LAfrequentflyer

Nope...Its working just fine...


-LAFF

Spartan07

BTW, I sat down and watched that video. It was an extremely good report but I have to say, it was pretty damn disturbing. Even for someone like myself that is a product of a sub-standard public school system.

Oh, And that South Carolina lady was a total moron. Unfortunately however, a lot of the teachers presented themselves as complete idiots...

ppilot

I don't want to insult anyone here, BUT...

All I have to do is spend time with my sister's children (all home schooled) and then spend time with my brother's (public schooled) to know that home schooling is not a good idea.

Spartan07

Unfortunately I'm starting to believe that neither approach is good for my child... <sigh> looks like I'm moving to Belgium...

JC Dude

We are in our fourth year of homeschooling and wouldn't change a thing. If my kids were in regular school I wouldn't see them hardly at all. It also affords the luxury of being able to go places easier and not worrying about a normal school schedule. School just happens to be where you are. Its great for an airline pilots schedule.

As far as social skills go, as long as you don't lock them in the house and keep them involved sports, church, etc. they'll get all they need socially. As for the claims of homeschoolers being half crazy, how many times have you heard of someone in a homeschool going postal in all sorts of ways. And maybe the kids act like loners not because they don't want to be apart of a group, but because the group is the one with "we're above you attitude".

Just a thought.

JC Dude

nagginpilotwife

Homeschooling your kids can be a great thing especially for a family with a pilot. Although there are some downsides. Think about it, DH is out for god knows how many days, mom is with the kids 24/7 non-stop. DH comes home and wants to relax sorry we have all the kids at home. To be a good homeschooling parent you must do tons of research, curriculum, child learning styles (if you have more than one kids you will probably have more that one learning style) and state laws just to name a few. HSLDA.org (website for Homeschooling laws)
We homeschooled up until this year because my dh is a first year FO. So you know he is getting paid peanuts, so I have to work to make ends meet, plus we have 2 kids that need services which insurance at the new job won't cover but they are offered at the school.
Socialization if homeschooling is done properly is not going to be an issue. There are homeschooling groups, co-ops, sports, etc... My kids often complained that they had too much to do and just wanted to hang at home and play video games.
Oh, anyone that wants to say the American school systems are good is full of crap. One thing we do is host exchange students from around the world. All these kids come here in shock because they don't even do a fraction of the work that they did in their home countries. Example my exchange student from Germany who is with us right now is taking senior classes and blowing his classmates away. He is taking AP Calculus, AP English, etc... Oh, and he is supposed to be taking sophomore classes.
If you want your kids to have the best education, go fly international and put them in schools in Europe, South Korea, or Japan. We have hosted students from all of theses countries and they are brilliant kids. I am hoping dh gets to go international some day for this very reason but my kids will probably graduate by the time this happens.

Speed

I am a career pilot (27+ years). My wife and I have home schooled our 3 children. 2 are graduating from college this year. One will be starting with a firm that is paying him more than I made last year. The other is attending school in Europe on a scholarship and will be going to grad school. We have one more at home. Home schooling requires a serious commitment from both parents, but it is something that is within the reach of anyone who has just that, a commitment. Personally, I believe that the social and age stratification that occurs in the public school is just as much of a hazard as that of social isolation among home schooled students. There are endless opportunities for home schoolers to have social interaction, including interaction with those outside their own personal demographic. My children, for example, were always comfortable in the company of adults and enjoyed interacting with adults. I am convinced that my children are less concerned with group conformity than many others of their age. One of the reasons we chose to home school was to give them the opportunity to think for themselves. Like some of the others on this forum, I also have been around many home school families. The vast majority that I know (I would say 90%) give their children a superior education, including social experiences and experiences in the world that are beyond the scope of a public school education. I have also known some that gave their children very little education. That is unfortunate, but it is also possible to get a poor education in the U.S. public schools. It was, in fact, the poor quality of our own area's schools that first led us to try home school. I am thankful that we have the freedom and opportunity to choose among public, private or home school in this country. It isn't for everyone, in fact it probably isn't the best choice for the majority, but it works well for the majority of those who choose to do it.

Mike-Air

I heard that public schools in Canada score much better grade averages than private schools in the U.S.

Bug Smasher

In a previous life, I was a sports/education reporter for a small town weekly newspaper. By the time I gave up and came back to aviation, it seemed I was spending more time in the classroom than many students and teachers.

Now I see why parents base relocation decisions upon the school districts. Locally, one notable school district was redrawn and instantly a hundred people who moved expressly to live in that school's discrict, were stuck in the substandard school's district. They made all possible efforts to ensure their children had the best education, and the local government/school board shot them in the foot.

I tell that story to explain this: You're in a great position, as a pilot, to either homeschool or enroll your kid in a private school. Think about it - you start talking about the revolutionary war? Non-rev up to new england and let the kid see some of the places where it happened.. Geography? Move the classroom to europe for a few days.

My best friend was a DAL 76-ER captain and he hauled his boy all over the world - the private school he was in had no problem granting him off days for these adventures. Public schools have no leeway to do this kind of stuff...

My 0.02.

MAGNUM!!

I think I'm going to private school my kid. I'd love to homeschool (I wasn't), but like the previous poster indicated, it takes a HUGE commitment. I have zero doubt that I could educate my kid in all the disciplines much better than any public school system.

One thing everyone should realize: anti-homeschoolers trot out tons of bad examples. Most of these examples are people that homeschool due to the inability to have kids in public school. Research the examples. Many are due to parents inability to even GET their kids to school every day or to keep their kids in school...as a result, they pull kids out of school (rather than have them expelled) and claim to "homeschool." Slackass parents, not committed parents. Those are easy examples for the "homeschoolers are social morons" crowd.

I went to a great public school and then USAFA, but many on this board claim me and my classmates are social idiots because we went to a public university. I guess you can't please everyone. Anyway, unless you live in one of a very, very, very , very select few public school districts in America, I think homeschool or private school is the way to go. At least that way you have some level of accountability with the faculty.