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Ask HN: If you’ve considered homeschooling, what’s stopping you?

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Re: Ask HN: If you’ve considered homeschooling, what’s stopping you?

#231

Post by lambdaphagy »

ElijahLynn wrote: post #108

Social needs. Children need to learn how to be in relationship with others, it is the most fundamental need we have and is so important for the future of our planet. If I were to homeschool, it isn't about the learning, that is easy, it is about providing an environment where children can learn to co-exist with others. That can still be done with homeschool, but it will need to be intentional with daily activities th…

Imagine that there were a government program that taught infants how to walk: the infants enter the program unable to walk, and a year later just about all of them can.

Now imagine trying to kill that program, or even taking your own children out unilaterally: "But walking is so important! How could you be opposed to children learning how to walk?"

Your reaction to that is my reaction to the idea that a state apparatus is necessary for children to learn how to make friends and play.

Re: Ask HN: If you’ve considered homeschooling, what’s stopping you?

#232

Post by troupe »

isleyaardvark wrote: post #111

Integrated public schools are now generally recognized as having the biggest impact in reducing racism. Plus the lack of support for public schools would increasingly leave kids with disabilities out of luck. So there’s a moral angle. I’d rather my kid grow up to be non-racist and I could fix any deficiencies in their schooling

> are now generally recognized as having the biggest impact in reducing racism.

Do you have a source for that statement or is it just "common knowledge?" There seems to be at least some evidence that homeschooling produces children who are more tolerant of other views.

While one study does not prove anything, it is slightly stronger than "general recognition" without a source.

https://reason.com/2019/01/22/homeschooling-produces-better-...

On the other hand if your local public school will get your kids to whatever academic level you feel they are capable of, it is great you have a local school that meets your particular needs.

Re: Ask HN: If you’ve considered homeschooling, what’s stopping you?

#233

Post by troupe »

actfrench wrote: post #31
rambambram wrote: post #21

I've considered home schooling, but what stopped me was the fact that I suddenly realized I have no children. On a more serious note, I like how you asked the question with "what's stopping you?".

Lol. Thanks for the compliment and making me laugh. That would probably be a good reason not to homeschool ! Though you could certainly mentor your friends’ kids! I believe we can all take part in educating the next generation whether we are parents or not !

Khan Academy started out as a way to help his niece...so mentoring others is absolutely a reasonable thing to consider. :)

Re: Ask HN: If you’ve considered homeschooling, what’s stopping you?

#234

Post by sharadov »

willnz wrote: post #219
scifibestfi wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to public school and would argue it's a terrible place to be socialized. You are socialized by kids your age in an environment that's more akin to prison than the real world.

Yep, high school socialisation is so far removed from real life socialisation it’s funny. When I look back at my public school years I laugh to think we were supposedly learning vital social skills! What other part of life do you interact with only people who were born in the same year as you were (and, in the case of some schools, only your sex)? Homeschooled children (in my experience) learn to make friends with ki…

I had friends from other grades when I was in middle school - was part of sports teams and I trained for an entire summer with kids who were 2 years older than me. Initially they bossed me, but over time they really took me under their wing.

In the neighborhood I lived - had some friends who were 3-4 years older. Maybe my experience is unusual, but those were great times!

Re: Ask HN: If you’ve considered homeschooling, what’s stopping you?

#235

Post by virissimo »

hnhg wrote: post #220
JJMcJ wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Public school socialization. Humiliated by teachers. Bullied by some people. Small circle of friends. Adults as the enemy. All the homeschooled kids I've met seem pleasant, polite, comfortable around other kids and around adults. Of course this is Northern California so elsewhere the story may be different. Oh, and homeschooling is forbidden in Germany, under a 1938 law. 1938. Get it? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, elbow…

If we're going with full anecdotes, all the homeschooled folks I've had to deal with have had major issues integrating with wider society. I felt a bit sorry for them, even if they weren't always the nicest or well-meaning people to actually be around. But by the time they're a bit older, I guess it's too late.

How do you know whether people you've "had to deal with" were homeschooled or not? Might that method result in selection effects?

Re: Ask HN: If you’ve considered homeschooling, what’s stopping you?

#236

Post by [deleted] »

voisin wrote: post #107
verisimilidude wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Swim lessons? Get out of here. Church? I did imagine that. Try reading. And anyway, schooled kids do all of those things as well. Where's the advantage? There's a reason I don't consider those activities when talking about school socialization. All of the activities you mentioned are part-time and/or self-selected. School is full-time and you don't get to choose your kids' peers. You can't pull them out easily if you…

> Swim lessons? Get out of here. Spanish class? Get out of here. Seriously dude, what’s the difference? What do you think “socialization” means? It is about being exposed to others, interacting with them, and learning social norms. Sitting quietly at desks listening to a teacher is objectively less effective than something like swimming lessons, or really anything I mentioned in my list, and that description describe…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: If you’ve considered homeschooling, what’s stopping you?

#237

Post by tomtheelder »

cm2012 wrote: post #42
acover wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much can a parent even affect their children? I remember studies of adopted children showing it was little. Edit: this[0] is not the study but shows something similar > Adopted children resemble their adoptive parents slightly in early childhood but not at all in middle childhood or adolescence In contrast, during childhood and adolescence, adopted children become more like their biological parents, and to the sa…

The studies are mixed! Twin studies show that nurture has little impact on personality or IQ, excepting things like serious abuse. But, they do show huge correlation between parental income and child income. So it seems nurture can affect life outcomes a lot but not much intrinsic to who you are.

> Twin studies show that nurture has little impact on personality or IQ, excepting things like serious abuse.

I don't know anything about personality, but I do know that for IQ this is an awfully contentious topic, for a multitude of reasons. Whether that's ignoring maternal effects, the implicit assumption of independence between genetics and environment in twins reared apart, or just plain old questioning of how to interpret heritability as a statistic, it's REALLY unclear what to think. You will find serious academics in field with vastly different beliefs.

I spent an inappropriately large amount of time researching this recently, and my conclusion is that it's a lot harder to measure than people think, and that the commonly cited numbers of 0.7-0.8 for heritability should be viewed with a significant deal of skepticism. It might be right, but it's a number that I have very low confidence in. I would also say that even if those numbers are correct, that does imply a very substantial effect due to environment.

What I will say is that you have to more or less ignore the Wikipedia article on the subject. It's too political a topic for Wikipedia to perform well.

Re: Ask HN: If you’ve considered homeschooling, what’s stopping you?

#238

Post by kleiba »

judah wrote: post #66

I was homeschooled and I credit much of my success in life to it. It taught me to think logically, taught me to honor my parents, taught me the value of tradition, morality, spirituality. It taught me the value of hard work, of loyalty, of kindness. It kept me out of vices that many of my public-schooled friends and peers got pulled into. In my experience, homeschooling can create well-rounded, upright people at a ra…

my wife didn't feel like she had the skills to homeschool. She's not a teacher and feels she doesn't have the patience for it

Since you were homeschooled yourself, wouldn't you have been the better parent for the job anyway?

Re: Ask HN: If you’ve considered homeschooling, what’s stopping you?

#239

Post by notch656a »

monk_e_boy wrote: post #206
hgomersall wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This so much. I've met quite a few homeschooled children and almost without fail they lack some pretty fundamental social skills. Things like an apparent inability to interact with children of their own age, or behaving obnoxiously to others in ways that would be rapidly stamped out by peers.

I work in educating young men and women, ages 16 up to around 60. Homeschooled kids almost never make a year in "normal" education. They fail to adjust to a small college, they are no longer the center of attention. They have to wait for others to catch up. They are not team players. It's really hard to watch.

The world needs lots of corporate cogs who fall in line with the team. Personally I wasn't home-schooled but I can see the upside of being raised in an environment where you're not taught to be subservient to the authority of a school system, nor forced into a system where you're taught physical self defense is to be punished.

Sounds like the home-schooled may have a leg up for some tasks that require ignoring the training to fall in line with the team or authority. Their niche in life may simply be different.

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