US

Here’s What Dictionary.com Thinks Of Homeschoolers

Tristyn Bloom Contributor
Font Size:

Popular dictionary website Dictionary.com has some interesting ideas about homeschooling–at least according to the example sentences provided in the entry for “homeschool.”

“If you want to keep your kids from reality and turn them into mindless automaton copies of yourself, homeschool them,” one example suggests. “If she can’t find anyone willing to validate her helicopter parenting, she’ll homeschool,” says another. (RELATED: Merriam-Webster Editor Apologizes For Bigotry Association With Conservatism)

Its actual definition of homeschooling is fairly neutral: “to teach (one’s children) at home instead of sending them to school.”

Still, some parents aren’t happy. “I was appalled at three of the sentences your website uses as examples of how to use ‘homeschool’ in a sentence,” wrote one in an angry letter to the company. “Frankly the sentences don’t really help to define homeschooling except to clearly infer that homeschooling is something crazy done by crazy people,” said another.

According to their mission statement, Dictionary.com exists “to delight and inspire anyone using the English language by being the most innovative and comprehensive digital source for everything related to words. We provide resources that enhance people’s lives, whether while working, doing homework or playing Scrabble, with the ability to accurately define, pronounce and apply words in the moment.”

Follow Tristyn on Twitter

Tristyn Bloom