Justifying Homeschooling

What a fascinating article at Homeschool Research Notes about "Deviant Homeschooling Moms."
... about the accusations society tends to make against homeschooling moms and the arguments the homeschooling moms use to counter the accusations.

Lois’ research revealed four specific charges raised against homeschooling mothers, to which four responses by these mothers were offered. First, homeschooling mothers were commonly charged with feeling academically arrogant: “They were cast as smug, irresponsible mothers who thought they could do a better job teaching their children than credentialed teachers in conventional schools.” ...

A second criticism commonly voiced is that homeschooling mothers are socially overprotective. Homeschoolers are “irresponsible mothers who, because of their uncontrollable overprotectiveness, were failing their children by sheltering them from reality.”....

Third, homeschooling mothers are accused of feeling morally self righteous and extreme, be it the self-righteousness of the hippie counterculture or the fundamentalist theocrat. ....

Finally, homeschooling mothers are accused of being relationally hyperengaged, of having an “abnormally strong desire to be emotionally and physically close to their children,” which caused them to be “excessively involved with every aspect of their lives.” (221) .....

The article intersperses the defenses the sample of homeschooling moms (mostly Christian in this particular study) make to these charges. Worthwhile reading. As the article says:

Lois’ scholarly point in all of this is to emphasize that people accused of deviance are not only accused of wrong behaviors but of wrong feelings.

This makes defense trickier because it is more difficult to defend against charges of wrong feelings than of wrong actions. It's sort of like the classic "I met a weird homeschooler once, so I'm against homeschooling." It is a judgment made with little to no objective referent. So it's difficult to marshal up arguments that will counter-persuade, but the tactic taken is usually:

Homeschooling moms respond, often incredulously, by appealing to the very notion of good mothering that dominates middle class culture and explaining their attitudes in terms most Americans understand and accept.