Growing up, I always felt that people were overestimating me. I honestly think that as long as homeschooling has been popular, there has been the opinion or perspective that homeschoolers are smarter than their traditionally educated counterparts. Now, whether or not this is true, I don’t know. And I don’t care. When I was little, people would immediately gush over me and my siblings and talk about how smart we must be because we were homeschooled. I grew up knowing that people expected me to succeed in life and become something because I was homeschooled. I didn’t particularly care for it because I found it annoying. Was I smart because I was homeschooled or was I homeschooled because I was smart? For the most part, I did get a chance to live up to the “smart” expectations–at least by society’s measurements. I was a senior in high school at age 15 and had the luxury of finishing high school a month after my 17th birthday and taking a year off to chill out before I went to college. In more recent years, I’ve gotten the chance to separate myself from the “kid genius” expectations and quietly do what I need to do. In fact, the tables have turned to the point where I’m often underestimated. It’s mildly annoying to have people around me assume that I’m still in college or that I don’t have anything going for me. Yet, I’d rather be underestimated than over estimated. Being underestimated can put you in a spot where you are your biggest competition. You have less time to invest in pleasing others or meeting their standards because they don’t expect you to do anything worthwhile. I’m not talking about constantly downplaying your accomplishments, but also not going out your way to be flashy and dramatic about all your future plans. If I ever become “big” or super successful I want it to be unexpected. Being successful doesn’t have to be advertised, it can be discreet. Underestimation isn’t a bad thing–it can even work for you.
-
Follow
Following
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Alisha's Angle 
I have never heard that home schooled children were smarter, my son went to a Nyack, a Christian college and he stated that there was much discussion that home school children were socially awkward and had other social issues that were very visible. Apparently, there was a large home schooled population that attended this school. I don’t know what is a theory or a fact, I had often wondered about the positives and the negatives.
I think that the question of socialization is something that has been one of the biggest criticisms of homeschooling. There’s definitely pros and cons.
Carol…aka..Mom, the Homeschooled students that I’ve encountered were academically advanced. I believe that the “socially awkward” stereotype is among the pervasive misconceptions concerning homeschoolers.
Based on my experience within the industry for 2 of the nations top youth development organizations and managing hundreds of staff with direct services to thousands of youth spanning ages 4 – 17 and raising millions of dollars for youth since I was 19…. There IS a difference. Unfortunately, there is a tad bit of truth in terms of the academic and social differences of public school vs. homeschool. If I was going to compete on jeopardy and needed a game show partner Homeschool would be my first choice. But if I needed a wingman to tag team a million dollar donor to build a new facility I’d go with the public school swag. I’m just saying……. 🙂 every stereotype derives from a little bit of truth FIN
I definitely agree that there’s an element of truth to that particular stereotype, but I also think that it’s wrong to generalize the entire population. Homeschooling happens in a variety of environments with different people and under different situations and while not everyone is social awkward, some people are. But that’s another blog for another time. 🙂