Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Homeschooling hits record numbers

reason.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 878 posts

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#81

Post by 1970-01-01 »

jmathai wrote: post #3

I do think Covid forced people to ask questions they hadn’t before. We have sent our kids to private, poor quality and top rated schools. We saw a stark difference between the poor quality and higher cost options. No surprise. But the reason we are considering home schooling our younger kids was surprising. It says something about a system dedicated to teaching children when parents think they can do as well or bette…

Is there an answer for athletics, music, robotics, and all the other after school teams? How does that work?

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#82

Post by sparrish »

Yizahi wrote: post #60
jmathai wrote: post #3

I do think Covid forced people to ask questions they hadn’t before. We have sent our kids to private, poor quality and top rated schools. We saw a stark difference between the poor quality and higher cost options. No surprise. But the reason we are considering home schooling our younger kids was surprising. It says something about a system dedicated to teaching children when parents think they can do as well or bette…

Poor kids :( . Hope the damage won't be lasting for them, at least they did went to proper schools previously and have some basics taught.

I'll gladly stand up my 7 homeschooled kids next to any public school kids.

All tested above grade level on state mandatory testing throughout their schooling.

Two graduated early (some with college credits).

My adult children (4 sons, ages 19-25) have gainful employment, living on their own (2 own their own homes), and standing on their own. One is married (I got a grandkid!), all have friends, communities they're involved in, and are healthy (physically and mentally).

None take prescription meds nor struggle with anxiety or depression.

Poor public school kids... I hope they can find help for the damage they suffered.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#83

Post by PKop »

dfxm12 wrote: post #79
andrewstuart wrote: post #67

Group home schooling in a shared building is becoming a huge new trend in home schooling, far more resource and time efficient and pools the resources of the parents and allows the group to hire someone to do the group homeschooling.

This sounds like a private school (probably with less oversight/regulation). What are the key differences?

Control over what happens there

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#84

Post by Brendinooo »

Aboutplants wrote: post #14
jmathai wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we could teach them as well as the school does. And more importantly, we can provide a better environment for them to mature socially.

“And more importantly, we can provide a better environment for them to mature socially.” Take it from someone who was homeschooled from pre-k through high school, you will absolutely not provide a better social environment. I was so unprepared to handle the social dynamics in casual, educational or professional that it took years and years of active work to put myself in a position where it wasn’t an absolute detrime…

I dunno. I think I could spin a narrative where public middle school dynamics (that is, bullied quite a bit) created issues for me that hampered my ability to succeed in social settings.

I don't really think that way in general, but I guess I'd just want to point out that the spectrum isn't "good socialization in public school" to "bad/no socialization in homeschooling".

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#85

Post by gtirloni »

I don't feel better prepared to teach at home than someone who actually went to college for the various topics covered in high school. How can I know all I need to teach about math, chemistry, english, physics, etc, etc, etc when I already have to learn so much for my own work? I think parents that think they can do a better job are delusional.

Maybe the school _environment_ that a child has access isn't great, right? But I don't think that says anything about teachers.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#86

Post by squigz »

ponooqjoqo wrote: post #49
csense wrote: post #7

Anecdotally, two factors at work here: - Schools have stopped educating in favor of test metrics, making sure the worst students pass, and pushing borderline indoctrination of controversial, left-ish values. - With remote education during the pandemic, people have more visibility into their school's day-to-day teaching. It's hard to fix the US education system by political means. If you have the ability to do so, it'…

> pushing borderline indoctrination of controversial, left-ish values Which values? I haven't gone to school in a long time.

I'm very curious about this as well, GP, please.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#87

Post by Brendinooo »

Yizahi wrote: post #61
pacomerh wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What works for one might not work for another one. Can't generalize.

We can actually. It's called theory of probability and statistics, which is probably "forgotten" by these amazing self-appointed homeschoolers. A few rare successes of homeschoolers doesn't mean this practice is good on average, and vice versa the rare failures of the public education system doesn't mean that it is bad on average.

Most times I look this up, I see stuff like "[t]he home-educated typically score 15 to 25 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests".

https://nheri.org/research-facts-on-homeschooling/#Academic

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#88

Post by AnimalMuppet »

Yizahi wrote: post #61
pacomerh wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What works for one might not work for another one. Can't generalize.

We can actually. It's called theory of probability and statistics, which is probably "forgotten" by these amazing self-appointed homeschoolers. A few rare successes of homeschoolers doesn't mean this practice is good on average, and vice versa the rare failures of the public education system doesn't mean that it is bad on average.

If you've got the statistics to validate your point, show them. If not... pot, meet kettle.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#89

Post by [deleted] »

standardUser wrote: post #77
jmathai wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we could teach them as well as the school does. And more importantly, we can provide a better environment for them to mature socially.

That's probably true in a lot of cases for K-5. But I don't think any two people could teach a child with the same robustness as a the ~15 teachers most kids have during middle school/junior high, let alone provide things like labs, workshops, extracurriculars, etc. With high school that gap goes from big to enormous.

[deleted]

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#90

Post by jerf »

Esophagus4 wrote: post #9
jmathai wrote: post #3

I do think Covid forced people to ask questions they hadn’t before. We have sent our kids to private, poor quality and top rated schools. We saw a stark difference between the poor quality and higher cost options. No surprise. But the reason we are considering home schooling our younger kids was surprising. It says something about a system dedicated to teaching children when parents think they can do as well or bette…

How are you thinking about the socialization aspects of homeschooling vs not? I imagine part of the benefit of schooling is to socialize children with their peers so I’m curious how you thought about it.

This argument has not kept up with the reality of the public school system. The homeschooled cohort my children are associated with have problems associating with public school children of the same age... but the problem doesn't lie on the homeschooler's side, it lies 100% on the publicly-schooled children's side! The public school attendees are noticeably less mature for the same age and less able to deal with anything other than the highly-specific and unrealistic environment of public schools rather than the rest of the world. The homeschoolers have trouble stepping down their social expectations to levels the public school attendees can meet.

We have a few reasons unrelated to socialization [1] to do home schooling but one of the reasons I don't want to send them back is precisely the regression in "socialization" I would expect.

30 years ago, this probably was a decent argument, but the bar of "at least as socialized as a public school attendee" has gone way down in the meantime.

[1]: I guess before anyone asks, one of my children is deaf-blind and while the people in the system did their best and I have not much criticism of the people, the reality is still that I was able to more precisely accommodate that child than the system was able to. This ends up being a pretty big stopper for a return to the public school system for that child.

Post reply on HN