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

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

#31

Post by pjc50 »

So .. I was homeschooled for a couple of years, in the UK, and had a relatively normal if solitary experience. But that was because my mother was a qualified teacher who'd stopped working, and I was a smart kid. This left me naturally favourable to the idea.

Since then it's become clear that there are basically two categories of homeschoolers: those that want to bring in extra education beyond what the public school system can deliver, and those that want to bring in less education than the public system. Usually in the name of "protecting" them from some information for religious reasons. That's where all the attention and concern is. Because children can't advocate for themselves, especially against their parents.

(The UK had a recent scandal with illegal schools: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/apr/12/ofsted-unc... ; running a school for money - heck, even offering a childminding service for money - without registering with OFSTED is definitely illegal, while homeschooling is legal by default https://www.gov.uk/home-education )

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

#32

Post by brodouevencode »

Loughla wrote: post #24
krastanov wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There is no such thing as typical homeschooling, in my experience in education (decades and decades). It is extremely dependent on 1. access to wealth, 2. underlying reason for homeschooling (religion/safety/other item), and 3. where in the country you live (rural v suburban v urban). In that order specifically. Homeschooling is the ultimate class solidification technique. Those with wealth can almost certainly guara…

> Homeschooling is the ultimate class solidification technique

In what ways that are different from any public or private school?

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

#34

Post by Amezarak »

Loughla wrote: post #28
tivert wrote: post #15

> Many of America’s new home-schooled children have entered a world where no government official will ever check on what, or how well, they are being taught. Isn't escaping from those officials the whole point? Either because they're failing at their job or doing things that are disagreeable to some subset of the population?

The college I most recently consulted with had to take a homeschool "transcript" that can literally be a signed paper from the parent handwritten with nothing to back it up. It's astounding. I don't know if that's just because that particular state doesn't have very strict rules around homeschooling, or if that's standard; I just haven't done the research.

How else do you think a transcript should work? What makes you think a random private school transcript has anything else backing it up?

Presumably the students are also applying with ACT/SAT scores in hand, which do have an established meaning.

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

#35

Post by n3storm »

brightball wrote: post #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, dep…

Montessori is succesful with healthy wealthy beloved children.

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

#37

Post by keiferski »

burcs wrote: post #27

We're homeschooling our kids. I was pretty against it at first, but seeing our education system degrade to the state it is today, and being honest about my schooling experience definitely opened me up to it. I think the biggest argument for schooling is the socialization aspect of it. I don't know about the rest of you but I was bullied pretty relentlessly throughout grade school and it completely changed my personal…

I think I have basically the same opinion. It's not so much that I believe homeschooling is amazing in-itself, but rather that the public education system has so clearly deteriorated that it seems borderline criminal to subject your kids to it.

The question for me, personally, is private school vs. homeschooling. If you can avoid many of the downsides of public education via choosing the right private school (and being able to afford it), I do wonder if that would be superior to most homeschooling setups.

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

#38

Post by asynchronous »

tivert wrote: post #15

> Many of America’s new home-schooled children have entered a world where no government official will ever check on what, or how well, they are being taught. Isn't escaping from those officials the whole point? Either because they're failing at their job or doing things that are disagreeable to some subset of the population?

It is, and article hit pieces like this are exactly why it will continue to expand. Newsflash, there’s an actual large portion of the population that more and more doesn’t want what is taught to their children regulated by the government.

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

#39

Post by edgyquant »

303uru wrote: post #17
brightball wrote: post #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, dep…

Sure, that's one model. The underlying problem is the completely unregulated nature. Similarly, there is household in my neighborhood that home schools. The kids (all 8 of them) never leave the house. They have a 8ft. fence and 1 acre yard where I assume they get some outside time. No one visits. Only dad is allowed to talk to anyone and when he does it's extraordinarily weird.

> underlying problem is the completely unregulated nature

No that’s literally the main benefit. People actually get to teach their own kids without state indoctrination (either left or right.)

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

#40

Post by throwaway1777 »

There’s a whole spectrum of “home schooling”. At one end you have parents teaching their own kids, maybe using some online resources, libraries etc. but for many it is more like group schooling which is almost like a charter or private school where you join with other “home” schoolers but don’t have a traditional teacher and administration, it’s basically the remote work approach of school vs the in-office approach. Then you have actual private schools with a more traditional building and teaching method. And finally you have public schools, the default choice which used to be seen as the gold standard in terms of equal opportunity, but let’s forget about that because schools are “indoctrinating” kids now.
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