For many home-schoolers, parents are no longer doing the teaching • Hacker News Board

Re: For many home-schoolers, parents are no longer doing the teaching

#11

Post by Clent » Sat, Aug 26, 2023, 5:41 PM UTC

zerbinxx wrote: post #7

pierat wrote: post #3

Synposis: Shitty Silly-Con valley company is selling "teaching homeschoolers" under the guise of "microschooling" and "guides" instead of proper teachers. Reading in any of these scam companies, and you'll find quickly that they are not schools, and these are not accredited teachers. But again, deregulation and demolishment of public sector structures and laws to further private interests IS the point, as we'll see.…

Is it really a scam if it helps kids fit in and learn? I have a pretty strong baseline bias against homeschool, but a lot of the testimonials in the article are pretty positive. For every fear people have of homeschools being dangerous or inadequate, it’s hard to look at public education as anything but that.

Testimonials are always positive.

Re: For many home-schoolers, parents are no longer doing the teaching

#12

Post by zerbinxx » Sat, Aug 26, 2023, 5:42 PM UTC

jawns wrote: post #9

mythrwy wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The argument about lack of socialization from failure to attend public school might have some basis. But thinking back, I came out of the public schools with some pretty anti social behaviors and attitudes that I picked up there. Being cool is so important at that age in that setting. I often wonder what life would have been like had I been taken out say, age 12 or 13 and given a more solid education to match my natu…

That argument held sway with me for a long time, but not anymore. Our kids get a decent amount of socialization through all the activities they're involved in, and when other kids find out they're homeschooled, their response is more often genuine surprise rather than "Oh, that figures." The idea that kids learn social skills best by being thrown into a rigid, institutional environment surrounded by hundreds of other…

One good thing about the rigid institutional environment, for better or worse, is that having exposure to that rigidity and institutional side of things can at least give kids some skills in the long run for navigating the anti-human organizations that form so much of our public and private sectors.

Re: For many home-schoolers, parents are no longer doing the teaching

#13

Post by BeetleB » Sat, Aug 26, 2023, 5:52 PM UTC

> Home-schooled children have attended Ivy League schools and won national spelling bees. They have also been the victims of child abuse and severe neglect. Some are taught using the classics of ancient Greece, others with Nazi propaganda.

So ... just like kids in public school?

Somewhat orthogonal to the article: In my state a lot of people were forced to home-school during Covid, and a significant percentage of them continue to do so. They found the experience and outcomes a lot better than what they had been getting at the public school. I listened to their experiences on a local radio show, and was fairly disappointed with the home school curriculum - it was far more focused on alternative subjects not taught in schools, and quite a lot of the "usual" curriculum was omitted (very little math, for example, and if they did teach science, it was with a lot less rigor). It was almost 80-90% about "experiential learning" vs "book learning". I get the value of experiential learning and do agree public schools have too little of it, but I fear these kids are being cheated out of the possibility of getting into STEM - there's no way they can do anything in the hard sciences without some good foundations.

The other thing that always confounds me: Virtually every study out there shows that on average, by a certain age, home school kids outperform public school kids in most/all arenas (social, academic, etc). At worst they perform at the same level. The parents are very happy with the outcomes. I've known homeschooled kids that are easily 2 grades ahead of where they would be at a typical public school - and with no social shortcomings whatsoever, but they may be outliers as the parents were brilliant themselves.

So, both anecdotal and research shows it to be superior. Yet most adults I've met who were home schooled as a kid are unhappy with their parents' choice.[1] I suspect it is akin to how most people overvalue what they don't have, seeing only the benefits of what they've been deprived and not the downsides.

[1] Although as I write this, I realize I should account for the fact that many/most kids really hate their school experience - particularly high school. So perhaps the home schooled kids aren't any less satisfied with their education experience than typical public school kids.

Re: For many home-schoolers, parents are no longer doing the teaching

#14

Post by baryphonic » Sat, Aug 26, 2023, 5:52 PM UTC

jimmytucson wrote: post #5

jawns wrote: post #2

We are in our ninth year of homeschooling. My wife and I attended private and public schools and grew up with typical biases against homeschooling, e.g. they lack social skills. When we got married, we always assumed we'd send our kids to traditional schools. What we learned, though, is that homeschooling has changed since we were in school. Back then, it was a niche, and the sort of parents who chose to homeschool u…

How much time does homeschooling take for you? Does it roughly equate to one full-time job? I have wanted to homeschool my kids but I am afraid I would have to quit my job or downshift to part-time. And since they are different ages, I worry that if I taught them all at the same time, the curriculum would average into something too challenging for the younger and not challenging enough for the elder. How do you manag…

I homeschool my two kids. I was worried about the time commitment at first, but it's honestly quite small. At most, I spend two hours in the morning for both kids. Typical mornings are an hour to an hour and a half. Some subjects like social studies we do together (my kids are two years apart). Others, like math or language arts, are per child (I usually have the other one read or practice piano when giving a one-on-one lesson). My wife does a lot of the supplemental activities like taking them to our co-op or to museums.

A lot of time in public schools is either wasted or simply a consequence of classes having ~30 students each. I also find that homeschool kids can be taught the discipline to work on their own after a lesson. I check the work in the evenings or before school starts in the morning.

I can understand why many people might not want to homeschool, but I find it's been a blessing for my kids & our family.

Re: For many home-schoolers, parents are no longer doing the teaching

#15

Post by foogazi » Sat, Aug 26, 2023, 5:52 PM UTC

mythrwy wrote: post #4

jawns wrote: post #2

We are in our ninth year of homeschooling. My wife and I attended private and public schools and grew up with typical biases against homeschooling, e.g. they lack social skills. When we got married, we always assumed we'd send our kids to traditional schools. What we learned, though, is that homeschooling has changed since we were in school. Back then, it was a niche, and the sort of parents who chose to homeschool u…

The argument about lack of socialization from failure to attend public school might have some basis. But thinking back, I came out of the public schools with some pretty anti social behaviors and attitudes that I picked up there. Being cool is so important at that age in that setting. I often wonder what life would have been like had I been taken out say, age 12 or 13 and given a more solid education to match my natu…

> Being cool is so important at that age in that setting.

is it ?

Maybe it just comes down to personality

In my mind I was so uncool that the only way to win was not to play

Re: For many home-schoolers, parents are no longer doing the teaching

#16

Post by ufmace » Sat, Aug 26, 2023, 5:56 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #8

mythrwy wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The argument about lack of socialization from failure to attend public school might have some basis. But thinking back, I came out of the public schools with some pretty anti social behaviors and attitudes that I picked up there. Being cool is so important at that age in that setting. I often wonder what life would have been like had I been taken out say, age 12 or 13 and given a more solid education to match my natu…

Is public school really that cruel these days? I have a 10 year old, and everyone in her class seems so wholesome and... exceedingly tolerant for lack of a better phrase. Compared to when I was a 10 year old where public school was a Lord Of The Flies thunderdome with bullying, and shoving people into lockers, and fights, and in-groups and out-groups and nerds vs. jocks, all the cruel 80s stereotypes. Sure, there's t…

It's probably impossible to generalize among all public schools. Some are and some aren't to various degrees depending on a thousand factors. The problem is more like, how do you realize if a particular public school class is bad and what are your practical options once you do.

Re: For many home-schoolers, parents are no longer doing the teaching

#17

Post by mikhmha » Sat, Aug 26, 2023, 5:56 PM UTC

Why are people in the US so against public schools? I am someone who did not really enjoy “school” and found it anxiety inducing but I still see the benefits of it.

In public school you are forced to mingle with the people of your generation. The ones who will inevitably go on to run the country in whatever big or small way.

The objective of public school is to break down the regional identities of old and assimilate the youth into the “new” national identity. And what do we see in countries without functional public schools? Everything sucks. And there is no cohesion between peoples. I see it in the home country of my parents.

Re: For many home-schoolers, parents are no longer doing the teaching

#18

Post by foogazi » Sat, Aug 26, 2023, 5:57 PM UTC

BeetleB wrote: post #13

> Home-schooled children have attended Ivy League schools and won national spelling bees. They have also been the victims of child abuse and severe neglect. Some are taught using the classics of ancient Greece, others with Nazi propaganda. So ... just like kids in public school? Somewhat orthogonal to the article: In my state a lot of people were forced to home-school during Covid, and a significant percentage of the…

> I've known homeschooled kids that are easily 2 grades ahead of where they would be at a typical public school - and with no social shortcomings whatsoever

For certain kids school is holding them up

But that’s the problem with a standardization. What are the odds that all kids need the same amount of time for all subjects

Initially everyone was home schooled. The school system is a feature & bug of scaling up

Re: For many home-schoolers, parents are no longer doing the teaching

#19

Post by abnry » Sat, Aug 26, 2023, 5:58 PM UTC

I was homeschooled K-12. Even 15 years ago, my parents would say that they were like general contractors for my education. And it is really is true. I had a mix of co-op, community college, online, self-study, and parent-guided study for all my courses. This was more so for highschool and less so for primary or grade school, which was mostly directly taught by my mother. And as others have said, homeschooling is very, very time efficient. IIRC, during grade school I was done by lunch time (maybe one or two smaller things required).

Re: For many home-schoolers, parents are no longer doing the teaching

#20

Post by homeskool111 » Sat, Aug 26, 2023, 5:58 PM UTC

jawns wrote: post #2

We are in our ninth year of homeschooling. My wife and I attended private and public schools and grew up with typical biases against homeschooling, e.g. they lack social skills. When we got married, we always assumed we'd send our kids to traditional schools. What we learned, though, is that homeschooling has changed since we were in school. Back then, it was a niche, and the sort of parents who chose to homeschool u…

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