Are homeschoolers weird? Do the experts know best?

There are more than 3 million homeschoolers in this country -- perhaps 6.5 percent of families with school-age children -- and they're tired of name-calling bigots, writes Theresa Olohan in USA Today.

“I think it’s just f---ing weird as f--- that you want your kids around you all day,” said Angie Sullivan, cohost of the “I’ve Had It” podcast on July 14. She added that she doesn’t “trust somebody that wants to be with their kids 24/7. I think a lot of dumb people do it 'cause it’s just easier.”

Then cohost Jennifer Welch called homeschooling a “crazy Christian problem,” adding, “I think it’s selfish for parents to push a religion on a child. ... I think it’s all child abuse."

Olohan, one of 11 children in a conservative Catholic family, was homeschooled by her mother through eighth grade, then attended a Catholic high school and went on to Notre Dame like several of her siblings.

"Every day, she gave each of us one-on-one instruction in reading, history, math and science," Olohan writes. They worked on vocabulary, cursive handwriting and Bible history lessons every day. Younger siblings were paired with older siblings for creative writing and homework checks.

It wasn't easier than sending for their mother. She "inspired us with creative ideas to showcase our short stories, artwork and even my sister’s cringey poetry," and "drove us to homeschool co-op, art classes, piano lessons and sports practices." She "joined us in soccer, basketball, baseball and even bike-riding in 'PE' class. And every morning, she took us to Mass."

"Every one of us benefited from knowing that we were truly loved and championed by a mother who sacrificed her own interests to give us every opportunity," she writes. "We were equally grateful that our father worked hard so that she could be home with us."

Homeschoolers score “well above the national average in reading, language, math, social studies, and science,” according to peer-reviewed studies, Olohan writes. The homeschool advantage is 15 to 25 points higher, compared to public-school students. Black homeschoolers "score up to 42 points higher than their public school peers." In addition, homeschoolers who take SAT and ACT exams earn “above average” scores.

Of course, we don't know what percentage of homeschoolers take these tests compared to public-school students. There could be unschooled or poorly schooled kids who are never tested. It's also complicated by the fact that many students move between public, private and home-based schools or combine homeschooling with online schooling. The lines are blurry.

"Homeschooling is a diverse movement, ranging from unschooling to classical education, from online charter schools to in-person tutorials with a parent," writes Rachelle Peterson on Minding the Campus.

In Skipping School: A History of American Homeschooling and How It Went Mainstream, Dixie Dillon Lane, a historian and homeschooling mother, "weaves together statistics, legal analysis, and a mix of memoir and oral history," writes Peterson.

"Lane’s interviewees range from white Catholics to black Baptists to non-religious hippies, who chose to homeschool because of religious convictions, academic focus, concern about bullies or other safety issues, special needs, and far more reasons," she writes. If there's one unifying theme it's that homeschoolers believe parents know best for their own children.