Boys and the Dangers of Homeschooling

I’m a big fan of homeschooling. That’s no secret. There is no better environment to tailor the education of your children to their specific needs. And you get to prepare them for the world before throwing them into the deep end.

There are other good options, of course. Private schools and private tutors can be viable options. Public school, on the other hand, should be avoided. Or at least, you shouldn’t just choose public school because it is the “default.”

But…

There might be a reason to send your boys to public school. Eventually. This has to do with the differences in how you treat boys and girls.

For girls, there is almost no reason to ever send them to a public school. It is wholeheartedly corrupting. It will seek to chew them up and spit them out and make them twice the daughter of Hell that many teachers are. This goes double for many universities.

Girls should be able to flourish with homeschooling all the way through high school. It is a domestic environment and they will always be comfortable under the authority of their mother.

Boys, however, need to assert themselves. They need to go out and conquer. They need to put themselves into some risky situations and wrangle themselves out of those situations.

Remember: women are cultivated, but men are forged.

For boys, this is one of the primary dangers of homeschooling, especially if the father is not involved. They are smothered into effeminacy by the feminine environment of the home or they lash out in rebellion against that feminine environment.

You can mitigate this in your homeschooling by:

• Making sure you, as the father, are involved in teaching

• Making sure your son is taking on some markers of masculinity

• Making sure your son is not being coddled

• Making sure there are plenty of activities outside the home where your son can interact with other boys and men

If you do these things consistently and have a clear definition of what it means to be a man, your son will probably do fine homeschooling through the high school years.

But your son might need more.

He might desire to test and prove himself on a livelier battleground. This can also be one of the consequences of raising him right.

And the scary thing: he might be ready. He has a clear idea of who he is and what is expected of him as a member of your family.

In this circumstance, if you can’t provide a proper outlet, you might want to send him to the local public school. There, he will find the testing he so desires.

Is it a risk? Of course. But so is life. Your son was born to take risks. And so were you.

As always, homeschooling provides flexibility to meet the needs of your children, and for your son, that flexibility might mean that he should no longer be homeschooled.