Reality TV Show Idea: The Life of a Homeschooler

Similar to the MTV Reality show Tiara Girls, I believe America would be interested in a reality show called Homeschooling Kids, or Home schooled adults. Unlike other reality TV shows that often features dysfunctional homeschoolers like Trading Spouses, Mom Swap, or Super Nanny, this reality TV show would focus on the stories of the everyday homeschooler instead of the extreme cases.

Everything I have seen on homeschoolers today has been the equivalent of an episode of “Cops”. Just as the TV show, “Cops” profiles the worst of humanity, shows featuring homeschoolers have repeatedly profiled the very most dysfunctional of homeschoolers. According the National Center for Education Statistics states, “Between 1999 and 2003 homeschooling rates increased for a number of groups. Homeschooling rates increased from 0.9 to 1.7 percent among students with parents who have a high school diploma or less, from 2.0 to 2.7 percent among White students, from 1.6 to 2.4 percent among students in grades 6–8; and from 0.7 to 1.4 percent among students in single-parent households where the parent was in the labor force.” In addition, "both the number and the proportion of students in the United States who were being home schooled increased between 1999 and 2003. Approximately 1.1 million students (1,096,000) were being home schooled in the United States in the spring of 2003, an increase from the estimated 850,000 students who were being home schooled in the spring of 1999 In addition, the percentage of the entire student population who were being home schooled increased from 1.7 percent in 1999 to 2.2 percent in 2003". With homeschooling increasing at such an alarming rate, one would surmise that homeschooling is successful overall. It is time that the other side of the coin was profiled.