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Homeschooling hits record numbers

reason.com

741–750 of 878 posts

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#741
post #519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I won't pretend to know where you live or what those people's desires are but I definitely started homeschooling after the last US administration took moral volatility to new standards. The principles taught in schools just did not align anymore with what was common sense when I was in school and what I believe in. Now before you judge, I'm not looking for a fight. My wife and I have both master-degree educations in…

So, to be clear, you pulled your children out of public school because students were being educated to accept other people who do not adhere to their own set of religious and cultural beliefs, in a country founded on freedom of religion? And now instead of learning science in a lab and socializing, they are forced to maintain your farm? What an good job you are doing!

You're forgetting an important distinction: Freedom of religion amongst various Christian denominations. Failure to recognize this as a historical fact leads to back to the original point of public education being a morality platform and not an objective educative platform.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#742

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not against public schools, but pretending the social pressures are anywhere near similar is wrong. Kids are assholes in a way that would get most adults fired or imprisoned. There are social pressures to conform, but you don’t get called names for wearing off brand shoes the way kids were when I was in grade school.

They are the same pressures. They occur in the same proportions. Children are just really bad at it so it is extremely obvious. The rituals do not disappear when you turn 18. They do not disappear when you turn 98.

> They are the same pressures. They occur in the same proportions.

That's one hell of a claim to make:

Have you really had work environments where half your co-workers refused to talk to you? For months, if not years?

Have you ever been shoved down to the ground and punched repeatedly?

Have you ever had a co-worker chase you with a knife?

Have you ever had a co-worker set off a bomb to get out of work early?

Have you ever had a co-worker steal your wallet?

I can safely say I saw all of these going to public school, and have never encountered any of that behavior in the office.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#743
This is not a good article.

An example:

- The numbers on reported satisfaction are taken at face value. But they are influenced by some biases.

-- Survivors Bias contributes to the satisfaction rates of homeschooling; It's hard to get into homeschooling but easy to get out of. As a result, those satisfied keep doing it while those dissatisfied with the public system are less likely to change.

etc etc

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#744
post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My kids are not school age yet, and I am not sure on if I will home school or not. But I do think its possible to get good socialization exposure while homeschooling. There is the neighborhood kids, you have sports and clubs kids can join, religious groups. Plus not all homeschooling is just a student staying at home all day. Some people "homeschooling" I know are groups of parents getting together to educate their c…

I used to work at a YMCA, and the local homeschool group asked us to do a PE class, which I taught. I had the kids doing swimming, rock climbing, and all kinds of traditional PE games. I worked with "normal" kids most of the time, and I will say the homeschool kids stuck out. They're more awkward around kids their age, but far less awkward around adults. They know how to speak and act, in large part. And they were di…

> I'm sure the avenues to connect have only grown with social media.

The rise of social media has led to a massive increase in lonelyness and alienation of young people, not the contrary.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#745
post #637

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle schools have that issue. After covid a bunch of kids were moved to private schools, and SPS (the organism in charge of school) complained and blamed parents on having money and not wanting to mix with the riff raff and other bs. When they actually asked the parents why their children weren't returning after covid, it was because SPS decided to axe the advance/gifted programs they had for kids, among other edu…

The evidence shows that the gifted program is just racist. It's not surprising that the descendants of Europeans do better on European cultural artifacts like math and science, canonical western literature. "Gifted" is an apt name. They are students that have been gifted cultural knowledge before others so they can pretend to be special. I'd argue that most "gifted" students are inherently dumber since they uncritica…

I do get it if gifted kid programs in music only does Classical, but no jazz (especially in US would consider this a bit odd), but Maths and Science are purely European cultural inventions now, WTF? Is this a troll? You go blaming others from racist just ending up saying something incredibly racist yourself?

Honesrly, read on some history of mathematics and science. We ”Europeans” did not invent them. No single culture did.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#746

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_prayer_in_the_United_St...

Yes, it makes it clear that students explicitly have the right to pray in school. That's why I'm confused.

What's banned is the school cannot require students to pray.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#747
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…

Difficult to say without knowing what part of the world history of literature was covered, but it is somewhat difficult not to somehow discuss Marx in some way, since the anti-capitalist socialism has politically been a large factor shaping the major modernist art movements as a response eother for or against. But if it was say modernist literature and there was jo TS Eliot’s conservatism, it would strike me a bit odd.

Leftist academic thought has however had huge influence on modern art movements. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out why that might be.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#748

The biggest misunderstanding I hear year-over-year is homeschoolers are "not exposed to the real world". Isolation exists for some, but my extensive interaction with homeschoolers is they are immersed in healthy communities, hand-picked by parents to keep away problem children. Who would plant a flower next to a sick or hostile one? Parents of healthy children should give 0 s*ts of societal/political pressure against…

If schools are problematic or have kids that are problematic, wouldn't it make more sense to focus on investing in them to make them better, adding resources to support difficult kids, to help parents who are not doing well? As opposed to disengaging from them?

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#749

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…

Empirical research [1] [2] shows that your worry is unfounded.

[1] Homeschooled Children’s Social Skills: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED573486.pdf

[2] Homeschooling and the Question of Socialization Revisited: https://www.stetson.edu/artsci/psychology/media/medlin-socia...

Edit: if I had to bet (don't know any research), schools nowadays are the main producers of intolerance, with the indoctrination and teaching kids to only respect civil discourse, ideas and opinions if they agree with the mainstream world model.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#750

The biggest misunderstanding I hear year-over-year is homeschoolers are "not exposed to the real world". Isolation exists for some, but my extensive interaction with homeschoolers is they are immersed in healthy communities, hand-picked by parents to keep away problem children. Who would plant a flower next to a sick or hostile one? Parents of healthy children should give 0 s*ts of societal/political pressure against…

My general experience is that homeschool children have self esteem and confidence issues precisely because they've been around 'hand picked' people... forever. They've never experienced assholes, or people who think their personality is grating, or whatever. Thick skin needs to be built up, to a degree. I'm not saying bullying is good, but being exposed to the unwashed masses definitely can be.

I think this is analogous to diseases and vaccines. You don't immunize a child by exposing it to the pathogen, but to a modified version of it that poses no threat to their health, but still allows their immune system to recognize and produce anti bodies.

The same applies to teaching "street smarts" to kids. You don't do it by throwing them in a hostile environment where they'll be prey to hostile people without having any defenses built up first.

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