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Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#5
Good luck to these people, hope it turns out well. Personally, I can't imagine home-schooling kids. I neither have the time nor patience to do that, which is why I appreciate teachers.

Besides, I believe school is also a place for kids to socialize with and learn from their peers. I'm very introverted, but I think I would have ended up horribly social-wise if I was home-schooled.

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#7
When I moved into my current house about 10 years ago, the family next door home schooled. I'd never known any home schoolers before and definitely had some notions about how terrible it must be until I learned about it.

This family was part of a home school group with other families. The kids went to different houses every day and had an instructor focus on 1 subject for half of the day, mixed in with free time, depending on the age. 2 subjects per day, so as a parent your teaching commitment was a half day a week on 1 subject.

They would do field trips. They held a school play in a garage complete with costumes and video. And the kids were smart, well mannered, socially adjusted kids with very happy and normal lives. And there are plenty of sports opportunities as well. As far as I know, they all went to public high school too.

Completely shifted my view of what I thought home schooling was, which was the kids stuck in 1 house with 1 parent all day in social isolation.

The reality was closer to a model of a Montessori school which has a huge amount of success stories.

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#8
This is a fundamental change of life, and it’s astonishing that it’s so persistent.

It is pretty misleading for this article to talk about homeschooling being a “fundamental change” without mentioning that homeschooling was the default practice for most of human history. If anything, this is just a return to a long-established practice, not a fringe movement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeschooling

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#9

Good luck to these people, hope it turns out well. Personally, I can't imagine home-schooling kids. I neither have the time nor patience to do that, which is why I appreciate teachers. Besides, I believe school is also a place for kids to socialize with and learn from their peers. I'm very introverted, but I think I would have ended up horribly social-wise if I was home-schooled.

Just FYI, while I share the overall sentiment, I think you are not up to date on the socialization aspect of homeschooling. Typical homeschooling today includes activities where most homeschooled kids from the town gather together for PE or art or other enrichment activities, maybe even specialized academic activities.

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#10
post #6

> a largely unregulated practice once confined to the ideological fringe Tell me your bias without telling me you're biased.

What about that is untrue?

Nothing whatsoever - they are technically correct (the best kind of correct). And yet it is also a descriptor that is likely to prime the reader with a negative connotation. There's a reason that witness oaths require not only "nothing but the truth", but first of all "the whole truth".
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