Quinn Cummings Video Interview On ‘Adventures In Homeschooling’

In her new book, The Year Of Learning Dangerously: Adventures In Homeschooling, former child star Quinn Cummings, 47, illustrates her experiences homeschooling her daughter. She came to the decision after seeing her daughter make two years’ worth of teachers believe that she couldn’t understand long division when, in fact, she just didn’t enjoy doing it. Quinn looked for private schools but did not approve of the amount of homework her daughter would receive in that environment. “I wanted her to have a childhood, and I didn’t feel that that was the best way to get a childhood,” Cummings told Uinterview exclusively. “So why did we homeschool? We were greedy,” she said.

One of the conventional concerns of homeschooling is the impact that limited socialization might have on a child. Cummings took measures to avoid this by signing her daughter up to play team sports. “The science is pretty strong on the fact that whatever personality we have, we show up with genetically. She is a social individual, so she is going to be a social individual if she ever chooses to go back to school,” Cummings told Uinterview. “The first time she’s around a group of age peers in college, she’ll do fine. The people who home school, who have socialization issues, who are shy or uncomfortable, they would’ve been the shy, awkward kid in the classroom anyway. That’s the way they’re wired.”

Cummings received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for The Goodbye Girl in 1977 when she was just 10. She has gone on to have a successful career as a writer and blogger. Her first book, Notes from the Underwire, was a tongue-in-cheek memoir. She also writes TheQCReport, a blog about juggling career and motherhood.