Replies to '12/26 "I Am Right!"'

Considering that you did look at your child's needs, and sent them off to high school (which I am sure was probably more difficult for you than for your child!) I can tell that you are one of the "doing it right" parents that Dr. Phil talked about on the show.   I don't have children, but I am a former high school teacher.  I am not completely and totally opposed to homeschooling - especially when the family lives in an area where the schools may not be completely equipped to handle all the students - however, I do think that there are a lot of people who choose to homeschool who (a) choose to do so for the completely wrong reasons or (b) are NOT equipped to do it.    I taught high school and I can tell you that I had some homeschoolers that were just as you described your daughter.  However, a significant number of them didn't just have socialization issues with their peers, but had difficulties with their teachers (not just myself).  One child struggled with the fact that I was NOT going to discuss things from a strictly biblical point of view (he even tried to follow me into the restroom - only because I said one of the 5 basic conflicts in literature was person vs. God/Supreme Being.  He insisted that God is a known, and why would people have conflict?  He couldn't accept that while he might not struggle with his faith, a character in a story might struggle.   He was an extreme example - I found that others struggled with the idea that I could not give them one on one attention that they were clearly used to, or that I didn't teach it exactly how Mom or Dad taught it.    With one student, I asked her to try to wait 5 minutes before she asked me for assistance on a task, OR, if it was a group task, ask her to try to seek assistance from her peers first.  She did eventually get used to it, but it was something I didn't have to do with students who were homeschooled.   

I think it boils down to the ones who do it because it is the best thing for their child vs. all schools/school teachers are at fault/bad/inadequate.  

I also was wanting Dr. Phil to say something like "you didn't discuss this BEFORE you had your child?" because no matter what, I think both parents need to be committed to and participate in homeschooling.