Homeschooling

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My next door neighbors homeschool their 2 kids and they are very smart, well adjusted children. One is 11 and the other is 15. They are taught at home and also attend a homeschooling Co-op that is very much like a traditional school setting. Public schools are in trouble in this country and I don't blame them for doing it. I blame poor parenting mostly on the downfall of our society in general these days.:(
 
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Enrollment has been dropping steadily as timber jobs have dried up, and Oregon's budget cuts have left Myrtle Point facing a $675,000 gap for next year. Since Oregon bases its state school funding on enrollment, every home-schooled child Myrtle Point can woo means an extra $5,000 or so. An estimated 100 youngsters living in the district are home-schooled.

Superintendent Robert Smith said the school system is also willing to adjust the curriculum -- for example, by allowing discussion of creationism in biology class, or biblical literature in English courses.

"We're not setting up a church steeple. But students want academic freedom enough to encourage different things, and that should not be stifled by relying on exclusive treatments," Smith said.

Many home-school parents are fiercely loyal to the lifestyle, and to the educational benefits they see for their children. Some want to protect their youngsters from the peer pressure and drugs they fear are rampant in public schools. Others, like the Wilsons, home-school their children in part for religious reasons.

"I like instruction where the instructor, not just the body of knowledge, is important," Teckla Wilson said. "Home-schooling allows you to work out the pace that is best for them. And, we are Christians, and for me, it is important that I teach them to think with a biblical world view."
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My sister home schooled. Her first was taken out of school, her second never set foot in school. It's not for everybody, but I'm not against it at all. It depends on the people and their situation. However I am sorry to say I do think it's not a good thing when it's used by religious cults to stop kids from ever having contact with anyone other than their own kind, but that's my opinion. (My sister had serious issues with the school system and certain teachers, it was nothing religious or cultural at all)
 
I was homeshcooled in elementary. The neighborhood was not a good place to send kids to public schools so my parents chose to keep me at home until they could afford private school. It had its good and bad aspects-fortunately I was able to teach myself many things and learned very quickly.
 
I think socialization is one of the most important life skills you can ever learn.

No man is an island and we don't exist in a bubble. In life you might live in dangerous neighbourhoods, deal with people vastly different from you - culturally and religiously, learn that you are just one in a million, work as a partner or a group member, be tossed into an environment with people you've never met but suddenly have to work and live with 24/7.

For that reason, I don't believe in home schooling and would not choose it for my children, save for extreme circumstances, like cardosino's example. I do understand why some elect to do it, and that's fine. It's just really not my cup of tea at all.
 
I do think public schools are atrocious, for the most part. We can spend hundreds of billions of dollars a pop at rebuilding Iraq, while our own infrastructure is going to shit. This nation seriously pisses me off.

Melon
 
I think it all depends on the reasons for choosing homeschooling and the personalities of the kids involved.

One of my son's closests friends is from a family of 6 kids...he is one of those kids that was constantly picked on, starting in 1st grade and continuing through middle school. His parents decided to start home schooling him his sophomore year, along with his 2 youngest brothers (who also suffered some bullying, along with slight learning disabilities). They let their second oldest daughter stay in regular high school, because she never suffered from the teasing and bullying her brothers did and seemed better equipped to deal with the typical high school stresses.

He's not missing out on any socialization because he still hangs out with my son and the other friends he's hand since grade school, just not during school hours. His self esteem seems to have improved and he's much happier.

I do think it really important to get homeschooled kids involved in sports or some other activity outside the home so they can interact with neighborhood kids and learn to deal with different personalities, etc.

It would be pretty scary to be taught at home for 18 years and suddenly thrust out into a world you aren't prepared to deal with.
 
No man is an island and we don't exist in a bubble. In life you might live in dangerous neighbourhoods, deal with people vastly different from you - culturally and religiously, learn that you are just one in a million, work as a partner or a group member, be tossed into an environment with people you've never met but suddenly have to work and live with 24/7.

For that reason, I don't believe in home schooling and would not choose it for my children, save for extreme circumstances, like cardosino's example. I do understand why some elect to do it, and that's fine. It's just really not my cup of tea at all.
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What's kind of weird, is that the home school kids I've met, have been some of the most socially adusted kids I've ever met. Able to hold converstaions, polite, curteous, considerate. It was amazing how up on current events and well spoken they were.

They were the kind of kids I'd have in my college or hire in a heart beat.

They didn't suffer the influence from the other deliquents and trouble makers.

Very mature, these kids. Socially mature by many years.
 
We are investigating homeschooling for our 10-year old.

We've learned that many homeschoolers network, so that kids to get socialization and exposure to different teachers.

I would say it is not for everyone. It takes the right kids, and the right parents, to homeschool.
 
i think it depends on the parents, both their motivations for choosing to homeschool and their abilities as teachers.

what worries me about homeschooling, is that you could, in theory, have a bunch of adults who haven't the first clue about how to educate children raising a group of kids capable of rather intense group-think due to lack of exposure to anything other than a highly regimented worldview.

on the other hand, with good parents and teachers, you could provide a child with invdividualized instruction, child-directed learning, and you aren't as held over a barrel by these awful, awful standardized tests that most teachers are forced to teach to lest the school be deemed "failing."
 
I was home-schooled from 4th grade on through high school. My parents did it for educational reasons. I started out in a Lutheran private school, but was physically abused by a teacher. My parents tried to do the "right" thing and leave me in for another year, only to get an incompetent 4th grade teacher. She had 4 boys in the school, and would switch grades depending on what year her kid was in. Our classroom was really no better than a daycare--my mom still talks about the day she brought me my lunch and saw kids swinging from the flagpole!

I know the plan was to stick me in a regular high school, but once the time came, every high school my parents approached told them not to do it, it would be like throwing us to the wolves. I know I was supposed to go to Columbine and that turned out rather lucky. I ended up getting bored with my high school curriculum and just opting for my GED--I joke I'm basically a drop out. :wink:

When I started college, people told my parents that I would fail, that I'd been out of school too long and could never succeed in "a classroom setting." I ended up making a 4.0 my first semester, and the President's List and the Honors Society the first year. I'll graduate with honors eventually.

I would recommend home-schooling--it depends on the family and the kid for sure. I had a positive experience, though there were alot of things I missed out on and I was certainly lonely. (My sister had friends in the neighborhood, I never did, it's just the luck of the draw really.) I will certainly keep it as an option for my kids.
 
anitram said:
I think socialization is one of the most important life skills you can ever learn.

No man is an island and we don't exist in a bubble. In life you might live in dangerous neighbourhoods, deal with people vastly different from you - culturally and religiously, learn that you are just one in a million, work as a partner or a group member, be tossed into an environment with people you've never met but suddenly have to work and live with 24/7.
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That is a real stereotype when it comes to homeschooling and it doesn't have a solid basis in reality.

If a parent wants to, they can shelter their school-going kid just as easily as a homeschooled parent can. I have friends who went to Lutheran school from elementary to high school. But they've never worked a real job or paid their own bills. Their parents have worked *very* hard to make sure they didn't mingle with people of different races. (They wouldn't even send their oldest to CU-Denver, because it was in downtown Denver and you know who goes *there*) Yeah, they are socialized--but with other white, middle class and upper class people.

I don't deny there are cultish homeschoolers, (I've met them and they were freaky) but social and cultural isolation can happen just as easily in a suburban high school. I am a student advisor and I meet freshmen and sophmore students daily who are completely lost academically and socially. If they are the result of real school and socialization, color me unimpressed.
 
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I think it depends on the reason and how it's done. I live in a decent sized city and somehow ALL of the public schools are terrible. My parents sent us to the private schools. Unlike the public schools here, when parents are paying $6500 per year per kid, there's no lack of accountability and responsiblity of participation in the child's education process. My parents were an important factor in my learning to read even though I was never home schooled. Reading is one thing that needs to be taught well and kids are all over the place when it comes to how and how fast they learn to read. Fortunately, our school worked very closely with the parents so the parents were provided the right materials for working w/ their kids at home. I read easily at a young age, but my younger siblings were both a lot slower and needed different teaching styles and tools to learn. For example, the school loaned my parents a special computer w/ programs designed to help my brother read.

If the private schools weren't an option, I hope to God my parents would've home schooled me b/c the public schools here completely ignore the concept of parental participation.
 
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AvsGirl41 said:


That is a real stereotype when it comes to homeschooling and it doesn't have a solid basis in reality.
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Yes it does, just not to everyone. Nothing is ever 100% true or 0% true when it comes to people's personalities.

For example, I can tell you plenty of examples where parents homeschooled kids because they felt the North American school system was worse than the one they were brought up in (true). The kids then come to college and they have a relatively limited exposure to the culture they live in. For me personally, as somebody who spent half her childhood abroad, I think there is no way I would have done nearly as well without school socialization with kids from a different culture, who speak a different language, who have different customs. I've seen it with plenty of immigrant kids who were home schooled or tutored, and it was a lot tougher for them to adjust to "real life" than the rest of us coming out of high school.

You have to choose what you think is right for your child, that's all.
 
I was home-schooled for one year during my childhood in Indonesia (missionary parents). I was bored as hell and was very happy to go back to school where there were friends to see, events to go to, etc. Most of the homeschoolers I encountered were maladjusted and pretty narrow-minded (granted this is a special environment because we're talking about families living out in villages, isolated from anyone else from their home culture). So I am very very glad that my parents went ahead and made the decision to send me to boarding school rather than taking the homeschool route.

However in the States, I have met some who are very well-adjusted, intelligent and well-rounded because their parents made a real effort to have them involved in community events, etc. It would seem that it depends a lot on the reasoning and the method that the parents use for homeschooling.
 
If someone is bullied, they are not missing out on any socialization, they are being saved from it. Not everyone functions well in a group enviornment.

Also, it's not like homeschool kids never see other kids. There are home school groups (though my sister abandoned them because they were so extreme), plus there are kids in the neighborhood (which was the most fun and most socialization I ever got, much more than school) as well as cousins, relatives and parents' friends. These kids are also sometimes into scouting or sports.
 
As a former public school teacher, I don't blame anyone for wanting to educate their kids at home. I don't have children, but if I did they would go to private school or I would teach them at home.
The public school system where I live is horrible!! I think it is a combination of things including lack of discipline and low parental support. Also we have some teachers who are just collecting a pay check waiting to retire.
However there are a few kids and teachers who try their best but the bad ones just seem to take over.
Also, my district pays the highest school tax in my state and the teachers are the highest paid in the state. We have 15 schools and only 4 passed the state standardized test last year. To me this proves, the amount of money put into education is not the most important aspect of education. The teachers, parents, and students are who make the difference.
 
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I was home schooled through elementary school and I will NOT homeschool my children. I certainly learned a lot more and was free to explore subjects that I found interesting beyond my regular curriculum. My mother did the most of my teaching. She was college educated with a degree in education. The reason I won't homeschool is because I think it is important for kids to have interaction with their peers. Hanging out with your Mom/Dad/Brothers and Sisters all day is detrimental to your confidence and social development. That being said, I realize everyone is different and it is possible that maybe home schooling would be appropriate for some children. I just don't plan on keeping mine at home.
 
One of my friends is homeschooled, and he's perfectly well adjusted socially in other areas, such as sports and stuff. I wouldn't say he's the sweetest person I've ever met, he's got a sick and twisted personality sometimes (I think that's why we get along:wink: ), but you weren't asking about his personality. But he's not shy and doesn't have problems with teasing.

Still, he's not homeschooled for any reason that I know of, and I'm personally against homeschooling unless it's for a medical reason. I also agree it's not right to homeschool a child so they'll be part of some religious cult or whatever. I'd never, ever do it. But parents can make those choices I guess...

btw, I will add that the public school system where I live is above average for the US. There are plenty of by-the-book, couldn't-care-less teachers, and a majority of the kids in my school are actually slackers who have way too much control over the teachers. But there are enough honors classes with quality teachers, and enough opportunities for people that do wanna learn that you do have an option to get a quality education. I personally give a shit about my education and get pissed off when people take it for granted, so I take honors classes and am mostly with other kids who also give a shit, believe it or not!

also, the environment's pretty good. we do have a police officer, but little violence. The worst incident we have had is some kids bringing vodka to school in gatorade bottles (had to get their stomachs pumped and the whole thing). Granted, I'm in middle school, and at the high school there are plenty of drugs, but that's life. still, our schools are good enough that kids come 2 hours everyday on busses from other counties just to go here.

I just wanted to add that because when I typed my response spoiled me didn't even consider that some counties have really bad, even unsafe public schools. I can see why some people would want to homeschool in those cases. Still, as a 14-year old who's oh-so knowledgable on the ups and downs of parenting:wink: , I think it's best for kids to be "exposed to their peers" and all that.

whew, end rant
 
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MaxFisher said:
Hanging out with your Mom/Dad/Brothers and Sisters all day is detrimental to your confidence and social development.
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Actually, for me (homeschooled from first grade up until high school) spending extra time with my family created a more nurturing, more confidence-building environment that allowed me to flourish. I was smart for my age (advanced reading and writing skills), and school wasn't a good fit. My parents supplemented the home-school environment with a city soccer league and theater classes for me, while my sister (who had dyslexia) got involved in gymnastics and ballet. We were able to learn at a pace appropriate to our needs. It was actually a disappointment to have to go back to school. My wife was also homeschooled, and we're talking about homeschooling our little one.

I don't think homeschooling is for everyone; I had friends growing up who's parents tried to do it, and they weren't consistent and the kids wound up without any kind of structure. Regardless, I think as more and more kids are homeschooled, the cliche of homeschooled kids as socially inept, sheltered Quakers will start to fade away as more people realize that it's an entirely viable method of education. Hope so, anyway -- there was an absolutely revolting episode of "Smallville" a few years ago that traded on the worst stereotypes of homeschooled kids.
 
We could probably argue about public schools in the same way. People are people regardless of where you put them. As a homeschooler, I had more friends than some of the people I ended up going to school with who were what society labels as "freaks" or "nerds". In the end there are many pros and cons to both sides.
 
Given the state of many schools today, where in some cases the teachers are burned out, testing is the most important thing as opposed to teaching the child to be a well-rounded thinker, and other issues which are part of the negative aspect of public school, the option of homeschool for those who have that ability is a good option. I agree that it's not for everyone.
The lack of social interaction is an exception, not the norm. MOST homeschool families go out of their way to make sure that there is plenty of social interaction for their homeschooled children. The big difference is, many of the homeschoolers have much more interaction with adults than many public school kids do, as well as other kids. In many cases there are local homeschool networks where families gather together for interaction, sharing teaching, field trips, and much more. That is on top of the typical socialization within their own neighborhoods.
Some of the major positive aspects is that the kids learn at their own pace, they tend to learn MORE because of that, they develop research and critical thinking skills that many public school counterparts don't or can't for whatever reasons as well.
My daughter was homeschooled through her middle school years and to this day is still reaping the benefits through high school, which she chose to enter last year.
 
nbcrusader said:
many homeschoolers network, so that kids to get socialization and exposure to different teachers.

I would say it is not for everyone. It takes the right kids, and the right parents, to homeschool.
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I was home-schooled for 2nd - 5th grade. We were in a homeschooler's network in our community. I wasn't crazy about it at the time, but I think it was very helpful, looking back at my entire education experience. I remember being so worried in the 5th grade about not being able to go to prom if I was home-schooled through high school :laugh: I've also had the experience of private and public school - none of these environments was ideal. I have some of my most horrific memories from my private Christian school experience.

I'm not sure there is an ideal schooling situation - but my home-school experience did help me to be a better student in a 'real' school environment later on.
 
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