Wife Swap Stacks the Shelf Against Homeschoolers

I have been watching Wife Swap for one year. I do not watch every episode, but the ones I have seen have always featured a homeschooling, relaxed family versus a highly driven academic family. As a homeschooler, I really feel that I have had enough of this inequitable display. While I agree that the homeschooling families they choose to profile are waaaayyy off center, one must realize that it is the homeschooling families they (Wife Swap producers choose to profile.)

Meanwhile, the other family seems a lot closer to mainstream of daily life, as they seem to choose families that are generally a bit more driven in one way or another than normal families.

Tonight’s show for example, featured a homeschooling family with six kids living in a tree house. The wife did EVERYTHING by herself all the time, including disciplining the kids. The husband worked outside the house, then came home and played. Homeschooling was about as relaxed as it could get without doing any work at all. In the second family, the wife was the main breadwinner and the husband was starting a tech company. They were academic, and they were driven. They were not much fun, but they were OK.

The premise of this show is supposed to be that the two wives would affect each other’s world to a point where they would both come a bit closer to center. In actuality, what they show is a “the homeschoolers gets fixed” kind of show. The other family does tend to relax a little, but major viewpoint changes are rare.

This show is stereotypical of the way the public views homeschoolers. It does nothing to show the good, tender, familial side of homeschooling. It does not show how bright home schooled kids can be. It does not show any of the positive affects of homeschooling at all.

I would love to see Wife Swap turn the table in the other direction. Perhaps the being with the home schooled kids makes the other mom realize that it is a viable form of education. Perhaps she is more amazed at homeschooling than appalled.

What amazes me the most is that most Wife Swap episodes feature homeschoolers. The sheer number of homeschoolers would make one assume that fifty percent of the population homeschools. Knowing this is far from the truth, it leaves me to believe that homeschoolers are targeted to serve as the “freak” family in the Wife Swap experience.