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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?

#271

Post by endemic »

patrick451 wrote: post #244
monk_e_boy wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It would be interesting to see actual statistics on this, because that doesn't match my experience at all. I was homeschooled, and went to a D1 state university, as did my siblings and numerous friends who were homeschooled. Both myself and one sibling finished with a 4.0 in dual majors. That same sibling went on to a masters program. I went on to an engineering Phd. The transition from grad school to corporate life…

Yeah, I dunno, anecdotally all the homeschooled kids I knew were fine socially.

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

#272

Post by wyager »

xpe wrote: post #249
wyager wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> many dogmatic religions want to protect children from influences they cannot control or understand. Yes, for example, the state-secular religion of the US, which is enforced in public schools, wants to protect children from influences it cannot control, such as homeschooling.

> Yes, for example, the state-secular religion of the US, which is enforced in public schools, wants to protect children from influences it cannot control, such as homeschooling. No. This seems like an attempt at a wise phrase unfortunately mechanistically generated from some recursion and word substitution. Please try to support the claim if you actually believe it. Research classical liberalism, the scientific meth…

Why are you talking about

> classical liberalism, the scientific method, liberal arts, music, pedagogy, statistics

when our conversation was about

> Liberalism and pluralism

(your words)?

> State-based education is funded largely because it is in the interest of the state to educate citizens to participate in government and exist in a pluralistic society

This is not an even approximately correct model for why the state bankrolls public education in the US.

Not trying to diss you here, but you very clearly have the fully-indoctrinated understanding of someone who's been inducted into the western state-secular religion and isn't even aware of it (same as most of its adherents).

> I don't see awareness of historical or educational context.

This is deeply ironic, although I don't expect you to be able to notice why.

I suggest reading Albion's Seed and A Gentle Introduction to Unqualified Reservations.

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

#273

Post by wyager »

xpe wrote: post #245
anon291 wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One can say the same thing about public and private schooled kids -- sheltered from traditional and conservative ideas.

This is a false claim of equivalence: very different things are happening. A liberal education does not 'shelter' students from religion -- instead, they are more likely to learn about it critically, perhaps in comparison with various faiths and histories. Personally I can say that I've learned a much greater depth about religion and spirituality outside of formal religious contacts. Perhaps something about the organ…

> Perhaps something about the organizational setup of religious-based and funded programs

American public schools are a religious-based and funded program; you just don't notice it because you don't even know what your own religion is.

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

#274

Post by musicale »

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…

> Children need to learn how to be in relationship with others

Isn't that what after-school recreation (both supervised and unsupervised) is for?

I always thought that after school (not to mention summer vacation!) was much better than school for interacting with friends, because we weren't stuck in classrooms where we were usually prevented from talking to each other.

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

#275

Post by rootsudo »

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…

Depends on what other kids / environment.

I asked to be pulled out and be put in private school because I knew that the public school system I was in was harming me. Social dynamics can be stunted with bullying, being denied experiences or progression or just thought of as a misfit due to demographic reasons e.g. being different.

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

#276

Post by snarf21 »

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…

I think that is the issue. Even if the homeschooling is completely online, you are saying that the socialization is now an extra demand placed on parents. We already saw how poorly most handled even getting their kids online for a Zoom or Google hangout. Teaching is incredibly hard work and I think we under value it. I think parents don't want this extra load and most have trouble even helping kids with homework and assignments they had specific instruction on.

In my experience (and ours are all different), school taught me a lot of lessons that had nothing to do with academics. There are good teachers and there are bad teachers (just like bosses). Sometimes you have to do work that is dumb or pointless just because that is the rule (just like work). I met kids richer than me and kids poorer than me. I met kids of other races and religions. You learn how to handle people calling you names and you learn heartbreak. Constant time together with friends you've had for years and shared lots of up/downs can't be quantified. I don't think you get the same exposure at a club that is likely socio-economically grouped and a couple of hours per week.

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

#277

Post by camjohnson26 »

patrick451 wrote: post #244
monk_e_boy wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It would be interesting to see actual statistics on this, because that doesn't match my experience at all. I was homeschooled, and went to a D1 state university, as did my siblings and numerous friends who were homeschooled. Both myself and one sibling finished with a 4.0 in dual majors. That same sibling went on to a masters program. I went on to an engineering Phd. The transition from grad school to corporate life…

I was also homeschooled and adjusted easily to a small college and a Masters at a top 20 university, and agree that the transition from university to corporate life was much more jarring than from homeschool to “normal” school. I only spent one day at a traditional school and honestly it was horrifying, spending 6 hours in a drab room listening to someone talk for 55 minutes, then running to the next one. The socialization issue is a concern, but there are plenty of ways to get kids involved socially while homeschooling. And normal schools also produce plenty of socially maladjusted people, not to mention bullying.

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

#278

Post by paulryanrogers »

rayiner wrote: post #266
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…

The socialization of modern schooling is terrible and artificial. Children are age segregated and managed by a handful of adults. Which means they learn mainly from each other, instead of from older kids and adults. It’s the factory farm equivalent of raising children. Homeschooled kids, of course, can learn social skills because they exist in societies and communities. Our neighbor’s kids are homeschooled. They’re o…

Homeschooling without a larger community of kids can isolate the kids. I was awkward and a bit of a troublemaker. Thankfully with a really big high school there were always options to make other friends.

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

#279

Post by camjohnson26 »

kube-system wrote: post #257
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.

A lot of child comments are pointing out that school kids are often terrible peers and experiences there are not great, and I have had my share of similar experiences, but.. that is part of social growth too. Making social mistakes, learning the consequences of those mistakes, and experiencing hurt when others make mistakes in interacting with you are all important life lessons. Part of the reason “the real world” af…

If you jump off a building you’ll learn not to do that again, but there’s easier and safer ways to learn.

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

#280

Post by Godel_unicode »

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…

I’m not convinced that school does this though, I’ve met tons of people with abysmal social skills who weren’t homeschooled.
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