Graduate Thesis

This semester I had to write my graduate thesis. I chose to research social competence in homeschooled children. I chose this topic because as everyone knows, we are planning on homeschooling the boys. One of the first things I researched when Kristian brought up the idea, was the social aspect. Pretty much everyone I've talked to about us homeschooling, questioned me about socialization. From everything I read, if it is done right, homeschooled children are just as, if not more in some cases, socially competent.

I was a little hesitant in choosing this for my topic because everyone that I would need to present it to were advocates of public schooling and just thought it might be kind of controversial, but Kristian reminded me that, that is kind of what theses are supposed to be, so I went with it. It was obviously an interesting topic for me and when asked in the future about whether homeschooled kids have issues with socialization, I can respond not only with opinions, but statistical facts.

I don't normally post stuff just about me on here, but I wanted an opportunity to talk about some of the things I experienced while doing my research. Stuff that I couldn't really write in my report. One of the things that was interesting to me was the responses I got, particularly from the homeschool group. For my research, I had developed two social competence surveys. One that parents would fill out and another for the children. There were around 43 public school respondents and over 200 participants from the homeschool group. What was most interesting to me was the emails that I got from the homeschool group-rather rude to be honest. In my cover letter I mentioned that I was a graduate student and was researching a topic for my thesis. I didn't include what it was that I was researching because I didn't want their responses to be impacated by trying to prove my hypothesis one way or another. I think a lot of people must have assumed that I was out to debunk homeschooling or something because I got a lot of nasty emails.

I responded very nicely to everyone further explaining the intention of my research and after that, a lot of them apologized and I actually learned a lot from them. One of the things that I realized was that these people (homeschoolers) are so sick of people asking them about the socialization of their kids-to the point that they get defensive about it. It kind of scared me a little, which may sound weird, but I don't want to have to go through all these years having to defend our choice to homeschool. I've mentioned it to people here and there and have already gotten not so nice responses. For example, in my yoga class I talk to this older woman, she's a teacher and she knows I was a teacher. She asked me when I was going back to work and I mentioned the idea of homeschooling. Well, she made this weird face like I was crazy and then she began to tell me of this one experience she had working with a homeschooled kid. First of all, why the hell do people, pretty much complete strangers, feel they have the right to judge my decisions and second of all, just because you had one experience with one person, doesn't mean everyone is like that. I'm sure all of us know at least ONE person who is a little strange (homeschooled or publicly schooled). Anyway, I think a lot of people have an antiquated view about what homeschooling is. I just don't want to feel like I will always have to explain our decision to others for them to unjustly judge me for it. I hope at least my family and friends have enough confidence in my abilities as a teacher and a mother to know that I know what children need and that I will provide that for my children.

Anyway, the results of the social competence surveys showed that homeschooled students performed just as well and in some areas higher than publicly schooled kids. I am not against public schooling, heck, I was a teacher myself. However, I can see that homeschooling can provide a lot of great social opportunities as well. This morning I received my grade, which was 290/300 (equivalent to around 97) and since I handed it in by a certain date, I also received an extra 50 points, so my total score was 340/300. It was a lot of hard work, but I am glad it is done and I am proud of what I accomplished. I am also happy that I chose a topic that was meaningful to me. Now I only have one more class to go and I will have my Master's in Education (M.Ed). Well, I still have to put together a portfolio and do an oral exam in the fall, but as far as classes, I will be done at the end of the summer! Yay!