Homeschooling

[EscoLehGo]

There seems to be an increasing trend where I'm from where more and more parents are pulling their kids out of public school or never putting them in to begin with and are opting to teach them at home instead. I know that when I have kids I'm sending them to public school so they can get used to how weird it is out there at an early age like I did when I was growing up. I loved going to public school, the rivalries with the other schools, the fights, the drugs, the sex that probably shouldn't have happened so early, it all helped shape me into an adjusted adult and set the stage for moving on to college. I feel like if I didn't have those experiences I might be less socially developed than I am now and maybe would have had more trouble making new friends when I went off to college but I understand that some homeschoolers network and have gatherings where they all socialize so I could be wrong.

 

Are any of you homeschooled or were you homeschooled when you were a kid? What was the reason? Did you feel like you missed out on anything?

 

It's completely a parent's right to homeschool their child if they so desire I'm just worried about what some of these people might be teaching their kids especially since I'm in the heart of the bible belt. I don't trust my fellow southerners to not just hand their children the Bible and circulate their curriculum around it which could produce brainwashed Jesus Warriors that I might have to battle one day. Not that public education in America is so great by comparison, I'm a product of it, I should know. I learned a lot more on my own from curious independent research than I did formally in a public high school, the brunt of what I learned there was more on a social and moral level than anything else.

[lil weasel]

The benefits of home schooling are:

No governmental dogma.

No Religious dogma.

No ‘rubbing shoulders’ with the riff-raff.

No socializing with the hoi-polloi.

No social acclimation.

Personalization of the Family cult/clan dogma/creed without opposing input.

 

[Typhus]

Home school kids will likely turn out extremely pampered and shielded from reality.

School teaches children from an early age both the cruelty of the social hierarchy and the necessity of conforming in order to fit in and escape persecution by ones peer group. A tough lesson, but a necessary one.

My point is, the reasons why parents may want to take children out of school are in actual fact important, valid reasons to keep them in.

[Chunkyman]

While government education leaves half of the students barely literate and completely brain dead in most areas, most parents aren't much better (probably because they're just as useless too).

 

Although I think homeschooling has much greater potential than what we have now.

[Fireman]

I recently talked to someone who was home-schooled:

 

 

Him:

What's the song at 0:21?

 

Me:

How can you not know that D:

The new MTV has no music I guess.

 

Him:

Yes, look at it everyone. Get a good long look! I am the monstrosity that has been churned out by the end game of home schooling. LOOK UPON ME AND QUAKE WITH FEAR FOR I HAVE NEVER WATCHED MTV AND HAVE NO FACEBOOK ACCOUNT!!! I really haven't watched MTV and have no facebook though... :C

 

Me:

That just makes you cool imo.

Except the home schooling, how does that work?

 

Him:

Home schooling sucks and when your teacher is your parent it's even worse. I am now in collage these days but I STILL can't do division or anything above arithmetic. My guess is I'm mentally scarred because my mom went ape sh*t the first time she was trying to teach me fractions and then she yelled at me about where the Six went and then she wrote a f*cking six on the wall and kept yelling till I got the right answer out of blindly guessing. Then she made me wipe the six she wrote off the wall.

 

Him:

Not really... I spent like an entire year not doing any school because my school work revolved around the Family dynamic. Where as in a school system there are far less conflicting components between the parent and teacher. To be clear I don't know a damn thing and am scarred to this day I still sometimes cry when I remember that moment so vividly. Home schooling in my opinion is a mistake and utter bullsh*t.

 

 

Still not sure if he was 100% serious. Makes some reasonable points though.

[Space Cowboy]

I don't really like idea of homeschooling, kids need to socialize with other people it's important part of growing up, of course not everyone is like that but it can effect kids in bad way. Also not every parent can teach his kids, but there are also bad teachers in normal schools. Sure in some aspects it's good thing but in overall normal school is better. I don't support this idea unless parents have good reason to choose homeschooling for their kids. If their kids have problems with their classmates like bullying etc. it would be better to move to other school imo instead of homeschooling.

[Triple Vacuum Seal]

Homeschooling usually creates unnecessary social hurdles for children. The last thing we need in today's generation of video game-addicted social outcasts is people who spent even more of their childhood at home. Social skills are crucial at a young age. It seems like fewer people these days develop their social intelligence as is.

[Finn 7 five 11]

Home school kids will likely turn out extremely pampered and shielded from reality.

School teaches children from an early age both the cruelty of the social hierarchy and the necessity of conforming in order to fit in and escape persecution by ones peer group. A tough lesson, but a necessary one.

My point is, the reasons why parents may want to take children out of school are in actual fact important, valid reasons to keep them in.

Nail-on-head.

 

Also kids who are homeschooled tend to miss out on a lot of things that parents decide they don't need to teach them, and then you get some pretty damn ignorant people. Even if the education system doesn't work all that well in some places, at least it's relatively consistent.

[K^2]

Unless one of your parents has Ph.D. in a hard science or engineering, and the other in humanities (art, history, literature...) you are not going to get an education while home schooled.

[ThunderSt0rm]

Homeschooling makes children have lack of social skills, most of them are really bad at conversations.

[Icarus]

Any person I've met who has been schooled at home has also been quite socially retarded.

 

Say what you will about public school, but at least you (should) learn the art of socializing there.

[Belaphron]

Parents have every right to take their children out of the terrible public schools. The whole schooling system should be privatized and people be given more choice where they send their kids.

[sivispacem]

Parents have every right to take their children out of the terrible public schools. The whole schooling system should be privatized and people be given more choice where they send their kids.

Right, because education isn't a service based on societal requirement, it's a commodity.

[SmellyJelly]

 

Homeschooling makes children have lack of social skills, most of them are really bad at conversations.

As opposed to all those public school folks who are quite good at having conversations?

 

I've only met one person who was homeschooled, my former coworker. He was smart but, while not necessarily socially awkward, annoying and a bit pretentious. Not all homeschooled kids turn out this way, though. Smart parents can teach their children more efficiently than public school teachers and groups of parents can socialize their children together. The main problem, in my opinion, is when scientifically illiterate parents use homeschooling to indoctrinate kids into pro-Christianity and anti-empirical beliefs.

 

 

Edited February 19, 2013 by SmellyJelly

[El Dildo]

 

The benefits of home schooling are:

No governmental dogma.

No Religious dogma.

No ‘rubbing shoulders’ with the riff-raff.

No socializing with the hoi-polloi.

No social acclimation.

Personalization of the Family cult/clan dogma/creed without opposing input.

LOL.

wow. your nonsense never fails to entertain. where to start... where to start...

let's start from the top.

 

1.) governmental dogma? first of all, I don't even know what that means. sounds like more of your fast & loose conspiracy theories.

public school agendas and curriculum are not created or set by the government. the government only tries to influence the minimum standardized test scores.

 

2.) religious dogma?? public schools cannot teach religion. we're talking about the US here. they don't even let kids pray in school (which is fine by me).

public schools have to separate church from state as much as any public organization. they cannot adhere to or formally support any specific religion. unless you're taking a class ON RELIGION, you'll never hear it mentioned in public school.

 

3.) riff raff? what the hell are you smoking?

public schools are public schools. 90% of all children will attend public school. is 90% of the population riff raff?? of course not. people of all stations - of all socioeconomic strata - attend public schools. you seem to be assuming that the only people who go to public school are poor/ignorant/white trash and that's just bullsh*t.

 

4.) socializing with hoi-polloi? do you even know what that phrase means?

hoi-polloi are the majority. since a majority of people go to public school, you think it's a bad thing to have to socialize with them? why? based on what? your own social insecurity? your argument is terrible.

 

5.) no social acclimation. you consider this a "benefit" ??

that makes no sense.

 

6.) "Personalization of the Family cult/clan dogma/creed without opposing input"

I literally have no idea what this means

[Typhus]

6.) "Personalization of the Family cult/clan dogma/creed without opposing input"

I literally have no idea what this means

I think he may be referring to a supposed promotion of the 'nuclear family' by the school system - extending to fixed gender roles.

For instance, this could mean that girls are encouraged to take cookery classes and boys are encouraged to get into sports.

 

I have seen no evidence of this myself - but I feel that parents are more to blame for such fixed concepts of what boys and girls should be like. For instance, the constant usage of the colour pink and the imagery of Disney princesses in childhood does a lot to influence how girls see themselves growing up and what they aspire to be.

 

Likwise, when growing up, boys who DON'T show an interest in sports are ostracised and isolated - because an interest in sports is seen by many fathers as a crucial sign of masculinity.

 

But, as I said, the school system is not to blame for this and neither are the parents fully at fault - as they merely regurgitate the attitudes and prejudices that have already been taught to them by their forebears.

[Radoonhagaydoon]

Oh BTW - Homeschooling is also done by a TEACHER that comes into your house and not always your parent. But online schooling is the same as going to school or homeschool.

 

All three have flaws.

[Sneakerhead.]

Oh BTW - Homeschooling is also done by a TEACHER that comes into your house and not always your parent. But online schooling is the same as going to school or homeschool.

 

All three have flaws.

I take online schooling.

It's great, I am like 2+ weeks ahead (You can finish your work early) have good grades, and can still talk to other people. (We meet up like every two weeks at a school)

And not only that, but it gives me alot of time to do what I want. (Hence why I am on GTAF so much. )

[FAH-Q]

I never understood homeschooling. What about all the potential future people/connections your child could obtain in a public school?

[Secura]

I never understood homeschooling. What about all the potential future people/connections your child could obtain in a public school?

Meh, public schooling will be dying or dead by 2040.

[FAH-Q]

I never understood homeschooling. What about all the potential future people/connections your child could obtain in a public school?

Meh, public schooling will be dying or dead by 2040.

With everything else in this world it seems, I wish I was born during the 70's.

[EscoLehGo]

 

I never understood homeschooling. What about all the potential future people/connections your child could obtain in a public school?

Meh, public schooling will be dying or dead by 2040.

Do you mean in a literal sense or a metaphorical one?

 

Edit: Also, for some reason I thought there would be more homeschoolers here than have posted, maybe they're just over represented in YouTube comments because......well.......they're at home.

[orbitalraindrops]

There was a kid who was home schooled up until secondary school when he joined ours. Some weird vibes from him, also very very right wing.

[crispypistonx8]

I've been subject to home schooling,private and public. I know others that have also been educated by there parents and public/private school.

All have there ups an downs depending on the parents themselves homeschooling my not even be an option,for instance one of my closest friends was "home schooled" and his parents didn't teach him a damn thing, from what he told me his father was abusive and mother un-concerned. in other words they didn't do there job as parents an as a result he will never have a good career or the option to attend college. Don't get me wrong he's vary intelligent but has no high school diploma /certificate of completion to prove it.

Luckily i fared better with parents who where really acceptable at teaching regardless of the BS I've put them though, they even tutored my sister during her high school years.

 

Then there's the private schools, the short time i attended i hated it. The students and staff there where less than friendly or helpful because i was lower middle class. i only managed to make two friend the whole time, they where cool to me at first but after a awhile they would jump at the chance to stab me in the back. Dress code was a good idea but far to oppressive & strict you couldn't even wear boots or any shoe that wasn't white... between that and the mind numbing, hyper redundant religious curriculum that was literally forcing kids into having no personal opinion about creationism(just because they had enough Bible thumping to last them two lifetimes) or Darwinism. To top it all off we had a buss that comes to our house to pic me up (they did it for all the kids in the school), well it was extremely embarrassing because my house was small and old compared to all there gated, huge homes the size of mansions surrounded by well groomed gardens. Idk where I'm going with this just believe it was the least pleasant educational experience I've had.

 

Everyone knows how bassackward public is so i don't feel the need to elaborate.

[Secura]

I never understood homeschooling. What about all the potential future people/connections your child could obtain in a public school?

Meh, public schooling will be dying or dead by 2040.

Do you mean in a literal sense or a metaphorical one?

 

Edit: Also, for some reason I thought there would be more homeschoolers here than have posted, maybe they're just over represented in YouTube comments because......well.......they're at home.

Both, it's already started its decline. You can see it wherever you look, as education as whole only really existed at first for the rich and wealthy, that's were the "Knowledge = Power" saying comes from, if you were rich you could afford to send both yourself and your children to schools where you'd learn more, therefore only the rich and powerful were intelligent.

 

This changed as information lost its price and became a free-er thing switching from it being mandatory for white boys, then white girls and then all races and genders. Now in the current age, the digital one information is so instant and immediate that a lot of what the school system teaches you simply can't compete with what you can learn in a five second Google search.

 

There's a difference obviously between learning stuff in school and off of a phone but as information and the ease of getting it progresses further the less and less schooling will be needed. In the future education may still exist, but mandatory public education ? Hell no, that'll be dead by the time I'm in my forties.

 

I suppose a great way of showing how the digital age has improved the ease of us not needing to learn lessons that they'd teach you in school would be when you get lots. In my primary school they'd have a lesson called PHSE, or SEAL or something along those lines, in them they'd discuss things like what to do if you were lost in public. You can't get lost in public now, as long as you've access to a phone or some sort of electronically device (and let's face it, unless you're deep in the wilderness you're going to have some kind of internet connection) you only need to use the GPS on your phone and you're home.

 

This will be further expanded upon in time and it won't be long now until people start to realise that public education is a waste of money and will soon be put on the back burner, mark my words in thirty to forty years public education will be dead.

[Creed Bratton]

 

Unless one of your parents has  Ph.D. in a hard science or engineering, and the other in humanities (art, history, literature...) you are not going to get an education while home schooled.

You need to possess the necessary knowledge in order to teach effectively. That's why we have professional teachers and professors.

 

The thing is, people with that kind of knowledge aren't stupid enough to homeschool their children. Home schooled kids are definitely at a disadvantage.

 

 

@ Belaphron: Getting rid of public schools is a terrible idea unless everyone in your country has enough money to pay for private education. Public schools themselves aren't the problem. It's the fact that they are under-financed and in some countries terribly organized. If more money was poured into public schools, and some smart people were brought there to organize the entire system of learning, kids would receive a better education.

 

But some people don't want that. They hate the idea that a poor kid might have the same chance of learning and succeeding in life as their privileged kid.

Edited February 20, 2013 by GTAvanja

[trip]

 

Say what you will about public school, but at least you (should) learn the art of socializing there.

And there you have it. School is not so much about the academics learned, but how to learn. Most important is learning how to work in and around different people.

 

And hey!!! It doesn't even have to be public school. Private schools are still [pretty much] the same social setting.

[Kifflom112]

As annoying as public school can be, I'd surely hate to be home schooled. Thats just meh imho.

[EscoLehGo]

I never understood homeschooling. What about all the potential future people/connections your child could obtain in a public school?

Meh, public schooling will be dying or dead by 2040.

Do you mean in a literal sense or a metaphorical one?

 

Edit: Also, for some reason I thought there would be more homeschoolers here than have posted, maybe they're just over represented in YouTube comments because......well.......they're at home.

Both, it's already started its decline. You can see it wherever you look, as education as whole only really existed at first for the rich and wealthy, that's were the "Knowledge = Power" saying comes from, if you were rich you could afford to send both yourself and your children to schools where you'd learn more, therefore only the rich and powerful were intelligent.

 

This changed as information lost its price and became a free-er thing switching from it being mandatory for white boys, then white girls and then all races and genders. Now in the current age, the digital one information is so instant and immediate that a lot of what the school system teaches you simply can't compete with what you can learn in a five second Google search.

 

There's a difference obviously between learning stuff in school and off of a phone but as information and the ease of getting it progresses further the less and less schooling will be needed. In the future education may still exist, but mandatory public education ? Hell no, that'll be dead by the time I'm in my forties.

 

I suppose a great way of showing how the digital age has improved the ease of us not needing to learn lessons that they'd teach you in school would be when you get lots. In my primary school they'd have a lesson called PHSE, or SEAL or something along those lines, in them they'd discuss things like what to do if you were lost in public. You can't get lost in public now, as long as you've access to a phone or some sort of electronically device (and let's face it, unless you're deep in the wilderness you're going to have some kind of internet connection) you only need to use the GPS on your phone and you're home.

 

This will be further expanded upon in time and it won't be long now until people start to realise that public education is a waste of money and will soon be put on the back burner, mark my words in thirty to forty years public education will be dead.

I see what you're getting at about us living in an age where any question we might have is increasingly able to be answered almost instantaneously through some means of technology but I don't think that will bring about the demise of public education, at least not as quickly as you say. I can use myself as an example of why I don't think that's where we're headed with powerful search engines like google and smartphones that talk to us. My last year of college I struggled with both a statistics and a financial management course that had some really heavy duty formulas to deal with, at least heavy duty to me. I failed financial management the first time and barely passed the first part of statistics but when I actually showed up to class for the second part of the statistics course and took an in class course for the financial management class instead of an online one I was able to pass both courses with an A.

 

Beforehand I was using google and other applications to try and get my way through the courses independently but none of it clicked until I had it laid out in front of me in a classroom setting, that's just the kind of learner I am and I don't think I'm alone in that aspect. Of course, I guess you could say in the future if public education is done away with and is completely privatized people could purchase virtual courses for their children to sit through at home or something of that nature but I just don't think it would beat the real deal and I'm not sure how many people would want to go a long with that. You have to send your kids somewhere for 8 hours a day for Christ's sake, how else can you work?

[Creed Bratton]

Also, what's up with American private schools being able to teach kids whatever the hell they want? Isn't education enough of a public interest that the government should have a say in what these schools can and can't teach the kids? How is teaching any religious doctrine like those Catholic schools of any interest to the future of the nation?

Edited February 20, 2013 by GTAvanja