Home Schooling

[Kilroy_x]

Re: Home Schooling

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.

Let me fix a couple things for you.

But if your child plans on higher education, they really should be attending a public school, simply for the sake of learning to work the system by playing to factors within this particular type of social system in a beneficial way. 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 anywhere 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.

So what you're saying is you'd rather have everyone be wrong in exactly the same way than have difference in understanding at any point? As silly as that is, I sadly have to inform you that education is not anywhere near as standardized as you seem to think. Outside of standardized testing and a handful of other things, there are virtually no federal guidelines for curriculum. Sure, some states, districts, etc. impose their own standards, but this is rare and it's also hardly unifying.

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.

I honestly don't think you could find any real difference.

[michael161991]

Re: Home Schooling

?at least people won't turn to crime?

[sjoecool1991]

Re: Home Schooling

1. I am homeschooled and I DO NOT have a lack of social skills. I pretty much can talk to anyone, depending on if they want to be talked to.

2. I am going to school this fall anyway, and I don't think I will have any trouble adjusting at all.

I already went to school for 1 year last school year, and I easily adjusted, I knew everyone in my class in a week, and could talk to all of them easily.

My older brother has alot of friends at College (I know this because they come tomy house alot) and he was homeschooled since 1st grade until his senior year, he has had a 4.0 for the last 2 years.

I personally say I need to go to school in the fall because I cannot teach myself any longer, my 2 older siblings were self learners, I am not so much as them.

When I tried to teach myself Geometry, I found it extremely difficult, but when someone taght me, I had an A for the rest of the year, I got 100% on most of my tests and quizzes.

So don't tell me all homeschoolers have a complete lack of social skills, and don't know the real world, because that "real world" crap is incredibly stupid, you will not see anything like that until you are out of college, and already have a job and a house.

[OmegaVanity]

Re: Home Schooling

My cousins were homeschooled all their life and graduated. One went on to become a nurse, the others didn't go to college. It doesn't really depend on how their parents are teaching them, there are thousands of ways to do so and all are the correct way. The kid that's being taught is the one that's making all the decisions (although you can force education in a way).

It seems that if something is being taught in a different way, like education, people get close minded.

[theinsomniacnimrod]

Re: Home Schooling

It depends on the parents, the kids, and the public school the kids would attend. If I have children and the school system sucks I am moving or home-schooling / paying a tutor for them. The government keeps taking more and more money away from the public schools and as a result, the education and opportunities provided are greatly reduced.

There are options for home-schooling as well; some of my friends went to school for half of the day for the classes they couldn't be taught at home, and others had tutors instead of having the parents teach them. It all varies on the personal situation.

[irishknight]

Re: Home Schooling

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

It's called the internet.
Oh, and of course they get to see the world.. (i.e. vacations, AFTER "school", and they probably have sports programs that they're in). Sports is another way to interact with other people; thus, new friends. :P

[kmj103a]

Re: Home Schooling

My question to all the people who say that “homeschoolers lack in social skills” have you ever been home schooled?

I have been home schooled my whole life and I am the most social person you will meet. My mom has taught me up to grade 8, and then I in-a-way fired her and taught myself for the last 3 years. When my mom does not know something she would go to the teachers book teach herself, then explain it to me so that I could learn and understand it.

Home schooling in my eyes is the best way to go, my school district is nicknamed heroine high and if I had gone there, I could say with out a doubt in my mind, I would be one messed up kid right now. For some people I agree being in public school is great for them, but others is a whole different story, being with and around parents all day everyday would get on anyone nerves but that does in fact help, I now have the skills to adequately converse with people my own age and people that are older than me.

Even if I feel I could not home school my own kids properly, I’m not too sure I would enroll them in public or even private school, there is many other ways around me teaching my kids from schooling on the internet, to a program teaching them on Switched on Schoolhouse.

I can't really tell you the difference from home schooling to public schooling because I have never been even in a classroom atmosphere before. Really depending on the kid and what age you start them at home schooling would depend if they would take to it or not.

This is what I think...

-*-Kmj-*-

[wickedawesomeful]

Re: Home Schooling

there are thousands of ways to do so and all are the correct way.

Um, no.

The kid that's being taught is the one that's making all the decisions

Probably not a good idea.

I, myself, believe that homeschooling can be done effectively, if the child is associated with sports, church, or another social activity. However, kids that are home schooled and are never exposed to people can grow up to be a problem.

[sjoecool1991]

Re: Home Schooling

I did sports, and I did not like it, it was not the people, its was the win/loss ratio lol.

I was going to pitch in baseball (I can throw a ridiculous knuckleball, seriously, only I know where it is going) this year, but decided I hate baseball.

[Kilroy_x]

Re: Home Schooling

The government keeps taking more and more money away from the public schools and as a result, the education and opportunities provided are greatly reduced.

I personally wouldn't class funding as the fundamental problem with our school system

[Equs]

Re: Home Schooling

Let me fix a couple things for you.





So what you're saying is you'd rather have everyone be wrong in exactly the same way than have difference in understanding at any point? As silly as that is, I sadly have to inform you that education is not anywhere near as standardized as you seem to think. Outside of standardized testing and a handful of other things, there are virtually no federal guidelines for curriculum. Sure, some states, districts, etc. impose their own standards, but this is rare and it's also hardly unifying.



I honestly don't think you could find any real difference.

I would be the first to agree that education is not standardized and very imbalanced. I also agree on many other levels. Really, the main thing I disagree with is:

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

I think, on average, the public school system is totally superior to the homeschooling experience. The overgeneralization of school teachers here is misleading at best, and really not true in most cases (again, highly depends on the school). I think the public education system can do far more, on average, than what can be done through homeschooling.

I have seen the 20/20 video before. I am not an american, if this means anything, so I cannot speak for the american school system. I speak for the system here in Canada, which to me is doing a good job. Can improve dramatically for sure, but I would much rather leave the population in the hands of it than in the hands of all the parents.

This has nothing to do with individual experience. For certain people it is inevitable that the right choice is homeschooling, and there is nothing inherently wrong or inferior about homeschooling. It's just, the way you come across is that public education is quite useless, when I disagree completely.

[Kilroy_x]

Re: Home Schooling

I actually don't know anything about the Canadian school system.

Anyways, I wouldn't say public education is useless. More like, any benefits of public education are somewhat accidental and certainly not direct results of good policy.

[devonin]

Re: Home Schooling

I actually don't know anything about the Canadian school system.

It is in many ways very similar to the American school system, we just tend to split up elementary school not at all, and it's just K-8, 9-12 without a "middle school" And with regards to my previous comment about the qualification of teachers, my point about how "yes from K-6 you can argue that the teacher is teaching outside their specialty but not after" was referring to the fact that at least in my school, for 7-8 to "help prepare us for highschool" we had a very high-school like rotary system, when we'd have one teacher for history, another for geography, another for math etc. so as in highschool, we were being taught by teachers who had actually gotten their undergrad in the subject they were teaching.

And insofar as the argument that you can teach with nothing but a BA and a Teaching certificate and this doesn't mean you know the subjects you're teaching: At least in canada, you get a BA and a B.Ed which is a seperate degree entirely. You can do concurrent education and get both in 5 years, or you generally go 4 for an undergrad and 2 for the B.Ed, but I would argue that this -still- puts you ahead of the average parent, because the B.Ed doesn't necessarily teach you your subject, it teaches you to teach, which is at least if not more valuable.

[Kilroy_x]

Re: Home Schooling

Well, it seems we're largely discussing two different systems, so I'm not sure how well my observations compare to the realities of the Canadian education system. Still:

but I would argue that this -still- puts you ahead of the average parent, because the B.Ed doesn't necessarily teach you your subject, it teaches you to teach, which is at least if not more valuable.

Actually, at least from my experience with the curriculum a course in education doesn't particularly teach you how to teach; It teaches education theory, which is an extremely broad subject with many opposing perspectives within it. Admittedly, part of the curriculum also requires a certain number of hours of volunteer teaching, but I'm not actually sure how well this helps potential teachers learn how to apply whatever aspects of theory they've choosen to embrace, partly because sometimes the theory is off, and partly because sometimes the theory is just too abstact and vague to actually have direct applications. Requiring experience is certainly better than nothing though, although with a parent the experience with dealing with your kid is already there.

From my experience I would seriously consider labeling an education in teaching as an education in only the most broad and general bits of philosophy of epistemology.

[devonin]

Re: Home Schooling

Even the most broad and shallow education in philosophy is better than no education in philosophy at all. If you lined up parents and teachers in order of competence to teach, I imagine that the large portion of overlap would probably start to happen around the bottom 40% of teachers and the top 25% of parents, give or take. (Note: I did in fact pull these numbers entirely out of personal observation of parents and teachers, and they have no statistical merit whatsoever)

A well-educated parent who knows the subject would, in my mind, be better than a good half of teachers, if simply on the grounds that they know their children and how their children learn -much- better than a teacher would.

The reports of a great many home-schooled children on this forum lends credence to the fact. But along the same vein as the issues presented in that 20/20 special linked to earlier in the thread, about how teachers have such a locked-down union monopoly that even gross incompetence can take -years- to result in a teacher being fired, the biggest pitfall to homeschooling is that there is -absolutely- no oversight on parents to ensure they are doing a good job.

You won't necessarily know the parent screwed up until the kid wants to go to college and completely bombs the SATs. At least in schools you theoretically have the benefit of testing throughout, though the efficacy of most school testing in north america is pretty dubious as well.