SkyHigh

Homeschooling is sweeping the nation. People are choosing to abandon the public school system in favor of learning at home. School districts are in danger of loosing funding. Colleges and universities are beginning to prefer homeschooled children due to their mature and educationally dedicated attitude. Homeschooled people are beginning to make themselves known on the business front as valuable employees with a solid work ethic. In the past homescholing was considered to be the fringe element of the lunatic religious right. No one considered the possibility that homeschooling could be a superior form of education and now it seems that the tide of public opinion is changing in this matter.

Teachers are alarmed at the thought of the general public teaching their own children. What is next? Will the general public decide that they can fly their own airliners? In California the teachers union is taking legal steps to prevent people from homeschooling.

Homeschooling. Good or Bad?

Sjyhigh

jungle

Homeschooling is a wonderful effort by concerned parents who desire to be removed from the iron grip of government school monopoly and some of the disasterous results it has wrought.
The monopoly will resist efforts to break free, whether it is in the form of homeschooling or vouchers to allow individual choice of competitive alternatives.
The problem with a monopoly is that it removes the need for competition on either economic or performance criteria. With some large public school systems demonstrating a 25% graduation level, it is long past time to seek alternates to the monopoly.

Booker

Oh, this will be good. I try not to get involved in the Internet debates, but my answer is that it depends. It depends on the parents, the student, and the curriculum used. In the right hands and environment, it can be great. Other times it can be the worst option available. Example: I was in a private school through third grade, public through eighth, and home schooled after that. I haven't yet become a sociopath, but I did choose to become a pilot, so how smart can I be?

The Juice

I love how parents feel they are qualified to be a teacher. Home schooling deprives children from important social interaction skills and learning how to cope with others.

stinsonjr

My wife and I are actually struggling with this decision now. Our daughter is extremely intelligent (I know, everyones kid is "gifted" - but ours really is. We are not those people that have a vested interest in this - we just want her to be happy and healthy). Point is, she is freakishly smart. We have put her in the most rigorous private school in the city and they still moved her up two grades in math. Even at that, she is completely bored. Her latest Iowa Basic Test scores came back and she scored in the 99th percentile in every category and her grade equivalent measures were all 11,12,and 13th grade (she is 11 and in 5th grade). The school has put her into the Duke talent program and now they are pushing us for IQ testing, etc.

She has some social issues with kids in her own age/class range. She does well with the kids in her math class because they are older, and she has always gravitated toward the older kids. We have been asked to consider homeschooling and other educational tracks simply because we can customize it and move it at a faster pace which she needs. We are torn about this because it is the most important decision we can make for her and we don't want to blow it. Also, neither my wife and I are trained educators.

So, homeschooling may be an option for us, but we are not sold yet. The fact that we have the option is nice though. If my daughter were stuck in a public school, at her grade level, she would be miserable.

Outlaw2097

It comes down to social skills.

You cant really learn those at home.

.02, and leaving it at that.

SkyHigh

We live out in the country. As a result the bus ride to and from school was freakishly long. Our kids would get on the bus at 7:30AM and then come home at 4:45PM. Then they had a night of homework to look forward to. They put in a longer workday than I did.

Two years ago my wife declared that she wanted to homeschool our kids. I strongly protested. I told her that our kids would become social freaks. I held the position that they would fall behind scholastically. Our extended family echoed the same things and harshly criticized my wife for wanting to leave the structure of the educational factory in favor of the wild west that is considered to be homeschooling.

Eventually I relented under the stipulation that my wife use some kind of outside created, well known, respected and structured program. Here it is nearly two years later and my attitude has totally changed. My oldest would have been in his second year of middle school by now. All our fiends are starting tom have problems with their middle school age kids while ours is the same. He is not being exposed to the swill of bad attitudes and rebellious group think that his peer group is in school.

All my children jump into their studies at 9:00AM and are usually done by noon. The older ones help the younger ones and all have advanced well beyond where they would have been if they were in public school. Other side benefits have been that they are becoming self starters and independent learners and thinkers. They are not limited in subjects of study. Overall the first year was difficult and the second started out better but was still a struggle and now things are smoothing out and becoming normal and peaceful.

I really like being able to spend more time with our kids and am a daily active participant in their learning. Just yesterday I was left in charge of teaching our kids and they wanted to know more about World War two so I showed them the movie "Saving Private Ryan". They were speechless. Just kidding.

Skyhigh

SkyHigh

My wife belongs to various home school and play groups. Besides that there are sports, friends, swim lessons and plenty of other social outlets for them. I too was worried about social aspects of home schooling but now I can see that our children are receiving plenty of high quality social interactions from adults and from other children that we know and approve of.

The only thing that is missing from the public school experience are the bad elements.

Skyhigh

Corny357

Exactly and exactly. I'll give the parent doing the home-schooling the benefit of the doubt on this one and say that he/she has the ability to be a good teacher. Not likely, but fine, I'll entertain the idea to make my point...

Ok great, good teacher and the kid learns his math and his history, etc... That's wonderful - he can study and do homework. But let me tell you..I'm fresh out of high school (first year of college) and going to school is a fundamental part of a child's development. If you home school a kid, that kid will be socially awkward for a very, very long time. He/she will not have had a "normal" high school experience, and he/she will have missed out.

I've come across some home schooled kids in the past, and they just did not know how to interact with other kids their age. I felt bad because you could tell they just felt awkward around others.

SkyHigh

It is my understanding that in many parts of our nation there are no specific teacher educational requirements. Anyone with any four year college degree can become a teacher even if they know nothing about actually being able to teach.

If that is the case then why can't anyone with at least a college education be just as effective as a proper public school teacher?

Skyhigh