Home Schooling

[ellabella20]

Okay, all of you have heard it. Home schooling is becoming very popular amongst parents in the U.S. One of the most common reasons is because parents feel that there child is to advanced for a public or private school and they decide to teach their kid what they feel is "there level." This is a good reason, but what about all those other things about home school. For one, your around your parents all day. That would really suck for most kids. On the contrary, since your around grown-ups most of the time, you get used to talking to them and being around them that you start to exclude yourself from the kids your age and you start to act very mature. While acting mature can have it's benefits[your most likely not going to do drugs and alcohol]it also has it's bad side. Since the kids start acting like grown-ups, they don't feel the need to talk to kids there own age. This could lead to severe lack of social skills. Since being social is so important, because that's how you get good jobs and stuff, you could have a hard time when you go to college and get out in the real world. Also, when your home schooled, its very hard to make friends, or so it seems, since most of your friends are from school. You might think that home schooled kids make friends elsewhere, but what about the lack of social skills? Also, when your home schooled, you don't get to see the world like it really is. Like, there are a lot of people that aren't very nice. Since your not around those people all the time, when you do meet somebody like that, you wouldn't know how to handle them.
So, is home schooling a good idea, or is it just plain stupid? You decide.

[Kilroy_x]

Re: Home Schooling

I was more or less kicked out of school at the age of 15 and received much of my education from the internet. I have a job and a large number of friends, and I'm even in the honors program of the college I attend.

Also, when your home schooled, you don't get to see the world like it really is.

I'm not sure what you mean. The world is probably too complex to be seen "as it is" regardless of where you're socialized.

Social skills come from socializing, which can be done in virtually any environment. As long as the kid isn't a complete shut-in they'll be fine. Joining a club or participating in organized sports is very easy, even if you are homeschooled.

The biggest potential problem with homeschooling is the curriculum, but considering the state of the public school system you would be hard-pressed to give your kid an education worse than that of the general population.

[seththelezzy]

Re: Home Schooling

I know some home schooled kids, and they are great at acting social. But I know others, and they are just... well, they can't handle being around anyone else but their parents very well. I think that in most cases home schooling is a very bad idea, since the children act mature and they don't develop social skills, like you said.
But in some cases it is a good idea. The children are naturally good at dealing with other people, and their parents put them in after school activities. They handle being around other people very well and benefit from being in home school.

[devonin]

Re: Home Schooling

I'd be far more inclined to worry that the parents aren't competant to teach the children properly.

[RandomPscho]

Re: Home Schooling

I'd be far more inclined to worry that the parents aren't competant to teach the children properly.

Me too, and if the child wants to take specialized class, like computer programming, advanced biology, CAD, etc. the parent wouldn't be able to teach.

[Kilroy_x]

Re: Home Schooling

You misspelled competent. :P

We already know public school teachers are incompetent, why not allow parents to screw their kids over themselves instead of having the government do it? Hell, why not give the parents a refund while we're at it?

[soulofcerberus]

Re: Home Schooling

I'd be far more inclined to worry that the parents aren't competant to teach the children properly.

That's actually the worst part of home schooling a lot of times. The average parent just doesn't have the ability to teach their children effectively in all categories on a high school level. Not even the above average parent usually has that skill. It's best left to teachers, or at least professional tutors.

[Kilroy_x]

Re: Home Schooling

Me too, and if the child wants to take specialized class, like computer programming, advanced biology, CAD, etc. the parent wouldn't be able to teach.

So what? There are plenty of open admission community and full colleges that can supply this part of a curriculum. Or, you could just go to the library. There are more than enough resources available for alternate methods of education, and these alternate methods of education also have the potential to be much more beneficial than public school.

[RandomPscho]

Re: Home Schooling

You misspelled competent. :P

We already know public school teachers are incompetent, why not allow parents to screw their kids over themselves instead of having the government do it? Hell, why not give the parents a refund while we're at it?

I would wage a parent would screw their kids more-so than a teacher who actually specialized (hopefully) on the subject he/she is teaching.

[Kilroy_x]

Re: Home Schooling

I would wage a parent would screw their kids more-so than a teacher who actually specialized (hopefully) on the subject he/she is teaching.

Teachers generally don't specialize. Holy **** they do not specialize. I had a Science professor tell me horror stories about the state of science education in k12 education, and I've heard similar stories enough elsewhere. Personal experience also serves as a guide.

For instance, having taken teacher education classes I can say they don't actually teach the type of knowledge teachers actually need. In fact, I'm not sure I would even say teachers education classes particularly teach how to be a teacher worth much. Then again, neither would I say martial arts classes teach how to fight, or most modern language courses teach especially impressive speaking proficiency.

[g4z33b0]

Re: Home Schooling

I know a few kids who were homeschooled, and they are all very immature. I personally would hate to be homeschooled, because being around my mom all day would be pretty bad, school is actually fun, and I have friends at school.

[plasmuh]

Re: Home Schooling

The statements about teachers themselves not being competent do hold a lot of ground here. Teachers in the k-12 levels are rarely trained to actually teach the subject they are teaching, if they are specialized at all. The op strikes me as someone who needs a bit more education herself. Knowing the difference between your and you're, for example, would play a larger role in the home schooling argument than the argument of having social skills.

Home schooling is often not actually schooling, it's more like a legal way of dropping out before you're of legal age to do so(the age varies by state)
You could fill pages upon pages of reasons for doing this, but in each case it's the same. The parent pulls the student out of school and they don't learn anything, but because they're being "home schooled" the law can't really do much. To audit families which take place in home schooling would cost far too much money. To look only at families taking part in home schooling based on their location or annual income would be profiling, and society teaches us that profiling is wrong and not politically correct.

Social skills are not something learned through school alone. If you were to look at an average American high school, you would find all kinds of different groups, denominations, labels, and cliques. The popular kids keep to themselves and pick on the other kids. The emo and goth types keep to themselves. The band geeks tend to get along with each other. Everyone does what they want, with who they want. This doesn't teach social skills and teach people to get along, this just humiliates the kids who are actually interested in getting an education as they are made fun of for caring about education. Meanwhile the jocks and popular kids go along partying, doing drugs, and drinking. Once high school is over they don't have anything left and carry on by getting a minimum wage job at Wal-Mart.

Home schooling, if done correctly, is a highly resourceful tool in education. Most parents, however, don't have the time or appropriate skills, and sometimes even the education themselves to effectively teach. If you do, then more power to you. Granted, most teachers are not trained enough to teach the curriculum they are given, but neither are most parents who attempt to home school their kids.

[Equs]

Re: Home Schooling

You misspelled competent. :P

We already know public school teachers are incompetent, why not allow parents to screw their kids over themselves instead of having the government do it? Hell, why not give the parents a refund while we're at it?

The majority of teachers are definitely competent and this is going to depend on what school your child attends. If anything they are far more competent than the parent is going to be in a given subject, on average. I agree there are some schools that are probably best left alone if you cannot get your child switched into another school. There are a lot of teachers that shouldn't be teaching, as I frequently have to tutor individuals because of this. The majority of incompetencies seem to be in mathematics.

But if your child plans on higher education, they really should be attending a public school, simply for the sake of the academic experience. I still have horrible professors even at university, so I don't think you're ever going to get an all around perfect experience. Doing it all at home is great if you're dedicated to learning...but let's face it, most people arn't. Most people don't learn much at all when being homeschooled and are not prepared for higher education.


At least at the public school you know what people are being fed. At home children can be taught any type on nonsense and become very closed from the world. Of course this isn't going to happen in the case of a good parent but not all parents are competent either.

Attending a good public school can really make a difference, I think. However, due to the severely imbalanced public education system this can often be quite difficult to achieve.

[devonin]

Re: Home Schooling

I don't really agree with the claim that in K-12 the teachers don't specialise or know their subject matter very well...You can make the arguement for K-8 (Though in my school it was more like K-6) because at that stage the one teacher teaches all subjects to a consistant class of students. But at the same time, the academic level of the subject matter in K-6 is such that I would -hope- that -MOST- adults would at least know the subject matter themselves well enough to teach it, though you can then call into question whether parents are any good at teaching compared to someone who has been to teacher's college.

But once you get to 9-12, the teacher only teaches one or two subjects, and in order to be allowed to teach them have to have taken a number of courses in the subject while in college/university. I would hope that a highschool teacher, who has recieved their Ba.Ed -after- already recieving say...a Ba.His, concentration English, would be competent to teach History and English at the highschool level, or at least, a panoply of teachers, each one having specialised in a seperate subject is much more competent to teach a student all of those subjects than a single parent who in many cases has no degree at all.

[Kilroy_x]

Re: Home Schooling

I don't really agree with the claim that in K-12 the teachers don't specialise or know their subject matter very well...You can make the arguement for K-8 (Though in my school it was more like K-6) because at that stage the one teacher teaches all subjects to a consistant class of students. But at the same time, the academic level of the subject matter in K-6 is such that I would -hope- that -MOST- adults would at least know the subject matter themselves well enough to teach it, though you can then call into question whether parents are any good at teaching compared to someone who has been to teacher's college.

But once you get to 9-12, the teacher only teaches one or two subjects, and in order to be allowed to teach them have to have taken a number of courses in the subject while in college/university. I would hope that a highschool teacher, who has recieved their Ba.Ed -after- already recieving say...a Ba.His, concentration English, would be competent to teach History and English at the highschool level, or at least, a panoply of teachers, each one having specialised in a seperate subject is much more competent to teach a student all of those subjects than a single parent who in many cases has no degree at all.

There are probably states which have regulations of the sort you're describing, but the last time I checked a person can generally teach as long as they have a Bachelors and a teaching certificate.

Your hope is not a sound basis for argument.

You're also ignoring other factors. Student to teacher ratio, dedication level of the teacher (whether you believe it might be lessened due to low pay, or the tedious nature of the job, or the lack of economic incentive due to the heavily unionized nature and uniform income of teachers, or what have you. This is much commented on from just about every conceivable angle), distractions in classroom that don't exist outside of class, resources...

Outside of subjects like mathematics, which public schools don't teach particularly well in the first place, you could probably learn as much from Wikipedia as from a k-12 education. Add in the one-on-one guidance of a parent and a public library and you actually have a very functional education system. The kid doesn't need the type of constant supervision that they would be getting at the school. They need to be given only limited guidance as they educate themselves. Assign readings, sign them up for book clubs, talk to them about subjects. Encourage dialogue. That's something public schools not only dramatically fail to do but seem incapable of doing.