Home Schooling

[Whitestripe]

It seems like everywhere I turn kids are being home schooled. Two of my friends are home schooling their children. A colleague of mine has his wife home schooling their children. The woman who brings her kid to piano lessons every Tuesday is home schooling her brood. Is this a growing trend or what? Previously, it seemed that only the ultra-religious or hippy freaks home schooled, but now I keep bumping into fairly mainstream parents who are making the choice to teach their kids themselves. What's up with that? Should children be home schooled or does it do them more harm than good?

[Hereward]

Holy shit, take cover!

[TerraPrime]

It seems like everywhere I turn kids are being home schooled. Two of my friends are home schooling their children. A colleague of mine has his wife home schooling their children. The woman who brings her kid to piano lessons every Tuesday is home schooling her brood. Is this a growing trend or what? Previously, it seemed that only the ultra-religious or hippy freaks home schooled, but now I keep bumping into fairly mainstream parents who are making the choice to teach their kids themselves. What's up with that? Should children be home schooled or does it do them more harm than good?

We've had iterations of this thread before.

You'll find ardent supporters from both ends of the spectrum.

In principle, I have no issues with people home-schooling, providing that they know what they're doing in terms of pedagogy AND they socialize their children in other ways (e.g. YMCA, Girl Scouts, etc).

In reality, I support their freedom to do this as long as they keep paying for public education.

Myself, I think home-schooling is a bit indulgent and over-protective. We're not going to agree 100% with the way the public school does things. But that's life. I think the public school setting, with all of its taunting, bullying, violence, and apathetic teachers, is a more accurate reflection of the world, especially if the comparison is with the relatively cocooned world of a home school environment. I think children develop better coping strategies in public schools (I wonder if there're studies on it?) simply because they have to cope with adversities more in public schools. To sacrifice that for ideological purity of the parents (and homeschooling is always about the ideology of the parents, be it political, religious, or pedagogical) seems not worth the effort to me. If I were to ever have children, they'd be attending public school, and I'd supplement what I deem to be lacking in the school on our own time (Math and language in U.S. public school are rather pathetic, sorry Mr. X).

[Kouran]

I have only ever worked with one guy who was home schooled, he was so poorly socialized that he never fit in with anyone at the company.

I would probably never home school becuase of that issue.

[Spastic Plastic]

Myself, I think home-schooling is a bit indulgent and over-protective. We're not going to agree 100% with the way the public school does things. But that's life. I think the public school setting, with all of its taunting, bullying, violence, and apathetic teachers, is a more accurate reflection of the world.

Exactly this.

I think homeschooling is a "look what a good parent I am" -mental masturbation, often at the child's expense. Children ain't the property of their parents. As has been said, many homeschooled kids are misfits and badly socialized because of this overprotective parenting. My main reasons why public school is better for kids are these:

1) They learn to socialize with large groups of people.

2) They learn how to get along with people they don't necessarily like.

3) They learn to look up to other authority figures than Mom.

4) They absorb other opinions and viewpoints than their parents'.

EDIT: Don't we have a homeschooled board member who proudly called himself a homophobe? He's kind of living proof of this theory.

[Cantabile]

This is a case by case scenario. Homeschooling works wonders for some children, while not working so well in other cases. In the end, I believe it should be the choice of the student to determine what pedagogy works best for them. My son adored the social aspects of public school, and so he did public school. My daughter, however, since childhood has been the most efficient person I've encountered in my existence, rationing every single second of her day into productivity. For her, the public education system was the biggest waste of time imaginable, and so her mother and I had no issue with allowing her to home school. She taught her self using the textbooks, did all the homework, aced the tests, all of which required only two hours a week for her. She even managed to finish four years of high school in two years, and then move onto college two years ahead of all the other kids. This allowed her infinite more time for her own personal studies and life pursuits than public education did.

If she had been forced to endure all the time wasting of the public education system, she would have never been able to come a professional cellist. Many children with time-intensive pursuits like that are able to do it alongside public school, but the problem is they have no time for anything else. When you get home at 3pm, and have a five to six hour training schedule on top of homework etc, there is little time for eating and breathing, let alone socialization!

If a child is only going to use their extra time from home schooling to sit and watch TV or play video games, then I don't think it's really that beneficial. But I have known plenty of incredibly motivated children and teenagers who have done home school programs, and used all of that free time to increase their talents and intellects far, far above what the public education system allows.

One issue is that of entering college, as many home school programs do not offer lab classes, and such, which are a prereq for university. In California this isn't too big of a deal, as students can simply graduate from home school, spend two years at a junior college, and then have guaranteed admission into most of the UCs, or if they're more motivated and get 4.0 gpas, they can transfer to UC Berkeley or UCLA, two of the top universities on the planet.

I'll admit I was a bit iffy about the home school system, since I was not taught that way, but after allowing my daughter to do it, and seeing most of the other kids in the program, it was in no way whatsoever "for hippies" or whatever other bullshit stereotypes are out there. I honestly wish it had been an option for me growing up, as public school + a violin career literally killed many of my opportunities for other things at that age.

My experience is solely based upon the program my daughter was enrolled in, but all those kids were as socially adept as public schoolers, if not more so. You have to remember that there are far more forms of socialization than simply school, and that our species has progressed perfectly fine in socialization for hundreds of thousands of years before the advent of public education systems. Just because a kid is in home school doesn't mean they don't have tons of friends and peers.

[Spastic Plastic]

Damn. Double post.

[Tormund Ukrainesbane]

I was homeschooled up until 9th grade. It worked out pretty well for me.

ETA: my aberrant political leanings are NOT a product of homeschool indoctrination. My parents and I disagree vehemently on almost every point.

[Minaku]

A lot of people are finding complaint in the school systems nowadays. Here in Georgia kids are being tested every year at least twice a year. A 6-year-old student of mine is sitting standardized tests! It's absolutely insane and no learning gets done. Students are sent home to practice tests and are swamped with needless work.

I would homeschool to foster an environment of learning and discovery. But I think that's about it.

[Rubies & Jade]

Holy shit, take cover!

:laugh: :read: :leaving:

This is a case by case scenario. Homeschooling works wonders for some children, while not working so well in other cases.

this. I have seen it work amazingly, and I've seen it work badly.

there are a lot of factors... the quality of the public school, the home environment, the personality of the kid. its not a one size fits all situation.

[peterbound]

There are some very well articulated points by individuals on here. I think i'll use the over indulgent one in the future.

Here in Colorado Springs, many people homeschool because of religious reasons. Needless to say, they don't tend to socialize outside of their little 'circle' of peers. When they get up to the University they struggle socially. Nor have i found them to be any more advanced academically than the public school students. The girls look cool in their funny long denim skirts too.

Favorite home school kid story. The campus i go to is very female heavy (good for me) as it is a pre-health care/Nursing campus. While sitting in an interpersonal comm. class that is about 90% female, the teacher asked the questions: What is is you look for in a mate? Various answers were put forth (mine: attractive and smart). When my token home schooled class mate's turn came up. His answer? Submissive and fertile. Hahaha.. this motherfucker said that shit with a straight face. No irony, joking, smart assedness in the tone.

This started a freaking riot in the class room. This poor kid had no way to handle all the pissed off women in the class room.

ETA: My favorite are the UnSchool kids. That movement is insane.

[Liadin]

Hmm, I have homeschool anecdotes that are all over the map. I've known some homeschooled people who had poor social skills. But I've known plenty of people who attended school full-time as kids and don't have great social skills either.

I used to be more skeptical about homeschooling--primarily because it's the go-to option for so many religious parents who don't want their kids to learn about science and so on--but one of my best friends from college was homeschooled (along with all her siblings), and although my high school and college grades were excellent, she's just so much more educated than me in every respect. Where I was wasting time sitting through teachers going over homework and doing stupid worksheets, she was learning about topics we never even touched: European history, art history, cooking, French (to the level where she could actually converse), etc., etc. She (and all the siblings that I've met) is socially adept since their family is active in their church, in volunteering and so forth. They had to sing in the chorus and do a variety of things that ensured they still interacted with people. There's an urge to say I must have gotten something out of the first 18 years of my life that she didn't, but I'm hard-pressed to find it; she's not noticeably more impatient with stupid people than I am or anything like that.

So, I think homeschooling is great when you have talented teachers (it's not always the parents doing it; my friend's mother didn't teach most of their high school classes) and when you have kids that benefit from a more specialized program, either because they're smarter than everybody else or because of learning disabilities. And social interaction is crucial. Still down on people doing it for religious reasons though.

[drawkcabi]

Definitely a case by case situation.

My cousin homeschooled both her children. They made sure that they had socialization with extra curricular activities and such, they all had their friends and everything. When they got older they knew that if they wanted to go to public school they had that option but they wanted to keep being homeschooled up to junior high and high school.

They are both extremely intelligent and well educated and independent minded. My cousin's daughter refused being valedictorian because she had some issue with her school's principal and believed that accepting the position and giving the speech at graduation would also be an accpetance of the principal and she refused to compromise.

This is also a girl who when a toddler learned that while meat came from stores and fast food restaurants, that wasn't where it originated.

She was horrified and declared herself a vegitarian. Her parents thought it was just a phase. They've all been vegitarians now for a decade and a half.

Sorry, I digress, my point is these are two of the greatest kids I know.

[Cantabile]

I'm not sure I quite understand the sheltering from science aspect. I'm sure homeschooling works differently in different counties and states, but the programs I have experience with in California do not let parents dictate curriculum. Homeschooled students have to take the same general breadth coursework as in public school, which includes science.

[Tormund Ukrainesbane]

I'm not sure I quite understand the sheltering from science aspect. I'm sure homeschooling works differently in different counties and states, but the programs I have experience with in California do not let parents dictate curriculum. Homeschooled students have to take the same general breadth coursework as in public school, which includes science.

I was homeschooled in Oregon. We had to take annual state-standards tests which included science stuff. That did not mean that homeschool students were not taught "This is the way things are" and then "this is the stuff you'll have to know for the test".

Then again, kindergarten through 8th grade education doesn't really cover the "controversial" stuff like biological evolution and abiogenesis. That stuff doesn't come around until high school AFAIK.

[Cantabile]

True, but the conflict of what a student's parents/peers tell them is fact, versus what the education teaches them is fact, is present in public school as well. There's plenty of religious students who pass off all the evolution, etc. as bullshit, regardless of being presented with it.

Once agaim, I'm going off the California system here, but for high school there is specific requirements for coursework to graduate, which is identical for both home schoolers and public schoolers. The two science requirements being earth science and life science, if I remember correctly. Home schooling wouldn't allow a parent to avoid teaching their kids about those subjects. Either they do the coursework, tests, and pass the science courses, or they can't get a high school diploma.

Whether or not the child believes what's in the textbooks is a different story, but I see plenty of absolutely religiously-brainwashed children who went through public school as well.

[peterbound]

Here is the curriculum that my Neighbor (who i love, but she is bat shit crazy, and waaaay over protective of her batshit crazy kids):

http://www.sonlight.com/science.html

A new article included in every Introduction to K through 6 science addresses important questions about our approach to evolution and the age of the earth. We stress God as Creator and Designer, but mention a variety of options and perspectives.

Sounds like a great foundation for good science.

[Galactus]

I actually have serious ideological issues with homeschooling and private schools.

[Tormund Ukrainesbane]

I'm not sure I quite understand the sheltering from science aspect. I'm sure homeschooling works differently in different counties and states, but the programs I have experience with in California do not let parents dictate curriculum. Homeschooled students have to take the same general breadth coursework as in public school, which includes science.

I was taught young-earth creationism as a kid, but was still All-State for science in high school. We were able to pick our own curriculum as long as we kept passing the state assessments.

[Kalbear]

I was home schooled.

Clearly, it's a bad idea, especially for socializing.