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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

#651

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "what kind of man does G-d want me to be?" Unfortunately, there is not a singular answer to this question. You still have to choose which religion/sect you want to answer this question for you. You can't really delegate your morals to a deity because the choice of which interpretation of that deity's teachings you want to follow is still yours to make.

I understand what you mean, but I find that men who are able to truly humbly embrace that there's a higher power and purpose beyond their own whim and limited perception are a certain breed - and whichever framework they engage with this higher power through is a secondary choice. EG - a devout Jew and a devout Hindu maybe very different in the practices they follow and the words they use, but they would not be very…

Finland is one of the most orderly and happy countries, they seem to do fine without religious guidance.

They're a mostly atheist population.

See also Estonia, Japan.

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

#652

Am I the only one thinking that home schooling is the wrong solution to the underlying problem? The problem is that the public education sector has been - for years - continuously squeezed dry of any funding. Teachers are quitting left and right, and schools are in a terrible state. Instead of fixing THAT problem, now people homeschool. Ok; I guess. At least homeschooling is something that the individual can control,…

> The problem is that the public education sector has been - for years - continuously squeezed dry of any funding. Lack of funding isn't always the problem. As jawns mentioned, there's a lot of reasons to remove your kids from public school. > I have two kids, would consider myself very well educated (have a PhD, etc), and I habe absolutely 0 confidence in myself schooling my kids. Interesting. I'm surprised you feel…

> But it can also stifle the growth of overachievers.

Or give gifted kids resources their parents cannot afford or that their parents would find offensive

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

#653
post #536
post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the purpose of religion is to align yourself to the highest aspirations why do so many large religious organizations get caught up stuff like this: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mormon-church-ensign-peak-whist...

I know this is bait, however Romans 3:23-24 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus

It's not bait, it's a serious issue.

Religious organizations are free-riding in society and not paying their fair share. This is criminal and should be prosecuted. Render unto Caesar and all that.

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

#654

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who was raised in religious communities, that "higher aspirations" is only the position "in principle" in reality working with people in the religious community was just scams and moral self justification of despicable behavior hidden behind soft language and terrible behavior. So much contention, so much gossip, so much backbiting behavior and hidden evils against children so that communities wouldn't "lo…

I’ve seen far more contention, gossip, and backbiting behavior in secular groups, saying this as someone who didn’t go back to religion until only a few years ago. Let’s not pretend that being secular somehow makes you levitate or something. Check out the “new atheists” and their démise. The funny part is that everyone is talking about this sort of inherent internal moral guidance, which flies in the face of the mode…

What science contradicts internal moral guidance?

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

#655

I'm not surprised at the rise in homeschooling. When you have anti-education groups like the Oregon Department of Education [1] running the public school system, any parent that cares and can make the effort should remove their child from public schooling. This semester they switched my son from high-school chemistry to "environmental science". I asked him, "is oxygen flammable?" He couldn't answer. I looked at the c…

Running away from the problem will only make it worse.

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

#656

Am I the only one thinking that home schooling is the wrong solution to the underlying problem? The problem is that the public education sector has been - for years - continuously squeezed dry of any funding. Teachers are quitting left and right, and schools are in a terrible state. Instead of fixing THAT problem, now people homeschool. Ok; I guess. At least homeschooling is something that the individual can control,…

Funding is not the issue. Private schools pay their teachers less and have higher success rates. Public schools are still teaching in a style suited for the Industrial Revolution. They also are a jobs program, so they can’t change to accommodate students if it hurts the employees.

Private schools have higher success rates because the kids are of a higher socioeconomic class. The teachers don't have to do the job of a social worker/parent. In other words private schools don't need to hire the best teachers, therefore they don't have to pay the best salaries.

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

#657

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many behaviours which were common throughout human history which would now be fringe movements. Human and/or animal sacrifices, for instance.

If animal sacrifice became common again, I would expect articles to mention the fact that it was a human practice for millennia – and not pretend it's just a fringe thing those pesky Other People invented. Homeschooling was also the default thing a ±century ago, while you'd need to go back pretty far to find true animal/human sacrifice in European/European-American culture.

Humanity was mostly illiterate and sheltered to a small community. Going back isn't always a win.

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

#658

Am I the only one thinking that home schooling is the wrong solution to the underlying problem? The problem is that the public education sector has been - for years - continuously squeezed dry of any funding. Teachers are quitting left and right, and schools are in a terrible state. Instead of fixing THAT problem, now people homeschool. Ok; I guess. At least homeschooling is something that the individual can control,…

At least in my country the homeschooling is ballooning as parents don't want the LGBT stuff and DQST forced on their kids but also don't want to be accussed of being a bigot when they raise issue with it.

Guy, this is a made up problem.

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

#659
post #611

Earlier quoted context omitted.

// other aspects of homeschooling were just a fig leaf over a whole lot of religious indoctrination I was raised totally secular but I now understand that religion is about fundamentally aligning yourself to the highest aspirations ("what kind of man does G-d want me to be?") and even w/o actual faith, I am starting to think that's preferable to the current mode of "anything goes, you can be whatever you feel like an…

> anything goes, you can be whatever you feel like and there's no judgement of any of your actions Wow, what a terrible take. If anyone needs religion to live a moral life, I'm glad they have found it and hope they never lose it. I'm judged by my peers, my family, my community, and my country. But even if I wasn't, I would know what's right and what's wrong. Moreover, I guess it's good that amoral people can find eth…

> But even if I wasn't, I would know what's right and what's wrong.

Is it right or wrong to act on homosexual urges? Is it right or wrong to use abortion as a form of birth control?

Have your answers to those questions remained consistent your entire life or did they change at exactly the same time they changed for the rest of western society ~20 years ago? If your moral stance has been unwavering, kudos. Otherwise, I would argue you don't actually know what's right and wrong; at least not on the "corner" (aka controversial) cases. For those you simply synchronize your moral compass to society's, which itself is not fixed or absolute (stances on abortion, LGBTQ, euthanasia, capital punishment, etc. have shifted a lot in the past few decades).

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

#660

I'm not surprised at the rise in homeschooling. When you have anti-education groups like the Oregon Department of Education [1] running the public school system, any parent that cares and can make the effort should remove their child from public schooling. This semester they switched my son from high-school chemistry to "environmental science". I asked him, "is oxygen flammable?" He couldn't answer. I looked at the c…

Running away from the problem will only make it worse.

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