self teach…. sometimes.  It’s nice to hear of people choosing homeschooling to provide their child(ren) with a quality education!

Having been homeschooled myself, I know how hard that must have been!

Way to go Leanna!  It’s exciting to see more and more atheist homeschoolers… heck!  It’s exciting to see more and more atheists. 😉  Best of luck to you.  I hope this will be a smooth transition in your life.

You live in a very confused area if it is easy to find “right-wing christian atheists”…

Raising two kids is tough. I imagine homeschooling my  kids would be similar to running a daily marathon.

good luck i know how ky is. I live just outside of lex and get harrased all the time for being a atheist.

How old are the kids?  I have a few books I could contribute.

I’m an atheist and I homeschooled my son for a few years when he was in junior high school. He has ADD and the public school system, even though they provided assistance through special education, did not meet his needs. Just like they don’t meet the needs of regular students. Our education system is based on ideals that haven’t evolved with our ever changing society. I think the number of homeschooled kids is rapidly growing as a result to include a more secular population. It is sad to find out there are homeschooling groups that are so exclusive that they require a signed statement of belief. And to be encouraged to have the children lie about a belief in creationism sounds so “unchristian” of them.

Leanna! Me too – but you already know that because you commented on my blog about coming out http://silveroutlinedwindow.wordpress.com/2011/08/04/im-coming-out/ August has been a good month for us 😉

Congrats, have fun – so happy to have others out there to build a support system 🙂

Well done! Your children are lucky to have you.

Leanna as someone who went to ICHE and experienced the crazy first hand, I’d like to say that I understand a little bit. Indoctrination /= education. BTW congrats! 😀

Having been “self schooled”, grown up in a fundie household with parents who attempted to hide me away from society, I do honestly frown on HS as a whole. I do realize though, that my outlook has been tainted by the bitterness which is a result of my schooling… Mark my words, I am not bitter about the religion- I am bitter about having been HS.
 I have always been atheist, as a child I simply lacked the word to describe how I felt about the religion I was being raised in (and all religion, for that matter). Having intimate knowledge of how fundies use HS as an effective tool with which to brainwash their children, I have to simply state that I feel HS should have enough red tape attached that it would be prohibitive for those who use it for the purpose of religious abuse.
All of ^^^ that said… I applaud those who choose to HS so that they can provide their children with the academic edge they’ll need once they have to face reality on their own. I tip my hat to you.

Further thought… of the couple hundred HS children I grew up with, at least 1/3 of them with whom I still have contact have “come out”. Just this past week, one of the people I hold most dear came out to me- Nothing pleases me more than seeing those who have suffered the life of a RWC HS child finally deprogrammed. Finally able to cash their reality check.

L~ Your children will grow to someday understand just how fortunate they were to have been born into your family.

I think there are several issues with regards to the current state of the education system. For one, class sizes are too large. This makes it more of a day care than school when teachers are stretched too thin. Teacher’s wages are much too low for what they are expected to contribute to society. School schedules need to be revamped to reflect the shifts in our economy. We are not  an agricultural society anymore so I think school days can be more evenly distributed across the year, with less time off in summer (except where agriculture is predominant still. And finally I think our curricula should not be centered around particular achievement tests. There will always be those that don’t test well, even though they grasp the material. Teaching critical thinking skills needs more emphasis, too. There are different learning styles and kids should not be treated with a one size fits all approach to learning. 
When I homeschooled my son it was literally a full time job. There was a lot of preparation and organization involved. I will say that there are a whole lot of resources out there. I used textbooks as well as the internet, field trips, etc. My son did end up going back to public school but it was his decision- he missed the social aspect and I think that is also part of one’s education as well.

Well done Leanna.  I very much respect your position on invisible pseudo-omnipotent beings and the way you handled yourself in this situation.  It’s tough when surrounded by not like minded people, so kudos to you!

A lot of nonbelievers homeschool but there is still that perception out there that it is a Christian thing. If you actually look at statistics on this, religious and secular homeschoolers pretty much match their proportion in the overall population. But I have also saw a survey done on homeschooling and religion and it seemed like the nonreligious were overrepresented.

Nonbelievers are often better educated than believers and are probably more likely as a result to be concerned about educational quality. That’s a big issue for me. I’m sure a lot of people in the Secular Student Alliance will be homeschooling parents themselves someday, when they realise how ineffective public schools are nowadays.

I’ve seen religion being a motivation as high as 80% and as low as 20%. I really think it’s who you survey. I homeschool in California and here it is mainly a school quality issue. But I can see religion being a big factor in Alabama. Interestingly enough, there are atheists who homeschool due to concerns about prosyletizing in the public schools. This is considered to be homeschooling for religious reasons in surveys. So, it is incorrect to assume that everyone bringing up religion as a reason for homeschooling is religious.

I know I’m getting to this late, but I just wanted to congratulate you as well! I lived in Kentucky for several years (through middle and high school and then my undergraduate university), and I know first-hand how difficult it can be to come out in an area like Kentucky. And I completely support the idea of homeschooling. Even though it can be difficult without a group to help support you, your methods of teaching are probably keeping your children miles above other KY kids education-wise.