For most American children, going to school means they walk, take a bus, or their parents drop them off at a building with lots of other children where there are teachers there who teach them all the fundamentals. You know, things like reading, writing, math and science plus art, physical education and music. This could be public school or private school, but in either case, the parents trust the teachers at the school to educate their children.

There is another type of schooling that also exists in the United States – homeschooling. The number of families who have chosen to homeschool their children has drastically increased over the past few decades. In 1999, there were only about 850,000 children from grades K-12 who were homeschooled in the United States. By 2016, that number doubled. By 2021, the number doubled again. Currently, over 3 million American children are homeschooled.

The pandemic was one major factor in the recent jump in families who homeschooled. Perhaps during lockdowns some families decided that they liked educating their children at home and didn’t want to go back to a traditional public school schedule. For other families, it’s the public school curriculum that they don’t like.

There are probably lots of stereotypes that jump to mind when you think of a family that homeschools. Many of these stereotypes are probably wrong.

I was not homeschooled, but I had friends who were. In their case, they were homeschooled because they were pursuing sports that kept them too busy to attend school on a regular schedule. As an adult, I have other friends who chose to homeschool their children because they wanted to have more flexibility about traveling and exploring as a part of their children’s education.

Then there are people who choose to homeschool their children because they don’t agree with what American schools, public or private, are teaching their children. Kirk Cameron is one of those people.

You probably remember Cameron as a teen heartthrob from the ’80s. He was a star of the show “Growing Pains.” Years later, as an adult, his roles have taken a very Christian and conservative direction. He uses his name recognition to explore topics that interest him personally, for example, his new documentary titled “The Homeschool Awakening.”

In “The Homeschool Awakening,” we see and hear from 17 different homeschool families who are trying to show what homeschooling is really all about and break the stereotypes out there. What kinds of stereotypes? As Cameron admitted to FoxNews Digital, he had misconceptions about homeschooling before he and his wife decided that was best for their children. He explained, “Homeschool was not on our radar screen because we had these misconceptions and stereotypes like so many people do. Like, you know, that’s for like Quakers and the Amish, and how could you possibly teach your kids enough so that they get into college? What about socialization?”

Watch the video below to learn more about Cameron’s new documentary.

Do you know anyone who was homeschooled? Do you know anyone who is currently homeschooling their children?