I finally got some negative feedback on my homeschooling negatives post just as I predicted:

... it could get picked up by homeschooling apologists, misinterpreted, unread and commented on in a vitriolic manner.

I won't respond point by point because I don't have the time. My response was as follows:

As the author of the homeschooling negatives copied in above I wanted to point something out that was excluded...

"Second this list doesn't apply to all homeschooling families but individual items certainly can apply to some. In at least one case the "negative" seems to apply to all (#4)."

Taken out of context they might paint an unrealistically challenging environment that no sane person could operate under. Furthermore I responded to my own list in a different post showing how we deal with them.

People like to criticize homeschoolers as if they are all incapable of pointing out negative aspects in the particular environment they are in. I have never met someone who is convinced that there are no negatives regarding homeschooling so I decided to collect and enumerate them for the masses. I left the discovery of positives of homeschooling and negatives of public/private schooling as an exercise for the reader. There are plenty of resources there.

The retorts to my negatives from personal experience or pointing out single examples doesn't take them away from some families who experience them. For example the response to #2 (talented athletes -- football mostly) pointed out a basketball player. Basketball has an AAU circuit where schools are not necessary. Find me a football player and I would think your criticism of my #2 more valid. As it is, it is not a valid critique of the football example and certainly not "completely untrue". Even if you could find a football player that doesn't mean the point is undeniably refuted. It could easily be true that in one state an environment IS available for him to compete. The next state over it might not be possible at all. Consider though, this is not a negative for the vast majority of homeschooling families. Its a moot point for most of us.

Whether the negatives are merely perceived or actual, the effect they have on those experiencing them are real and could possibly include depression or other side-effects that could make a parent unfit to homeschool for a particular time frame.

The main gist of my post was to point out that homeschoolers take these challenges into consideration. They by and large WANT to know what they are getting themselves into. I don't think pointing out challenges, calling them negatives and posting them for the world to see is a bad thing. I also don't think we have to pretend that homeschooling is always a bed of roses. For some of us -- dare I say most of us -- it isn't.

Of course the rewards for our sacrifices, I would argue, are certainly worth it.

The defense against all manner of negatives regarding homeschooling from some proponents is certainly a detraction in the minds of most. Its like the posts are not read at all. That fact in itself leads people to believe that homeschoolers are incapable of handling criticism. That is a negative perspective that transparent discussion about homeschooling would go a long way towards defeating.

UPDATE: Ha! Apparently my response was given a thumbs down.
UPDATE II: In the last 500 visits I have been searched using the following terms

8	homeschooling negatives
8	negative aspects of homeschooling
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3	negative aspects of
2	homeschooling negative
2	negative homeschooling
2	negative homeschooling experience?
2	homeschool negative
2	negative about homeschooling]
2	homeschool negatives
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1	negatives on homeschooling]
1	negative aspects to homeschooling
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46 hits on the negative homeschooling topic.