Home schooling -- why is it attractive to strange people?

[LordMaul]

<< Home schooling worked for Lord_Maul and I.

I'm not weird.

hmm, Maul is tho.... >>



Hey, you bastichx0r! I'm NOT weird! NOT ME!! No sir. I'm perfectly fine. In every way. No problems here. better than most, some would say. Not insane, noooo....not a bit! In fact, I'm quite sane! Believe it or not, I've ALWAYS been sane! Every bit of me! Yessirree, sane is the way to be! Insane is bad. Yes, very bad. One doesn't want to be insane. I prefer to call it, uh, happy. yes. You don't want to be "happy". people don't like it. No, you don't...you want to be....

 

[777php]

Part of schooling is the social aspect, it is not all academic. I feel that it is important for young children to learn how to interact with other kids their age.

 

[wQuay]

My dad decided to homeschool after teaching in the public schools. He felt that both the educational standards and moral values of the system were unacceptable.

 

[UltraQuiet]

For you people who were homeschooled and say things like " I'm a great person, I'm this, I'm that, blah,blah,blah " I'm sorry, your opinion is just not very objective and really counts for nothing in this thread. It is as funny as the high schoolers here who bad mouth the schools. What's that based on? Their objective opinion and years of experience with different school systems. Give me a break. I'm sure all you home-schooled people are great people. All anyone has to do is ask you. Legends in your own minds.

 

[Quad]

 

[Ameesh]

Lord Maul i think people who are against homeschooling are because of your exact situation, you hate people. that is not normal, you'll never be able to function in society and thats probably not a good thing.

 

[JCobra14]

Although i have been educated outside the public school system and am lumped as a "homeschooler", the term is really an incorrect one. I spend less time in my home than most of the public school students I know.

Being homeschooled has allowed me to pursue many opportunities that would've been otherwise closed to me, At 15 years old, i have several years experience in graphic/web design, as well as consumer electronics repair/service.

I spend a good portion of my day in the REAL world, not only interacting and communicating with customers, but doing alot of electronic troubleshooting work. Being friendly, honest, and helpful has made many a sale.

I was a public school student until the 6th grade, since that point I've come to know MORE people my own age, and will have an opportunity to take college courses next year in my free time.

Academically it can be a very good learning environment, allowing me to focus on the area's where i most need improvement.

Homeschooling isn't for everyone, and I know personally several cases where is has failed. But it can and does work.

I test well in excess of the national average, there have been many scientific studies showing this trend. Homeschooling is growing every year, i am constantly meeting people new to the "movement" for lack of a better term. Horrible experiences in the public school system are the norm.

 

[Atlantean]

<< Ummm... Home schooling does work. Home schooled kids get higher SAT scores than kids who attend public schools. >>


Thats cause there are less kids that are home schooled. All the really dumb kids are sent to public schools to drag down the average
I would never homeschool my kids, if I ever have them, and I don't think that kids should be homeschooled, because it seems to me that they don't develop the social skills that one develops in school, or they don't interact with people that are the same age group as them as often as they should. Just my opinion.

 

[Isla]

Well, let's see.

My children were in the public school system until fairly recently. I even worked at the same school they attended one year, as I was preparing to work on a MA in Special Ed. (I dropped out due to an unexpected pregnancy).

I can send my kids to critically overcrowdedpublic schools where they get spit on by other students for no reason except that they don't like the way they look...

I can send my exceptionally bright, creative children to schools that value conformity above all else (heck, when you've got 30-40% more kids there than you were built to have, conformity is all you can hope for)....

I can go out and get a full time job so I can afford to send my kids to private schools in my city... but of course the closest ones are about 45 minutes away without factoring in rush hour traffic... heck, I could get a job TEACHING at one of those private schools but again, I'd be spending a good part of my life in traffic.

I AM qualified to teach my children and can enrich them far more than my community's schools can, so that is what I am doing at present.


Frankly, I never expected to be home schooling my kids. I hoped that the taxes I have been paying would help to provide for a decent education for my kids... but the truth is, at this point, the public school system in my county (which is in Florida) cannot serve my children properly. Some people are home schooling right now because it is the best option. available... not because they are 'strange', unless by 'strange' you mean above average in intelligence. My children also have active social lives, participate regularly in cultural activities in the community, and enjoy an enriched environment every day. And no, we are not church people. We don't go to church at all, as a matter of fact. Not that there is anything wrong with that per se, but it's not our thing.


<---would teach as a profession but the system in my county is so pathetic there is no way I would subject myself and my family to that kind of stress at this point in our lives.

 

[NetworkDad]

<<
Frankly, I never expected to be home schooling my kids. I hoped that the taxes I have been paying would help to provide for a decent education for my kids... but the truth is, at this point, the public school system in my county (which is in Florida) cannot serve my children properly. Some people are home schooling right now because it is the best option. available... not because they are 'strange', unless by 'strange' you mean above average in intelligence. My children also have active social lives, participate regularly in cultural activities in the community, and enjoy an enriched environment every day. And no, we are not church people. We don't go to church at all, as a matter of fact. Not that there is anything wrong with that per se, but it's not our thing.


<---would teach as a profession but the system in my county is so pathetic there is no way I would subject myself and my family to that kind of stress at this point in our lives. >>



It's nice to see parents that take an interest and do what's BEST for their kids. Kudos to you! I wish my wife had the knowledge to do it, or i might consider it myself.

 

[ProviaFan]

A lot depends on the reason parents decide to home school their kids. Some do it because they can (or think they can) provide a better education than a public school could. Others do it only for religious reasons, to "be separate from the world" (that is from the Bible, btw, and I could go into a long discussion about why it doesn't mean isolating one's self from the internet, TV, popular music, etc, but I won't). Suffice it to say that some parents take this _way_ off the deep end, and then their kids feel totally dumb when they try to interact with others (perhaps in a job or on these forums, for example).
It was sort of like this for me, since I've been homeschooled since 2nd grade, and I'm in 9th grade now. Anyway, once I got a decent computer and had internet access, I began the major job of catching up on all the other knowledge that I'd missed out on, for example, the only music I knew of was classical and old western (the former is great, the latter sucks). The music situation was basically because my parents seem to have the "independent Baptist" (if you don't know what that means, just understand they have "traditional" views on music and lots of other stuff) view on music, and home schooling was a way for them to force me to have that view. These days I have much broader tastes, and I couldn't do without my headphones.
Another thing is that I think I have trouble with not being able to communicate well with other people; that is probably because I rarely get any interaction with other kids, and that skill are one thing that can not be made up for with an extensive vocabulary (which 90% of the people you would talk to would not know what you're saying).
So, to conclude it is in my opinion that there are advantages and disadvantages, and more or less of the former and latter are dependent on the reason that the parents do the homeschooling.
Crap, now this looks like a meaningless spaghetti-style paragraph arrangement, but oh well, I'm not going back and editing it like an essay.

 

[RossMAN]

I'm sure that homeschooling is effective but all the home schooled students I've met are %$#! weirdos.

Not that I stereotype or anything

 

[Ih8canada]

Shantau when you have smaller numbers if you all do good then of course you are gonna do better than the majority but if you take the top 25% of Public's then publics come out on top.

 

[Isla]

Thanks, NccOps.

This wasn't my plan... my plan was to teach, just like my mother did before me. But, when I saw what my kids and I were up against, I decided to explore the alternatives.

We are planning to send them back to public school next year because supposedly things will be better due to new schools that have been built to relieve the overcrowding.

I will go back to volunteering in the classroom (read: being visible at the school on a regular basis) and paying close attention to what kind of education my kids are getting. If I'm not satisfied, we will explore our options again.

BTW, there are on-line schools that are excellent... not cheap (about 4K a year), but a good alternative you might consider. All your wife would need to do is supervise and see to it that your kids got outside and could participate in regular social/community activities!

Best Wishes~
Isla

 

[ProviaFan]

It seems like this thread has grown a lot since I started my previous reply. Since you all reminded me of a few things I forgot, here goes again...


<< Being homeschooled has allowed me to pursue many opportunities that would've been otherwise closed to me, At 15 years old, i have several years experience in graphic/web design, as well as consumer electronics repair/service. >>


Yes, being homeschooled has also allowed me the opportunity to be a webmaster for the church that my parents and I go to. Also the ability to have the time to work with MySQL, Apache, and all kinds of professional level programs in the afternoon is cool.


<< I was a public school student until the 6th grade, since that point I've come to know MORE people my own age, and will have an opportunity to take college courses next year in my free time. >>


It's people like you, the perfect success story of homeschooling, who make me feel so sorry for myself sometimes. I know very few people at all, and it is a rara avis that I get to meet my few friends in person (most of the time I just get to chat with them over irc or email).


<< Academically it can be a very good learning environment, allowing me to focus on the area's where i most need improvement. >>


This can be true, and is true for me also, but sometimes home can have more distractions than a public school.


<< Homeschooling isn't for everyone, and I know personally several cases where is has failed. >>


So do I.


<< But it can and does work. >>


Yes, it does work for some.

One other area that has been bad for me is the lack of any form of reasonable amounts of exercise. As there are no sports for me to do, I must resort to running around the ponds in the back yard, and playing basketball on the gravel driveway next to the house.
There would not be quite this amount of difficulty in this area if the local support group had a different age distribution, but all the kids there are really young, so all teh games are oriented toward their level.
Also, there is no band, so I have to resort to using Vegas Audio to mix tracks I record on the guitar and piano. A minor inconvenience, but still no fun.

 

[weezergirl]

when i was growing up i was living in a neighborhood with a bunch of home schooled kids. They were fine interacting with each other and me (i went to public school) but once they hit HS, their parents jetted them off to public school. some of them did ok, some had a hard time adjusting and making friends. i don't really think it was the fact that they were home schooled tho because a lot of times by that age everybody has their own little cliques and it's hard to break in. they were cool kids tho and very happy. i think high school can be hard for any kid if they are an introvert or shy. it doesn't matter if u were homeschooled or not.

and as for kids who are homeschooled and having social skills. u can still obtain social skills without going to school. there's always the neighborhood kids u get to interact with after school and also most of the families i knew went to church every sunday where they met other kids as well. I think kids who are homeschooled are actually lucky. they get a superiour education (usually from what i saw) and don't have to deal with the crap that hs has to offer. the rest of your life is NOT like high school.....

oh and most kids i know who are homeschooled did a lot of extracurricular activities like sports/music/etc. they met other kids through that as well. and as for computers....most kids teach themselves nowadays, the teachers in school are so old and backwards the kids in the class prolly know more themselves.

 

[tcsenter]

<< The social skills we're talking about is not just the ability to 'say no'. It's the ability to socialize, interact with, get along with, work with, relate with [etc] their peers. Although your parents can provide the foundations for you to learn this and learn it well, it is NOT something they can teach you -- it's something you have to learn from experiencing. >>

LMAO! Yeah, home-schooled folks are the most disfunctional citizens known. Most hang-out by the street corners and sell drugs, carry illegal firearms, run in street gangs, tagging walls and street signs, always unemployed and have extensive criminal records....oh, wait a minute. I guess those are 'socialized' inner-city kids who have "learned" to deal with all those interpersonal and peer issues. lol!

I mean, who WOULDN'T want to send their child off to mingle with goodness who knows who's kids so they can learn every vulgar expression known, be pressured to take drugs, learn that school is a popularity contest or that you're not "cool" unless you're sexually active, learn their parents are 'stupid' and shouldn't be listened to, that their parents are "wrong" if they do not let them have the run of the house and neighborhood, not to mention what a dozen 'activist' teachers are indoctrinating them to believe? Where is the downside?

Children learn how to become adults FROM adults, not their 'peers', and parents are 'supposed' to be preparing their children for adulthood, not to have 25 year-olds who act like they're still in high school (remind you of anyone?). There is NO better model or mentor for children than adults.

 

[AndrewR]

I AM qualified to teach my children and can enrich them far more than my community's schools can, so that is what I am doing at present

And from all indications, you can and are doing a good job at it because you care about your children's education and are not concerned about all the "evil influences" which seems to be the norm around here. You point out some very valid reasons to consider home schooling, when there are no alternatives, but I still worry about a limitation on a child's social development. How do you ensure that your children learn from both good and bad experiences? I think most of the people on this board can point to some bad experiences in their school years from which they've drawn some valuable life lessons. It's often the unpleasant experiences which teach the most, wouldn't you say (within reason, of course)?

 

[CJZ]

It's difficult to measure the success or failure of home schooling. You can't simply measure the difference in SAT scores between home-schooled and public/private school students (major sampling bias).

That said, I don't know if the stereotype of the "weirdo" home-schooled kid is true. I only know of one guy who was home-schooled and he seems pretty well adjusted.

 

[yllus]

Disclosure: Twenty-year-old male graduate of the Toronto, Canada public school system here.

The four family friends of mine I can remember who have been home-school since birth can all be summed up with one word: Odd. Behavioural and social patterns are distinctly different from the norm (being regular public schoolers). Considering most of Toronto's high schools are quite decent (though usually badly overcrowded), this is a very BAD thing.

I understand the point of home schooling being an attractive option on the basis of better attention being spent on the child, more focus on topics the student prefers...but the responses by the home-schoolers in this thread alone is pretty worrisome. You never got along with the other children. Never fit in. Didn't take part in sports or clubs or...

Doesn't this all just fit under the category of "didn't get along with the rest of the world"? And the answer to this is to take the child out of his surroundings and isolate him to some greater extent?

Growing up from the beginning with kids in my neighbourhood meant a damned lot to me. A lot of the kids I fought bitterly with in grade six were great friends by the time I graduated grade thirteen in high school (don't ask, it's a weird kick in this province). Knew the way to many of their houses by heart, their telephone numbers, their parents names...in a sense it was networking started early. More importantly, we all learned to get along with each other - black, white, brown, asian, it still makes little difference to me - something that one's parents might not help be perfectly impartial upon.

With respect to Isla and other parents who are looking/looked to home schooling for their children, I think you're making a very bad decision. Overcrowded schools are hardly a good enough reason to take the child home - it's obvious your child is the #1 priority to you, so consider moving the entire family to a district with better public schools. Or just let him/her DEAL with the situation and supplement where needed!

There's so much that you can really never give a home-schooled child. Who will teach your child the dirty little jokes that let him laugh along with his peers? The naughty words you'd blush at saying to him/her now? Will he/she pick up your sense of humour or one, let's face it, that's more common to his generation? Pickup sports games after and in between classes...flirting with the opposite sex... Crass as you might think it, it's required knowledge that he will have to learn on a curve later on...much later than everyone else. Be extremely careful when you consider trading the academic benefits of a home schooling for the social benefits of the public system.

 

[petrek]

To the social aspect, I know brothers who were home schooled. One is extremely outgoing and managed a computer store, and the other one is fairly shy and has very limited computer skills.

Beater, I think you meant Hutterites, Huldamuns, or the Amish as opposed to Mennonites. I live in a Mennonite community, and am surrounded (within 100 miles) of numerous other mennonite communities and it is far from sheltered. Sure the town is dry, but the bar is about 10 metres from the town limits and there's no law stopping anyone from bringing booze back into town. The high school has just as big a problem with drugs and alcohol as any big city school. Numerous big grow operations (1000 plus plants) have been shut down close to the town (within half hour drive). Whereas there are a couple of huldamun and hutterite communities close by which have their own schools and for the most part keep to themselves and farm the land. And incidentally the community I live in has the highest per capita amount of millionares in Canada.

 

"Now, that's an evocative title, I know, but it's based on empirical evidence from this area of the country."

Indeed a provacative title, my Lord.

His subject asks that thou presentest the evidence thy speakest so loudly of. So, where's your supposedly empirical evidence, hon'?

I submit to you that your argument is ridiculously flawed. For it were true, then you must carefully explain the history of education from whence cometh scholars. They had private tutors and correspondences.

Yes, time has changed, but this fact negates your claim that such is done only by strange people. I sure am not a religious fanatic. In fact, I'm agnostic, yet any kids I have must either be home-schooled, sent to a private school or have a private tutor. I shalt not subject my kids to the despicable conditions of public school education. The morals of my children is very important to me . . . just as important as the academic aspect. I do not need a bunch of no-name people subjecting my kids to brainwashing. I don't mind a school that just teaches etiquette, but one that crosses the line and starts to invade my kids' private life and degrade their morals don't deserve even a minute of their presence. Even more importantly, whilst the morals is continually deteriorating, the academic standing of schools has worsened with teachers no longer teaching as they should.

I'm positive I will be a much better teacher to my kids. If social skills is your concern, perhaps you should inspect what your supposed samples are lacking. Maybe they failed to remedy the social aspect. To conclude on such basis that any home-schooled kid would suffer such is simply missing the point and begs the question. There are so many ways to remedy that aspect that might be lacking. Additionally, I'm a firm believer in human behaviour having primarily traits. So, if such kid comes out that way, it is primarily traits in my view. I can point to you as many kids who grew up attending public schools but are just as weird. What the environment does is either help worsen it significantly or improve it moderately.

If thou callest such strange, then prayest thee it be so. It bothereth me not.