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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

#541
post #150

People talk about homeschooling as if it's one single concept, but it's actually a whole bunch of very dissimilar things. There are people who homeschool because they don't agree with the government's viewpoints, people who homeschool because the public school system has failed their kids, people who homeschool because it just happens to fit their lifestyle. Those are all very different motivations. Likewise, there a…

There is a huge spectrum, but back when we homeschooled (my wife wasn't yet comfortable sending the kids back to the classroom in 2021) we did a few events where local homeschool kids got together for various activities. Tree identification/nature trail at the park, visits to historic sites, stuff like that. Of the parents I met there was some variety, but 9 times out of 10 it seemed like they were mostly doing it be…

I mean you can laugh about the most ridiculous component of that groups worldview (which of course is not representative of many religious homeschoolers), but I think thats probably a good sign in comparison to the stuff a lot of parents sending their kids to public school think.

Not believing in evolution isn't a morality issue, a lot of the stuff that those folks are probably trying to avoid by homeschooling is. In other words, I wouldn't be worried about my kids spending the night at the house with the very conservative non-evolution believing family. That definitely counts for something.

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

#542
post #441
post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

If you want an example of current events as it applies to the danger of religion take a simple look at the Israel/Hamas war. 1) Hamas jihadists cultivate decades of repression of the Palestinian populace into a spectacular terrorist strike on Oct 7th. 2) Israel, an apartheid ethnostate, where Rabbis call for extermination of Palestinians in response to the Hamas strike (after decades of dehumanization), drops a nucle…

Your presentation makes it sound as if rabbinic approval / directives / whatever somehow pushed the response to hamas. Following the English and Hebrew news I see none of that.

You're probably conflating the general fact that the nationalist and religious factions overlap (though there are a great many religious groups in Israel that are not nationalist at all - pretty much all the ultra orthodox), and said nationalists have made extreme statements in the past. But the response to hamas has little to do with that.

(this is my most relevant response to the point you're making, so I'll hold off on the otber incorrect assumptions/statements).

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

#543

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…

There are many home-schooling success stories, and also many home-schooling horror stories. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/05/law-school-pr...

Also many public school horror stories.

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

#544
post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> indoctrination is a given. Indoctrination is not a given and should never be acceptable in education. What is indoctrination? Here's one dictionary definition: indoctrination: the process of repeating an idea or belief to someone until they accept it without criticism or question Note "accept it without criticism or question". This is the polar opposite of what education should be, which is to encourage investigati…

Societies indoctrinate all those that live within them - that's what social norms are.

Eww, no. Rational adults examine our social norms, ask why we have them, and challenge those that make no sense.

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

#545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prefer the Reaper type, myself.

you exist because we allow it, and will end because we demand it

For those who don’t know, this is a quote from Mass Effect. If you are reading this and didn’t know that, you are in for a treat.

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

#546

Earlier quoted context omitted.

// other aspects of homeschooling were just a fig leaf over a whole lot of religious indoctrination. While this may technically fit the definition of "indoctrination", that's a pretty loaded way to describe what parents teach their own children. // they thought the public schools were too secular and were teaching "sinful" sciences like evolution. Really? In 2021, the hot-button issue among religious parents was evol…

> While this may technically fit the definition of "indoctrination", that's a pretty loaded way to describe what parents teach their own children. I'm a former homeschooler that had to watch countless Ken Ham and Kent Hovind videos. These videos were filled with strawmen and faulty logic. I distinctly remember one of them tearing into Lamarckism, a theory discredited in the 1930's, as if it were something that people…

Unless you wanted to be a research biologist, does the precise mechanism driving evolution really matter? And the ideas did turn out to have some merit with epigenetics, right?

Sure it's largely wrong, but it's a strange sort of indoctrination to care about. Sort of like how we tell children the story about electrons being balls that orbit the nucleus. Wrong, but only important for physicists and chemists.

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

#547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was (non-religiously) home schooled and very much benefited from it. I was able to spend a lot more time reading books than I would have in school. I was able to learn about computers, programming, etc. I did get some socialization through other kids in my neighborhood and events with other home school families. I started in back in school around high school and, although it was a bit of a transition, I enjoyed it…

Or so you think. I don't know you, but every home school kids I've met shows the lack of meeting republicans/democrats/jews/blacks. None of them see that in themselves though.

Considering how many people choose to be republicans and democrat's I don't think this is a home school issue.

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

#548
post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> indoctrination is a given. Indoctrination is not a given and should never be acceptable in education. What is indoctrination? Here's one dictionary definition: indoctrination: the process of repeating an idea or belief to someone until they accept it without criticism or question Note "accept it without criticism or question". This is the polar opposite of what education should be, which is to encourage investigati…

> what education should be…with a scientific method Does the scientific method tell you this? It couldn’t have, because this is a philosophical belief not a scientific one. Very likely, you were indoctrinated to believe this. Not all “doctrine” (teaching) is wrong and not all indoctrination is wrong. But everyone undergoes some form of indoctrination.

I appreciate logical correctness, but it isn’t helpful in this case. It’s very clear how indoctrination is meant when we’re talking about parents denying evolution and claiming the earth is merely a few thousand years old.

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

#549

I'm skeptical when these parents their kids cite poor public schools as the primary reason for home schooling. When you look closer, it's almost always lifestyle and ideology that are the main factors. The often-cited failure in socialization extends beyond socialization within peer-groups as well--kids also need exposure to a variety of adults and authority figures. It's not only about learning how to make friends.…

> I mean reading this it just sounds like they are discovering the hard way the concept of... a school?? Yeah, a school that works.

More like a school that can easily exclude problem students. Public schools don't get that privilege.

Seems like the same lesson as private academies that were used to enforce de facto segregation. Run away from the scary change, and try to keep doing things the old way. It's just not sustainable the way public institutions are.

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

#550
post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was raised very Catholic (and decided by my early teens that I didn't believe in any of it), and I completely disagree with your conclusion. Organized religion (at least Christianity) absolutely is about deep fear. "Do this or you'll go to hell!" "Believe this or you'll go to hell!" Repeat ad infinitum. I won't deny that some churches (as in, specific people, not the system as a whole) can do good in the world; one…

> But overall, religion is about control how many religions do you know and have experience with, in order to make such a claim? don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

I am quite sure that most religious people would not even take offense at the idea that their religion is at least partially about control or related to control. That's actually kind of the point of a lot of it. "Trust in God and follow his commandments" and all that stuff sort of implies that there are rules you should be following and that you have accepted the responsibility to try and follow them.

I guess I don't see why control is necessarily a bad thing. Most people would say that something like self-control is (in moderation like all things) a virtue. Certainly I see a lot more people that could use more control than I see people that are so controlled (by either themselves or others) that they could use less.

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