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Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

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Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#231

Post by MathMonkeyMan »

PaulHoule wrote: post #85
x187463 wrote: post #22

Anecdotally, those around me that are homeschooling are doing it for one of two reasons: 1) Right-wing disgust over woke issues. 2) Fear of school shootings. That's coming from a non-tech middle/lower-middle class setting. 20-30 years ago, when I was in school, most of the homeschoolers seemed (again anecdotally) to be based on religion or some other idiosyncratic reasoning rather than the reasons I cited above.

I have some friends who are Christian but left wing (their kids would come over to play and draw pictures about helping poor people.) The dad teaches CS at a small Catholic college, mom stayed home and educated their kids. The "disgust over woke issues" existed in some form 30 years ago when people were homeschooling but it had not hardened into the constellation it is in now. Back then you could get folks like that…

I miss the days when young earth fundamentalist Christianity tinged with racism was my most compelling ideological opponent.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#232

Post by poulsbohemian »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #121
zdragnar wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it merely made parents aware of what was already happening. My nephew texted my brother during his lunch break to ask for more credits for his switch account. My brother asked why play games instead of talking or hanging out with others. My nephew sent back a video of the lunch room: every single student had their eyes glued to a digital device of some sort. The experience kids have in schools isn't what we a…

> My nephew sent back a video of the lunch room: every single student had their eyes glued to a digital device of some sort. Wow, this just makes me intensely sad. We are ruining a generation of humans with these digital narcotics. Say what you want about being a Chicken Little, or that every generation looks at the next generation's behavior with some amount of trepidation ("MTV will corrupt your mind!"), but this f…

Which is why so many districts are pushing for no mobile devices during the school day.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#233

Post by tolerance »

carlosdp wrote: post #11

> Here are some things I struggle with at age 32: > - Social awkwardness and anxiety > - Difficulty in forming IRL friendships > - Impatience with the idea of connecting on a meaningful level with other people: who needs ‘em? > - An abiding sense of detachment from reality I'm the same age and have the same things, and I went to traditional school K through university. Idk if that has much to do with how you were sch…

One commenter proposed ADHD, the other high IQ.

My proposal: Forrest is just an average person guy, those who know him (but not how he feels about himself) may describe him as “well adjusted”. How Forrest feels is a reasonable response to a culture that rewards and incentivizes maladjustment.

Signed on behalf of

Los milenaristas milenarios de militante

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#234

Post by lotsofpulp »

smilebot wrote: post #206
woodruffw wrote: post #164

> These tech parents are hackers by nature, and I think they’re convinced that in homeschooling they’ve happened on the ultimate life hack: just opt out of being around average people. It's difficult to feel optimistic about a society that thinks this way, much less has a cultural and economic elite that is seemingly emboldened to think this way. "Average" people are the norm, the reality that "not average" people wi…

> It's difficult to feel optimistic about a society that thinks this way. Maybe that's not how society thinks? That's one person's opinion.

The well known adage of “buy the cheapest house you can afford in the most expensive neighborhood” is a sign that is what many think. The rat race to make sure your kids are in league with other parents of similar or higher stature is a huge contributor to home price dynamics.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#235

Post by woodruffw »

matrix87 wrote: post #210
woodruffw wrote: post #164

> These tech parents are hackers by nature, and I think they’re convinced that in homeschooling they’ve happened on the ultimate life hack: just opt out of being around average people. It's difficult to feel optimistic about a society that thinks this way, much less has a cultural and economic elite that is seemingly emboldened to think this way. "Average" people are the norm, the reality that "not average" people wi…

> Learning how to co-exist with people who aren't like you is a universally valuable experience, especially for people who would fashion themselves as "not average." If those people have worse habits, are less motivated, less educated, less cultured, what is there to gain from it? Seems like there's only something to lose from adjusting to their shittiness. Like Harrison Bergeron And seeing the state of California tr…

> If those people have worse habits, are less motivated, less educated, less cultured, what is there to gain from it?

This is prejudice in the most basic sense: you literally don't know any of these things about the people you're surrounded by in a society. The person who rides the bus next to you could be a couch potato, or a talented artist, or something entirely different that simply isn't legible to you.

I don't know anything about California's math classes. I'm saying that, on a basic level, anybody who thinks this way about people they don't know is demonstrating the exact traits they're smugly claiming to be above.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#236

Post by nosefurhairdo »

Aurornis wrote: post #182
nosefurhairdo wrote: post #23

I live in a good area and have friends who work in a few different schools out here. Kids are throwing chairs at teachers. There are elementary school classrooms where ~1/4 students don't speak English. The reading/math skills are so dismal, any student who learns at home is bored as hell. Private schools are outrageously expensive. Homeschooling is becoming the pragmatic choice.

> Kids are throwing chairs at teachers. I don’t know where you live, but kids (plural!) assaulting teachers like that would be very unusual. I have a lot of family and friends in elementary education and management. Stories like that are the kind of thing that get talked about for years if they happen, not something that happens enough to be referred to in the plural.

Very expensive suburb of Seattle. I was shocked to hear this as well. Reported to me by my friend who is the school counselor and had to deal with these kids (plural) herself.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#237

Post by squigz »

PaulHoule wrote: post #93
daft_pink wrote: post #36

Personally, I have high functioning autism. I would do terrible at interpersonal relationships, but then get near perfect scores on all the tests. Teachers would anticipate that I would be terrible and then when I got perfect scores on all the tests, they would be pissed off. I think there are a lot of tech people that are neurodivergent and had terrible experiences in school and would love to avoid my child having t…

My son's district has a black superintendent and at least one black principal but otherwise black (and other) kids don't get to see the example of black teachers (and learn school is a "white thing you wouldn't understand" the same way that boys come to the conclusion that school is for girls when they don't see any male teachers -- the problem here is representation-ism that stops at the very top, if they do get a b…

> Today he struggles to talk to girls not because he's afraid of being rejected but because he's afraid of being reported.

Why would anyone be reported to any authority figure for speaking to girls?

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#238

Post by poulsbohemian »

nosefurhairdo wrote: post #23

I live in a good area and have friends who work in a few different schools out here. Kids are throwing chairs at teachers. There are elementary school classrooms where ~1/4 students don't speak English. The reading/math skills are so dismal, any student who learns at home is bored as hell. Private schools are outrageously expensive. Homeschooling is becoming the pragmatic choice.

>There are elementary school classrooms where ~1/4 students don't speak English.

This really gets my hackles up, because my kids grew up in schools with a 50% Spanish speaking population and my partner is a dual-language teacher in a district where Spanish, Russian, and I believe Vietnamese are all taught as first-languages in specialized classrooms. Your assertion around English is misguided. This isn't to say that we don't need to get our kids proficient in English (it is the lingua franca after all), but there's more here than meets the eye. In my area we are headed toward universal bilingual education, which I see as only a good thing. That means that it may take longer to reach full proficiency, but the overall outcome is more capable and prepared students.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#239

Post by miek »

rayiner wrote: post #214
Terr_ wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> spending so much time learning about native Americans and so little time learning math After a bunch of years overseas, I returned to the US to complete my last two years of high school. I was shocked and dismayed by how much time (and stupid memorization-minutiae) was dedicated solely to the 4 years of the US Civil War.

The remarkable thing is that Americans don’t understand their own civilization. They don’t learn anything substantive about the founding U.S. cultures (big differences between Puritans and Jamestown settlers). They don’t study European history as a required course so they know almost nothing about how the modern world came to be (Westphalian nation states, etc). And they learn almost no world history beyond ancient c…

I attended the best school district in my state, and the history education was absolutely miserable. Didn't cover either World War, but covered and re-covered early American history in a very boring, unrevealing way.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#240

Post by poulsbohemian »

gonzobonzo wrote: post #180
nosefurhairdo wrote: post #23

I live in a good area and have friends who work in a few different schools out here. Kids are throwing chairs at teachers. There are elementary school classrooms where ~1/4 students don't speak English. The reading/math skills are so dismal, any student who learns at home is bored as hell. Private schools are outrageously expensive. Homeschooling is becoming the pragmatic choice.

I've known people who were going to some of the top private schools in the U.S. who were still paying for weekend math classes because the schools weren't reaching them at their level. Unfortunately, most educators simply don't seem to care much about high performing students, and they're fine with them not learning anything in the class as long as as the teachers are hitting their goals. I imagine the same attitude…

>Unfortunately, most educators simply don't seem to care much about high performing students

If you really believe this, then sue your school district. In my area, there was a district where parents believed high performers were not getting the necessary resources and through a combination of legal pressure and partnership with the school district, made it a priority in the same way that district had prioritized education for other specialized needs. Don't blame the average teacher though - they are doing what they have budget for and what they've been directed from administration.

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