Community Question is a category inspired by you. Here and there readers write in with questions that are better served by the varied, experiential knowledge of those who read and contribute in the comments. Please respond to this post in the comments, but if you have a question for the community email it to Heather.
The following question is from Julie K.
“We homeschooled our 15-year-old son from K-5th, sent him to parochial school 6-8th, now he’s a freshman at the parochial high school.
He really wanted to go there because it’s where his friends were all going. They aren’t close friends, though, as I see it, and they’re not a great influence.
He’s a quiet, awkward, shy kid, and although he banters around a lot with his school friends, he rarely does anything with them outside of class. In the last 3.5 years, he’s probably spent time with them 10-15 times – so I’m surprised he is so attached to them.
These friends come from families that don’t share our values which has caused friction- not much emphasis on faith, lots of unrestricted internet access, way more TV/cable/video games, and little interest in grades. Our son honestly seems happier when he is away from them, and we hoped that high school would open up a new set of friends and interests to him, but that hasn’t happened.
My husband and I want to bring him home again next year, with the assistance of a great 2x/week co-op in our town (lots of homeschoolers here). Problem: he doesn’t want to. He acknowledges he prefers both the classes and schedule of homeschooling but wants to stay in school because of friends. Non-homeschooling friends think we’re crazy and overreacting.
We know homeschooling is no panacea but feel the strong desire for our family to be his primary influence at this time rather than his peers. So… should we stay or should we go now??
(For reference, he is the oldest of 6, and his younger siblings attend a different K-8 school that we love. When they reach high school, we will most likely be homeschooling them with the 2x/week co-op).”