Homeschooling hits record numbers • Hacker News Board

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#201

Post by ilikecakeandpie » Fri, Nov 21, 2025, 7:54 PM UTC

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'…

This is very anecdotal. Here in the south, the "controversial, left-ish values" would be a breath of fresh air vs what is being taught here

> Schools have stopped educating in favor of test metrics, making sure the worst students pass

This is no child left behind in action, which was implemented during W's term

> With remote education during the pandemic, people have more visibility into their school's day-to-day teaching

^ This is the micromanagement that a ton of people claim to hate and get in their way on this site when folks are complaining about daily standups.

IMO, if you're worried about the quality of your kid's education then you'll either need to send them to a private or home school, which will stunt them socially because life isn't just one big private school or home, or encourage curiosity and learning at home to supplement their rote learning from school

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#202

Post by jrm4 » Fri, Nov 21, 2025, 7:54 PM UTC

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'…

I'm not sure how your first thing much factors in? I haven't seen any data but I'd be VERY surprised if e.g. a survey of homeschoolers would cite to a lot of "making bad students pass" and "lefty indoctrination."

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#203

Post by llbeansandrice » Fri, Nov 21, 2025, 7:55 PM UTC

binary132 wrote: post #101

mcphage wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

yeah, it would be crazy if people were allowed to raise their own children with their own values. we can’t have that.

Is this not possible while exposing children to a variety of view points from different sources or does it require that children are not exposed to certain perspectives at all?

The original comment makes a very bold claim of "indoctrination" of an entirely undefined set of values.

There has been no evidence that exposing children to this (undefined and buzzwordy) set of values means that they can't be raised according to other values.

I find this idea pretty wild to encounter on HN which is generally focused on open source and widely available information so that people can educate themselves is suddenly gone in a puff of smoke and some buzzwords when talking about educating the most curious minds in the world.

Define the values. Cite sources that this is "indoctrination" and not simply exposing viewpoints. Then maybe we can have a productive discussion.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#204

Post by wtallis » Fri, Nov 21, 2025, 7:55 PM UTC

jayd16 wrote: post #167

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…

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.

COVID forced remote learning to be adopted very broadly, without the usual self-selection effect of families that choose to homeschool when they have a choice. So the observations from COVID don't really support any stronger claim than saying that homeschooling can be done badly.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#205

Post by mynameisash » Fri, Nov 21, 2025, 7:55 PM UTC

oceanplexian wrote: post #172

connicpu wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It affects the minimum viable salary for a teacher to even be able to live in the city where you want to hire them to work, same for all the other support staff that make a school function.

I don’t buy that argument, there’s no reason a teacher in San Francisco can’t live in Oakland or Berkeley, or a teacher in NYC couldn’t live in NJ. You don’t have a human right to live in the most expensive real estate on Earth.

GP didn't say anything about it being a human right. You seem to be strawmanning their argument.

I think it's a reasonable expectation that even in HCOL places like SF or NYC, people in careers important to society should be able to live in the communities they serve.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#206

Post by ahmeneeroe-v2 » Fri, Nov 21, 2025, 7:55 PM UTC

kylehotchkiss wrote: post #147

I can't say my public school experience was great, I was bullied and didn't really click with the popular kids, but being around a cross section of actual American kids in my age group (my school district mixed middle class with lower class neighborhoods) helped me shape my worldview and learn to deal with people who didn't look or talk like me. I frequently saw fights, so I learned that you just stay away and watch…

>cross section of actual American kids

So many factors have led this to be a major liability for young people now. School is not what it was 20 years ago.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#207

Post by jimmar » Fri, Nov 21, 2025, 7:55 PM UTC

righthand wrote: post #180

NY state just signed a bill to include ChatGPT in their learning and planning. Previously there were deals to bring in Google hardware for students. Of course people are fleeing public schooling when we’re selling the kids to big tech for laptops and services that require network connection to write a word document, enable cheating, and their data sold for profit without consent.

People might be fleeing public schooling because lawmakers are dictating what happens in the classroom. There are lots of good teachers who struggle with the resources given to them and the constraints imposed on them.

At home, parents can be flexible. They can let their kids use AI when appropriate or discourage its use. They don't have to wait for legislators to get involved. If there is a great math book, parents can just buy it instead of waiting for some committee to evaluate it.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#208

Post by ilikecakeandpie » Fri, Nov 21, 2025, 7:55 PM UTC

obscurette wrote: post #189

ponooqjoqo wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Not a GP and I don't know if any of these qualifies as "left-ish" (which is very US specific IMHO), but as I understand, the education all over the western culture is destroyed by few really simple and really crazy (for me) ideas: - Kids are never responsible for anything. - Teachers are responsible for everything.

That's a parenting problem though, not an education problem, right?

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#209

Post by a2tech » Fri, Nov 21, 2025, 7:56 PM UTC

bluecalm wrote: post #138

triceratops wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$28k doesn't go as far in San Francisco because of the insane cost of housing and everything else.

If an average class has 20 students it's $560k per year. If an average student gets 1000 hours of schooling per year you can pay 200$/hour and you have spent only just above 1/3 of your budget. It feels like there is more to the story that "$28k doesn't go as far in San Francisco".

It’s because this is a very simplified view of a classroom. What is presented above is the best case scenario, not a realistic one. For example, there’s no consideration of costs associated with any sort of handicapped student, or student with special education needs.

Real world costs completely spiral out of control when you look at the actual system—for example, the buildings are all built during the rapid expansion of the country so are now old enough to need expensive maintenance, and there isn’t money or interest from the community to tear them down and build new ones.

Also something else that isn’t being covered is that involved parents are pulling their kids out for home schooling, and well behaved kids are increasingly being pulled out and put in charter sschools. This is leading to a rapid collapse of the school system. Public school is being left as a place for students who’s parents don’t care enough to do anything with them, or with enough behavioral or special needs that charter schools won’t handle them.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#210

Post by mikece » Fri, Nov 21, 2025, 7:56 PM UTC

1970-01-01 wrote: post #81

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?

There are tons of clubs for such things. My kids are in a homeschool music program (and learning piano and, until recently, bagpipes); half of my kids are playing competitive sports via homeschool programs that compete with other high schools; one is getting his certification as a welder (as part of a State program that pays for it if one is still in high school). Because class times and locations are more flexible this opens up far more possibilities for extra curricular activities.