Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education • Hacker News Board

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#341

Post by anon291 » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 8:18 PM UTC

FireBeyond wrote: post #252

jawns wrote: post #150

People talk about homeschooling as if it's one single concept, but it's actually a whole bunch of very dissimilar things. There are people who homeschool because they don't agree with the government's viewpoints, people who homeschool because the public school system has failed their kids, people who homeschool because it just happens to fit their lifestyle. Those are all very different motivations. Likewise, there a…

> Beyond that, there are parents who are well equipped to homeschool and parents who are not. And there is a small but hard-to-ignore percentage who claim to homeschool but really neglect their kids. There's such a disparity between states. States like mine require homeschooled kids to occasionally attend actual school for check in or certain classes, and participate in the same testing (regardless of your opinion of…

> Texas is working on an amendment that ostensibly cuts taxes on child care facilities to make them more affordable. It's very easy to tell that those savings won't be passed on to consumers. In reality, it's very much more a pro-homeschooling thing. "Homeschool your kids and save on your property taxes".

A 'childcare facility' typically refers to something kids go to before school. I've noticed several other commenters make the claim that those who are not using daycare facilities for their non-school-age children (i.e., the norm up until the late 90s) is a form of 'homeschooling'.

It's not. Raising your young non-school-aged children at home is the normal way people have raised their children

I have no opinion on Texas's law, but it doesn't sound like it's about homeschooling

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#342

Post by brightball » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 8:19 PM UTC

hombre_fatal wrote: post #171

MadcapJake wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like people are reinventing all the same stuff schools do at scale. Can't we be more efficient as a society? Not to mention the privilege that is draped over every detail of this setup.

Scale isn't necessarily good. I went to a massive highschool in Texas and suspect I would have had a far better experience in a much smaller school whether it be a homeschooling co-op or a small public school (the latter didn't exist in my hometown, only massive Texan highschools). And my best classes in uni weren't the massive lectures at the University of Texas but rather small summer school classes I took in a che…

"Reinventing the wheel leads to better wheels." - Don't remember where I heard it, but it's a good line.

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#343

Post by watwut » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 8:19 PM UTC

keiferski wrote: post #8

This is a fundamental change of life, and it’s astonishing that it’s so persistent. It is pretty misleading for this article to talk about homeschooling being a “fundamental change” without mentioning that homeschooling was the default practice for most of human history. If anything, this is just a return to a long-established practice, not a fringe movement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeschooling

Default state for most human history was that only small minority of people can read and write. It also meant that majority of people have no say in public affairs.

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#344

Post by tw04 » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 8:19 PM UTC

jawns wrote: post #150

People talk about homeschooling as if it's one single concept, but it's actually a whole bunch of very dissimilar things. There are people who homeschool because they don't agree with the government's viewpoints, people who homeschool because the public school system has failed their kids, people who homeschool because it just happens to fit their lifestyle. Those are all very different motivations. Likewise, there a…

Sure, but ultimately when kids receive vastly different childhood educations, it will eventually fracture society because we're all starting from a completely different set of beliefs. Even if some schools are "better" or "worse" for the most part they have similar curriculum. As time goes on and that curriculum diverges, it'll make the political fractures in society today seem like a walk in the park IMO.

The social aspect of schooling is just as important as the educational part of it. There's a reason growing up when we had home schooled kids that joined for their high school years, they were the "weird kids" - they just had absolutely no idea how to interact socially with their peers. And for some folks that carries on to adulthood.

Disclaimer: my parents were public school teachers, and seeing the system deteriorate feels like a travesty. The number of parents who think school is daycare is disheartening to say the least.

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#345

Post by boxed » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 8:19 PM UTC

scarmig wrote: post #303

fzeroracer wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A homeschooling co-op is literally us just reinventing the wheel. A large enough co-op becomes a school system and a school system eventually adopts a standard curriculum.

People who do co-ops might not object to public schooling in principle but to the particular implementation that their locality has adopted. If co-ops becomes public schools with better management, all the better.

And if they become public schools with worse management and driven by crazy people.. what then?

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#346

Post by jdminhbg » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 8:20 PM UTC

twobitshifter wrote: post #302

jawns wrote: post #150

People talk about homeschooling as if it's one single concept, but it's actually a whole bunch of very dissimilar things. There are people who homeschool because they don't agree with the government's viewpoints, people who homeschool because the public school system has failed their kids, people who homeschool because it just happens to fit their lifestyle. Those are all very different motivations. Likewise, there a…

How do you deal with the cases where kids are neglected or indoctrinated against American society?

Take them out of public schools, I guess?

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#347

Post by anon291 » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 8:21 PM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #266

lapetitejort wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much everything I know I picked up in community college about six years after graduating high school with a 2.6 GPA. I like to think I'm a smart and empathetic person. I would love to meet the person who got to use those innate skills at a young age instead of having to dredge up whatever remained after a decade of neglect.

I think this is a highly individualized question depending on the circumstances. I'd qualify as smart depending on the metric. I actually went to a private school (the public schools in the area were complete garbage and out of control - bomb threats, drugs, etc at the middle school level). It really wasn't that challenging and most of my useful knowledge beyond the basic read/write/math is self taught. Most of the s…

I will second this. I went to a normal parochial school and my wife went to a normal public school and we both agree that our higher-than-average educational outcomes were due to self-teaching and tons of parental tutoring.

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#348

Post by Manuel_D » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 8:22 PM UTC

keiferski wrote: post #43

jwestbury wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many behaviours which were common throughout human history which would now be fringe movements. Human and/or animal sacrifices, for instance.

If animal sacrifice became common again, I would expect articles to mention the fact that it was a human practice for millennia – and not pretend it's just a fringe thing those pesky Other People invented. Homeschooling was also the default thing a ±century ago, while you'd need to go back pretty far to find true animal/human sacrifice in European/European-American culture.

The default thing in preindustrial societies was no formal education for the vast majority of the population. The elite - a small slice of the population - was homeschooled by private tutors, and artisans (also small % of population) went into apprenticeships. This isn't really analogous to a vision of the world where the majority of the population is schooled at home.

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#349

Post by gameman144 » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 8:22 PM UTC

efd6821b wrote: post #335

verisimi wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> religious indoctrination indoctrination is a given. Do you prefer your secular type, the religious type or the government type?

All education is intertwined with indoctrination. At least religious indoctrination is a known quantity, unlike other less self-aware forms.

This is a pretty strong take. I'd be curious whether you believe that education is inherently indoctrination, or whether all current education approaches are just also indoctrinating?

I disagree on both counts, but it seems like the claims there are pretty different in how extreme they are.

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#350

Post by watwut » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 8:23 PM UTC

ejb999 wrote: post #116

Loughla wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The college I most recently consulted with had to take a homeschool "transcript" that can literally be a signed paper from the parent handwritten with nothing to back it up. It's astounding. I don't know if that's just because that particular state doesn't have very strict rules around homeschooling, or if that's standard; I just haven't done the research.

how is this worse than some schools not even requiring students to be able to read, write and do some mathematics in order to graduate with a HS diploma? https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/oregon-suspends-graduation...

Difference is thatbin one case it is a scandal that is investigated. In the other, there is no one to investigate, no rules are broken, it is just homeschooling exactly as meant to be per law.