The online encyclopedia Wikipedia has a rather lengthy entry on homeschooling. Not surprisingly, the neutrality of the article is “disputed,” as a notice near the top of the entry warns readers.

When I see any “disputed” entry on Wikipedia, I usually go to the discussion page to see what the fuss is about—and in this case, the discussion page is here. Scroll down a bit, and you’ll find some really interesting comments from various users. Among the better (or worse) ones:

There’s a strong suspicion that a fair amount of homeschooling is conducted by nutcases who, by definition, aren’t going to participate in an academic study. One of the largest and most detailed studies on homeschooling family characteristics was conducted using data generated by Bob Jones University, so even that data has a self-filtering mechanism built in.

It seems like one issue missing on this discussion page is that of homeschooling’s successfulness, which still for me is unsettled . . . I wonder if homeschool students take standardized tests like Virginia’s SOL; an update here is appreciable. I also have sensed a conspiracy in the participation of homeschool students in spelling bees because it seems like parents are just trying to impress colleges knowing that success in these events don’t reflect overall competence.

To deny that a large portion of homeschooling parents act out of intolerance is to deny a fact, not an opinion.

Of course, there are some better contributions as well:

My personal opinion (not observed fact) is that it is ridiculous in the extreme to presume that home-schooled children are more likely to be sheltered from the “real world” and that their socialization is abnormal. I would expect that homeschooled children are not the ones who are locked down into stifling, cheerless compartments and immoblized at uncomfortable desks for practically their entire waking life. The “socialization” imposed by schooling has only become perceived as normal because enough generations have gone by not to understand how new and peculiar this entire system of public schooling is. How can anyone consider it normal socialization to be forbidden to speak or move freely for 2/3 of the day? How can you be socially deprived when you have the entire day, every day, to meet and connect with anyone you please? As I think I’ve said already, what amazes me most of all is my finding that most people, when encouraged to actually think about it, realize from their own experiences that this is neither normal nor preferable—yet it is either too late for themselves or their children, or they are too frightened of the consequences to consider an alternative.