What? Homeschooling in prime time tv

[Nestof3]

Okay, so I'm watching Bones. They look at a file pertaining to a 17 year old. Bones says, "He's small for his age." FBI guy responds, "Yeah, he was homeschooled. GED obtained last summer."

 

What??????

[Snickerdoodle]

Yes, didn't you know that height is not genetically determined but by how you were educated?

 

Srsly. Get with the program. ;)

[Snickerdoodle]

I have one who is small for his age, and I know that there are several other Moms here who also have small for their age homeschoolers.

 

And as was stated in a previous thread somewhere, the plural of anecdote is data. ;)

[Julie Smith]

Now I'm curious which episode that was. I have seen every bones episode.

[Nestof3]

Yes, didn't you know that height is not genetically determined but by how you were educated?

 

Srsly. Get with the program. ;)

 

BWAH!!!!!

[Nestof3]

Now I'm curious which episode that was. I have seen every bones episode.

 

Season 1, Episode 12

 

You know, I saw a similar bias in Criminal Minds. Kid was homeschooled, so they stated he must have lacked social skills.

 

No wonder people in real life look at me like I'm a freak!

[nukeswife]

Ahh, that explains why my youngest is so stinking small. :001_huh:

 

Maybe it's because there was no doubt he'd be homeschooled where as his older brother went to PS and at the time his sister was born we hadn't yet decided to homeschool. So he was "steeped" a bit longer in the homeschool brew. :lol:

[Embassy]

I read that dialogue differently where the "Yeah" was in answer to the question and then the FBI guy gave more details. More like - Yeah. He was homeschooled. GED obtained last summer.

[Nestof3]

I read that dialogue differently where the "Yeah" was in answer to the question and then the FBI guy gave more details. More like - Yeah. He was homeschooled. GED obtained last summer.

 

Could be. But, it seemed weird to bring up his schooling right then. Perhaps I'm just hypersensitive because of real life criticism.

Edited July 3, 2012 by nestof3

[LeslieAnneLevine]

Yes, didn't you know that height is not genetically determined but by how you were educated?

 

Srsly. Get with the program. ;)

 

Apparently, this is true. Once when I commented to my SIL how much her son had grown she told me "it's school, school makes him big".

[Tarreymere]

Good thing I went to public school. I'd hate to be any shorter.

[Parrothead]

Homeschooling has been in prime time for a while. Unfortunately it is almost always depicted as a negative. Something to make fun of or belittle.

[edeemarie]

I'll have to let my kids know homeschooling is the real reason they are so short- not because their parents (and grandparents) are short!

[Parrothead]

Apparently, this is true. Once when I commented to my SIL how much her son had grown she told me "it's school, school makes him big".

I'm so very glad my dd is homeschooled then. At 12.5 she is already 5'6" and weighs 145 pounds. She doesn't need to be bigger. :D

[2_girls_mommy]

Yes. There was an episode of that Courtney Cox show or two episodes I think where they showed the "creepy homeschooled" kids next door. Another time they talked about how the creepy kids would come over and wow them with their math facts...

 

But on the other hand, the movies seem to be showing more positive homeschooled characters. I am thinking of mostly children's shows like "We Bought a Zoo" and "A Dolphin Tale" and a couple of others. My children love when they see those. My ydd loved in a Dolphin Tale where the mother took the boy out of summer school because he would learn more taking care of the dolphin for the summer. They loved that she gave him his school uniform which was a swim shirt and shorts :)

[Mommyof4ks]

It is a good thingwe homeschool then, because my 12 yr old dd is 5'3" already. I hate to think how tall she would be in school. :lol:

[Caroline]

Ben Seaver was homeschooled on Growing Pains for at least a year.

[Cinder]

I thought this thread was going to be about that Malcolm Jamal Warner tv show where one (or two?) of the kids is/are homeschooled. I remember reading something about it but haven't seen the show.

[dm379]

Must be the school lunches making all other kids abnormally tall.

[Dmmetler]

I once found my daughter YELLING at an episode of "Good Luck Charlie", where PJ goes to his girlfriend's prom only to find that it was in her basement because she was homeschooled.

 

There was also a statement on Dance Academy (Australian series set in the National Ballet School residential program) where one of the major characters said she'd never had to write a paper before because she was homeschooled. DD took offense to that, too :).

[TXMary2]

I thought the portrayal of homeschooling on the George Lopez show, when Angie briefly homeschooled the daughter, was pretty realistic. LOL

[AdventureMoms]

Ha! If school makes them tall, then I need to keep my kids OUT of there. They're already chart-toppers, public school might make them 8 feet tall.

[Jennifer in MI]

Ha! If school makes them tall, then I need to keep my kids OUT of there. They're already chart-toppers, public school might make them 8 feet tall.

 

Same here! My boys are soooooo tall already. I guess it's a good thing we homeschool.

 

And, this explains my tiny daughter, finally! I'm glad we got that cleared up!

[BarbecueMom]

Ted Danson's new character on CSI, according to the original casting description, was homeschooled as a child, as his parents were traveling hippie musicians. I can't remember if it's been mentioned in an episode, though. Maybe the writers changed their minds when they realized that Danson isn't short. :D

[2_girls_mommy]

Ben Seaver was homeschooled on Growing Pains for at least a year.

 

How do I not know this. I loved that show, yet that does not sound familiar at all. What were the circumstances? Do you remember?

[DawnM]

Think Flowers in the Attic type.....you know, we all lock our kids up in the closet or attic with no sunlight.....just admit it! :lol:

[Spock]

Okay, so I'm watching Bones. They look at a file pertaining to a 17 year old. Bones says, "He's small for his age." FBI guy responds, "Yeah, he was homeschooled. GED obtained last summer."

 

What??????

 

My older boys and I saw that episode a couple of years ago, and it has definitely stuck in our memories. What on earth does homeschooling have to do with size? [it turned out that he was small for his age because of some sort of medical condition, which actually was part of the reason he was homeschooled, but really!]

[2_girls_mommy]

Think Flowers in the Attic type.....you know, we all lock our kids up in the closet or attic with no sunlight.....just admit it! :lol:

 

Oh only occasionally....

[jewellsmommy]

I thought the portrayal of homeschooling on the George Lopez show, when Angie briefly homeschooled the daughter, was pretty realistic. LOL

 

I saw that! I thought that was hysterical. They did a good job. Other shows, however, really like to play up the freaky angle. :glare: It is very annoying.

[Mimm]

On an episode of Vampire Diaries (don't ask me why I was watching that...) there was a girl who was homeschooled. She was cute and normal and I was happy with how she was portrayed. Then it turned out she was a vampire and was just covering for why she wasn't in school. But it was a relief for about ten minutes to see a normal homeschooler on television. :)

 

ETA: She was normal sized so that should have been a dead giveaway that she was not being honest about her educational background. ;)

Edited July 3, 2012 by Mimm

[Caroline]

How do I not know this. I loved that show, yet that does not sound familiar at all. What were the circumstances? Do you remember?

 

Ben was suspended from school. His mom (this was when she was the stay at home parent after Chrissy was born) said he was going to work at home during the suspension. He liked schooling with her so much that he didn't want to go back to school. So he was homeschooled after that. I only remember it being mentioned in one or two episodes.

[LibraryLover]

Dont forget that CSI (I think it was CSI) episode about the hsing mom who was able to convince her son to kill his little brother. The little brother had tried to report her abuse of him to the authorities.

 

Mother had had an older child taken from her for abuse years earlier, and she told the middle child (the one who killed the little brother) that CPS had murdered him. She told the boy to kill the younger child before CPS could.

 

There was even a scene with the crazy hs mother having a playdate with another hsing mother, who was presented as 'normal'. One of her lines was something like, "We only hs because the schools here are so bad, and we can't afford a private school."

 

In the end, the oldest boy comes back, CPS actions didn't result in his death or abuse. They release the child who killed the little one, arrest the mother, and supposedly the two brothers can now live happily ever after.

Edited July 3, 2012 by LibraryLover

[EducationX2]

Good thing I went to public school. I'd hate to be any shorter.

 

:iagree:I'm barely 5'3. As long as I'm wearing good shoes. Glad I went to public school to get there. :lol:

 

Must be the school lunches making all other kids abnormally tall.

 

Right. It must be all the vitamins in those extremely healthy school lunches. :001_huh:

 

I once found my daughter YELLING at an episode of "Good Luck Charlie", where PJ goes to his girlfriend's prom only to find that it was in her basement because she was homeschooled

 

Okay that episode annoyed me. DD and I watch Good Luck Charlie together, we both enjoy it. And sometimes my mom will sit down and watch it with us. It just so happens that she was watching that episode with us. Her one big thing is that I'm going to make DD weird like me by homeschooling her. :glare: Just what I needed her to see... (Of course, I was sent to public school and turned out this way, and she doesn't see herself as weird, so I'm not quite following her logic there but.... :001_huh:)

[Matryoshka]

Hmmm...short? I wonder what happened to hsing friends ouf ours--they have children that are 6'5", 6'4", 7'2", 6'5" (boys) andgirls 6'0", 6'2" and 5'10" (she's only 13 so there's hope to stop her now I guess).

 

My dd is friends with two homeschooled sisters who are super-tall. Like closing in on 6' (the mother is 6'). And now the oldest is going to school next year - oh, no, she'll end up 7' tall with all that extra ps growth juice!! :lol:

[Lovin Learnin]

I had a doctor weigh and measure my dd when she found out we homeschool.

 

Our regular pediatrician had permanently moved away and left the practice and we had not yet had chance to find a new pediatrician. Dd injured her knee so I took her to the same clinic to see the new doctor. After the exam the doc asked if we needed a note excusing dd from PE at school. When I told her we homeschool her eyes got big and she looked dd up and down. She then left the room and had the nurse come in to weigh and measure her. I asked why and the nurse said it was just standard procedure. Right.....This doc had gone through the whole exam with no mention or obvious concern for her stature until I mentioned homeschooling.

 

The thing is, dd is very tiny, but she has always been tiny. At 24 months she was only 17 lbs. We were concerned back then and tested her for genetic diseases, but she is very healthy, just small. She just went through a growth spurt (they happen so infrequently that you can see when they happen) and she is at the 3rd percentile for weight and 15th for height. But at least now she is on the charts!

 

We only began homeschooling two years ago though. If she were still at school I'm sure she would be at the 50th percentile by now. :001_smile:

Edited July 3, 2012 by Lovin Learnin

[mommy5]

I had a doctor weigh and measure my dd when she found out we homeschool.

 

Our regular pediatrician had permanently moved away and left the practice and we had not yet had chance to find a new pediatrician. Dd injured her knee so I took her to the same clinic to see the new doctor. After the exam the doc asked if we needed a note excusing dd from PE at school. When I told her we homeschool her eyes got big and she looked dd up and down. She then left the room and had the nurse come in to weigh and measure her. I asked why and the nurse said it was just standard procedure. Right.....This doc had gone through the whole exam with no mention or obvious concern for her stature until I mentioned homeschooling.

 

The thing is, dd is very tiny, but she has always been tiny. At 24 months she was only 17 lbs. We were concerned back then and tested her for genetic diseases, but she is very healthy, just small. She just went through a growth spurt (they happen so infrequently that you can see when they happen) and she is at the 3rd percentile for weight and 15th for height. But at least now she is on the charts!

 

We only began homeschooling two years ago though. If she were still at school I'm sure she would be at the 50th percentile by now. :001_smile:

 

I don't understand why a doctor would assume a child would not be growing at a normal rate because of homeschooling. Can someone fill me in as to why anyone would think the child would be smaller for that reason? This is crazy! 2 of my kids are 75-90% for height and 2 are in the 10th percentile for height.

 

The worst commentary I hear about hsing is the social stuff...

[Dmmetler]

Ben was suspended from school. His mom (this was when she was the stay at home parent after Chrissy was born) said he was going to work at home during the suspension. He liked schooling with her so much that he didn't want to go back to school. So he was homeschooled after that. I only remember it being mentioned in one or two episodes.

 

Bart Simpson was homeschooled during the "Whacking Day" episode of the Simpsons after being expelled from Springfield Elementary AND the local Fundamentalist Christian school. Marge starts out trying to mimic a traditional school day, is able to attract Bart's attention to the book Johnny Tremain by pointing out Johnny's deformed hand, and Bart ends up with a major interest in the colonial period and, with Lisa's help, is ultimately able to change the town's practice by pointing out the historical inaccuracies. Unfortunately, he does such a good job that he's invited to come back to school-I think it was a GREAT example of how homeschooling can fit an "outside the box" learner :).

[LeslieAnneLevine]

I once found my daughter YELLING at an episode of "Good Luck Charlie", where PJ goes to his girlfriend's prom only to find that it was in her basement because she was homeschooled.

 

 

 

That was so ridiculous, though she certainly wasn't weird or freakish--PJ liked her quite a bit. I did tell my son that homeschooled proms are real dances and not something your parents hold in your basement. That episode redeemed itself somewhat by having his sister and her date and his parents come join him at the "prom".

 

eta: not that "weird or freakish" is necessarily a bad thing, but it's annoying when it's the stereotype.

[Dobela]

Think Flowers in the Attic type.....you know, we all lock our kids up in the closet or attic with no sunlight.....just admit it! :lol:

No, what actually happens is that the homeschooling mom gets locked up and the kids run wild all over the neighborhood....

[Dobela]

Dont forget that CSI (I think it was CSI) episode about the hsing mom who was able to convince her son to kill his little brother. The little brother had tried to report her abuse of him to the authorities.

 

Mother had had an older child taken from her for abuse years earlier, and she told the middle child (the one who killed the little brother) that CPS had murdered him. She told the boy to kill the younger child before CPS could.

 

There was even a scene with the crazy hs mother having a playdate with another hsing mother, who was presented as 'normal'. One of her lines was something like, "We only hs because the schools here are so bad, and we can't afford a private school."

 

In the end, the oldest boy comes back, CPS actions didn't result in his death or abuse. They release the child who killed the little one, arrest the mother, and supposedly the two brothers can now live happily ever after.

I think that was Law & Order SVU. I remember that episode.

[MelAR05]

I once found my daughter YELLING at an episode of "Good Luck Charlie", where PJ goes to his girlfriend's prom only to find that it was in her basement because she was homeschooled.

 

 

That was so ridiculous, though she certainly wasn't weird or freakish--PJ liked her quite a bit. I did tell my son that homeschooled proms are real dances and not something your parents hold in your basement. That episode redeemed itself somewhat by having his sister and her date and his parents come join him at the "prom".

 

eta: not that "weird or freakish" is necessarily a bad thing, but it's annoying when it's the stereotype.

 

I didn't like how they portrayed her as having no friends since the prom was only her, PJ, and the family in the basement.

 

I did think it was hilarious when the grandmother became the "school" nurse.

[sunflowerlady]

Dh and I have just started watching "Grey's Anatomy" on Netflix. The episode we saw last night depicted a patient who had been homeschooled. She was 18 and confined to a wheelchair due to paralysis. The doctors wanted to do some sort of operation on her and the parents (mostly the mom) didn't really want it.

 

So, they portrayed it as a poor , oversheltered young adult whose parents didn't want her to grow up and enter the "real world" and go on into adult life. There was a definite plot involved of "getting her away from her parents".

 

The doctors asked her something about school and she replied she had been homeschooled by her parents. I don't recall what the doctors' comments were , but there was definite eye rolling type of response on their part.

 

In the end, they talked her into having the surgery. Of course, the patient character was 18 and could give consent. The mom was shown as being over protective and not wanting her "baby" to grow up. The dad was portrayed as "more reasonable".:glare:

[Dmmetler]

I didn't like how they portrayed her as having no friends since the prom was only her, PJ, and the family in the basement.

 

I did think it was hilarious when the grandmother became the "school" nurse.

 

It did kind of remind me of one of the first activities my DD did when we first started homeschooling (before I gave up on trying to do "grade level" curriculum)-it was a 1st grade " Social studies" activity where you were supposed to list the various people in your school, like Principal, teacher, librarian, etc.

 

When I looked at the page, she'd filled in "Mommy" for practically every blank. So, in her school structure I was the principal, teacher, librarian, music teacher, PE teacher, cafeteria worker and custodian :)

[KungFuPanda]

I sent my small-for-her-age child to public high school in February. How soon can I expect a growth spurt?

[AdventureMoms]

I sent my small-for-her-age child to public high school in February. How soon can I expect a growth spurt?

 

I'd think you'd see results within a year, at least!

[Rivka]

Dont forget that CSI (I think it was CSI) episode about the hsing mom who was able to convince her son to kill his little brother. The little brother had tried to report her abuse of him to the authorities.

 

Mother had had an older child taken from her for abuse years earlier, and she told the middle child (the one who killed the little brother) that CPS had murdered him. She told the boy to kill the younger child before CPS could.

 

Oh man, if I had a dollar for every time I've seen a family dynamic like this in a homeschooling group... you know, sometimes stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason.

 

:lol::lol::lol:

[cathmom]

Well, I can kind of see a connection, in that a smaller child is more likely to be picked on, so might be more likely to be homeschooled.

[LostSurprise]

My immediate thought was that they mentioned the smallness because he doesn't look like an independent adult. Homeschooling allowed him to get a GED at 16 (or at least a very young 17). PS won't let you do that.

 

Not that I've seen that episode.

 

Lie to Me used homeschooling in an episode that made me roll my eyes.

[Bee Happy]

I didn't read the whole thread, but I am starting to hate when homeschooling is shown in TV shows. You would think by now we could be shown in a more positive light.

 

Good Luck Charlie had an episode where PJ found out the girl he was going to prom with was homeschooled. He got all dressed up only to be led to her basement where there were no other kids. Just her mom and grandma. :confused: The grandma played DJ. It made it look like homeschooled kids can't get out and have fun, or that they are lonely and strange.

 

In the end PJ's family came and partied with them, so they had a good time, but it was still a weird episode.

[Bee Happy]

Okay, just read the thread and see someone else mentioned it. Bwahahaha :lol: