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Go to Homeschool

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Re: Go to Homeschool

#11
Cherokee County schools in the late 90s are the reason we decided to home school our kids. Although we moved to VA soon after, we ran into all those same stereotypes farther North too. My family holds the rare distinction of being kicked out of the local liberal home school group for being too conservative while also being unwelcome in the conservative groups for being too liberal.

My son had a very successful first year of college last year and my daughter will be taking community college classes for this fall in what would be her senior year if she went to high school. They both had the choice to attend high school. They both passed.

Re: Go to Homeschool

#12
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole article rings true with my personal experiences, but I'd like to make it very clear that this has nothing to do with religion . Secular households are perfectly capable of making similar mistakes. Homeschooling ensures that if your family has issues, kids will be exposed to them 24/7, without the time spent elsewhere such as school. It effectively removes all checks and balances and leaves everything up to…

I've never understood the mentality that leads to homeschooling. When so many people are terrified at becoming parents/at being new parents because they've just been entrusted with a life and they're afraid to screw up, where do parents find the confidence in themselves to believe that they should be responsible for the totality of a child's exposure to other people and knowledge? At least a school experience allows…

For my parents and many of their friends the primary motivation was along this line of thinking. I'm not saying this is a totally fair or accurate line of thought but it is the line of thinking that leads one to decide to homeschool.

I can take my child's education into my own hands and probably make a few mistakes along the way but at least I care deeply about my child and have a trusting relationship with my child. Children are resilant and the real things a child should learn through K-12 has more to do with character, the ability to learn, follow-through, complete a problem, read for comprehension, etc... Things that don't require a degree or certificate to effectively teach.

Alternatively, I can trust their education to the State, to underfunded schools, to teachers (some of whom are great but some of whom are in place purely because of a broken system) who may care a little bit but have to split their care and attention between 20-80 other kids none of whom are their own, to an educational system which has long been optimized in the wrong directions and for the wrong reasons.

Personally, I don't think that public school is worthless, I just think there are plenty of benefits to homeschooling that are well worth considering. Even just removing the in-effeciencies that have to exist in a system like public school, frees up so much time and energy for self-exploration, additional time to focus on things like music and technology which are underemphasized in a school "system". Additionally, if the parents do a good job of exposing their kids to an appropriate amount of socialization it removes some of the distraction of the constant social element in a school system. AKA, it's easier to focus on learning when you aren't distracted by the bully sitting behind you or the cute girl across from you. For me, I just hung out with the bully and cute girl after I was done learning.

I do think some mix of learning with social is good but there are plenty of ways to do that, again in more ideal ratios.

Re: Go to Homeschool

#13
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole article rings true with my personal experiences, but I'd like to make it very clear that this has nothing to do with religion . Secular households are perfectly capable of making similar mistakes. Homeschooling ensures that if your family has issues, kids will be exposed to them 24/7, without the time spent elsewhere such as school. It effectively removes all checks and balances and leaves everything up to…

I've never understood the mentality that leads to homeschooling. When so many people are terrified at becoming parents/at being new parents because they've just been entrusted with a life and they're afraid to screw up, where do parents find the confidence in themselves to believe that they should be responsible for the totality of a child's exposure to other people and knowledge? At least a school experience allows…

If you're religious, then the confidence comes from a belief in a higher set of principles.

Or, if you're terrifically smart, then the confidence obviously comes from that.

Or, if you're a hippy, the confidence comes from a fuck-it-all attitude.

In my experience, these are the three main groups that homeschool.

Re: Go to Homeschool

#14
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole article rings true with my personal experiences, but I'd like to make it very clear that this has nothing to do with religion . Secular households are perfectly capable of making similar mistakes. Homeschooling ensures that if your family has issues, kids will be exposed to them 24/7, without the time spent elsewhere such as school. It effectively removes all checks and balances and leaves everything up to…

I've never understood the mentality that leads to homeschooling. When so many people are terrified at becoming parents/at being new parents because they've just been entrusted with a life and they're afraid to screw up, where do parents find the confidence in themselves to believe that they should be responsible for the totality of a child's exposure to other people and knowledge? At least a school experience allows…

As someone who was also homeschooled in Georgia (but was in the city of Atlanta), I don't really understand how most parents seem to believe that educating their children isn't their sole responsibility.

Sure, their kids' teachers are supposed to expose them to knowledge but the parents are ultimately responsible.

Perhaps one of the most important lessons I learned (other than how to teach myself) was the idea of personal responsibility.

That probably messed me up for life since now I'm fairly libertarian and also kept going to school until I got my PhD, but that's a different story.

Re: Go to Homeschool

#15
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole article rings true with my personal experiences, but I'd like to make it very clear that this has nothing to do with religion . Secular households are perfectly capable of making similar mistakes. Homeschooling ensures that if your family has issues, kids will be exposed to them 24/7, without the time spent elsewhere such as school. It effectively removes all checks and balances and leaves everything up to…

I've never understood the mentality that leads to homeschooling. When so many people are terrified at becoming parents/at being new parents because they've just been entrusted with a life and they're afraid to screw up, where do parents find the confidence in themselves to believe that they should be responsible for the totality of a child's exposure to other people and knowledge? At least a school experience allows…

For us it was the realization that our kids did a ridiculous amount of learning before age 4 without school, and we thought free of the distractions of school and prescribed, regimented curriculum, they could continue at that pace.

It turned out they could, and they did.

Re: Go to Homeschool

#16

I was homeschooled in a conservative (although not full-on-fundamentalist) Christian household the whole way, K-12. No TV, etc... although with my family it was only partially due to Christian conservatism and almost more due to ivory tower intellectualism (an odd mix, I know... I wasn't allowed to listen to rock music, but we listened to either classical music or liberal NPR instead, not Rush Limbaugh). I've never s…

By the way, since it is perhaps an underrepresented voice in this community, I don't mind saying that I am still a Christian, and if/when I have kids I hope they come to the same faith, since I believe it's the most important decision they can make in life (and after -- heyyyo).

But I wouldn't homeschool them for this reason.

Being (or in the case of kids who were raised in a Christian household, remaining) a Christian is and always has been a personal choice, and to implicitly undermine this by trying to ingrain Christianity into somebody is ineffective at best and counterproductive at worst.

Re: Go to Homeschool

#18
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole article rings true with my personal experiences, but I'd like to make it very clear that this has nothing to do with religion . Secular households are perfectly capable of making similar mistakes. Homeschooling ensures that if your family has issues, kids will be exposed to them 24/7, without the time spent elsewhere such as school. It effectively removes all checks and balances and leaves everything up to…

I've never understood the mentality that leads to homeschooling. When so many people are terrified at becoming parents/at being new parents because they've just been entrusted with a life and they're afraid to screw up, where do parents find the confidence in themselves to believe that they should be responsible for the totality of a child's exposure to other people and knowledge? At least a school experience allows…

Experience with the public schools is what has made me consider homeschooling my daughter. Her first grade teacher had terrible communication skills, seemed constantly stressed, and there was a huge focus on standardized testing this year which led to lots of repetition of skills students had already mastered (this was the area's honors magnet school). My daughter was bored and eventually uncooperative. I honestly feel she could have learned more studying only an hour a day at home. On the other hand, the kids in her class were terrific on those occasions where they were given a chance to interact, and the school also had an arts class rotation that she loved. But if next year is much like this year, it's going to be a tough call.

Re: Go to Homeschool

#19
post #18
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never understood the mentality that leads to homeschooling. When so many people are terrified at becoming parents/at being new parents because they've just been entrusted with a life and they're afraid to screw up, where do parents find the confidence in themselves to believe that they should be responsible for the totality of a child's exposure to other people and knowledge? At least a school experience allows…

Experience with the public schools is what has made me consider homeschooling my daughter. Her first grade teacher had terrible communication skills, seemed constantly stressed, and there was a huge focus on standardized testing this year which led to lots of repetition of skills students had already mastered (this was the area's honors magnet school). My daughter was bored and eventually uncooperative. I honestly fe…

If you live in any sort of city, I'm sure that there are classes for art/math/science, etc.

I definitely think that for a relatively self motivated student, homeschooling works very well.

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