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Homeschooling hits record numbers

reason.com

161–170 of 878 posts

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#161
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…

I was homeschooled and it affected me terribly. Please don’t do it.

> I was homeschooled and it affected me terribly. Please don’t do it.

Any idea how many were affected terribly in school? I'm in touch with my high school classmates. Almost half of them blame the school experience to lifelong problems.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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Judgment and sense are not earned... they are taught. Tell me how teachers demand any less than total respect from domineered children? Maybe Pink Floyd had no basis for Another Brick In The Wall? I would ask who is more qualified than their parents to instill in their children judgement and sense? You might argue that there are morally bankrupt parents but I would counter that there are morally bankrupt teachers and…

> I would ask who is more qualified than their parents to instill in their children judgement and sense?

That largely depends on the parents. Many are _wildly_ unfit for this.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parents side with their kids all the time in pass/fail battles; they're not objective. Name the left values; don't beat around the bush. Observing remote education is not good visibility into pre-covid teaching. I think we have a responsibility to have educated citizens.

> Parents side with their kids all the time in pass/fail battles; they're not objective. I'm thinking this is fairly new. When I was in school, if I got bad grades or got in trouble at school, I got in trouble at home too. My parents were absolutely not calling the teachers complaining about grades. When I had trouble learning multiplication facts, they sat me down with flash cards every night until I had learned the…

I think parents are trying to maximize the perceived value of their child at the expense of their real value. I also think various media (especially the internet) have lowered trust in primary/secondary education, leading to more parents feeling justified in "taking matters into their own hands". You kind of see that attitude in this thread (its not wholly unjustified).

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#166
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parents side with their kids all the time in pass/fail battles; they're not objective. Name the left values; don't beat around the bush. Observing remote education is not good visibility into pre-covid teaching. I think we have a responsibility to have educated citizens.

One example is in high school I had an excellent literature class that also covered a lot of philosophy. It wasn’t until later that I realized that the various philosophies we studied were the philosophies that are often foundational for Marxism, atheism, and general left of center academia. Probably the best class I had in high school but I wish it had also covered things on both sides, or been more transparent that…

I have had more teachers actively advocating voting for right wing parties than left wing parties. And once had someone in biology class tell me that he thinks that evolution and creation by god are equal and we should try to merge those theories. And I live in a very secular part of Europe.

But hey, both you and I are telling anecdotes. The only conclusion for me is that public school exposes you to people that do not think like you or your parents. Something, we are less and less exposed to. If that is good, anyone has to answer for themselves.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#167
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…

Covid showed me that on the average home schooling (or at least remote learning) leaves kids extremely under developed.

The stunted social and academic skills were pretty apparent in retrospect once the schools reopened.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why it's useful to look up stats when we have them. For example, homeschooled students do better on the ACT than public school kids. https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/Info... Obviously the schooling venue itself isn't the only factor here, but if you think homeschooling a kid is worth an analogy to fighting grizzlies, might be worth a reframe.

I suspect there is a lot of selection bias in that data. My hypothesis is that the homeschooled folks who take the ACT are more likely to do well on the ACT than the homeschooled folks who don't.

Isn't that true of public school kids who do/don't take the ACT as well?

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Of these, most are easily handled. I am in a midsized city and there are plenty of groups that offer music, robotics & engineering, speech & drama, etc. focused towards homeschooled students. That, plus the rise in homeschool "pods"/co-ops means socialization and activities are very available to students & parents who want them. Sports might be the challenge. Many US states have athletic associations that handle most…

Besides big ones like soccer that you mention, more niche sports are often partially or totally outside of school systems.

Fencing for example, is usually clustered around external clubs. Very few high schools will have fencing teams, and in a lot of cities even the high schools that do have fencing teams will be kind of a joke compared to the club teams.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#170
post #28

Lemme just question how home schooling is at all possible without one parent (statically more likely to be a woman) staying home to supervise the learning. I don’t think we’re talking about remote ranch situations where you either do online school or have to send them to boarding school. So I’m genuinely wondering if there’s a corresponding exit from the workplace or other demographic trends allowing/pushing this boo…

Interesting point. I know of one home-schooling family—and the wife quit her career to homeschool.

Is this family well off financially? Of course they are. I suspect the data on homeschoolers is going to reflect a generally affluent slant.

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