Homeschool World Forum

Getting Started in Homeschooling: The First Ten Steps
by Mary Pride
http://www.home-school.com/Articles/GetStarted.html

I am very offended about this post. I did not like your comment about "a serious mental illness" Yes, I am homeschooling my son and I have a serious mental illness but it is controlled with medication and I am under a Doctor's care. At the same time, I have an MBA in Accounting and I recently passed the two exams for the Elementary Teaching Certificate in New York. Your negative comments comes from ignorance. People that are sick should not be the subject of other peoples jokes.

When I was in high school, my father nearly died several times because of the mental illness that he was battling at the time. When I read Mary Pride's statement, I presumed that it meant that people who homeschool with no history of mental illness can find themselves under a lot of stress, and start to exhibit they symptoms of depression (I have read a number of online anecdotes to this effect); a person who is already battling a mental illness may (depending on where they are in their treatment) be risking their health and happiness by entering into a situation where they may experience serious stress.

My father had to quit his job before he could get better, because it was so stressful. Starting to homeschool for him at that point would have been dangerous - he was at a point where he needed to put his own health first.

This does not mean to say he is subintelligent, in fact, his IQ is very high, and he is a very talented and creative man. I love him and respect him greatly.

And yes, he is still on medication today, but at the same time I believe that he has recovered to the point where he could now cope with a stressor like homeschooling.

I do not believe the author meant to offend anyone by her statement; it was simply a warning that homeschooling can be stressful, and that if you need to put your own health first, maybe you should wait before embarking on the homeschooling journey.

Yes, precisely. You need a reasonably solid mental footing to handle the stress of having others dependant on you. I might also point out that "a history of serious mental illness" is not the same thing as "mental illness", and that the phrase is open to a wide variety of interpretations. I personally wouldn't classify people as being seriously mentally ill unless they were a danger to themselves and/or others.

People are so easily offended these days if things aren't politically correct. Serious illness or not, though. If God gave you children, then he probably wanted you to raise and educate them.

Janine, I just wanted to comment that I love your website...especially all the info about getting started homeschooling. We think alike. Thanks for posting that!

Very good introduction, thanks