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

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

#511

Post by ryzvonusef »

SamBam wrote: post #470
jawns wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There were a few things that led to us recognizing and adjusting our biases. But what led us to homeschool ourselves was pretty straightforward. My wife was a teacher in private schools for about 7 years, and once our oldest was ready for kindergarten, we decided that she could either go out and teach other people's kids, or she could homeschool and teach her own kids.

If I could pry further, that doesn't seem a "straightforward" answer to me, it sounds a little pat. Both my wife and I are teachers, and have kids, and we don't have a problem "teaching other people's children" -- that's why we went into teaching.

I assume the cost of the children's formal education (private school might have discounts for employees, but they still probably have to pay some fees), plus possibly the lower salary of teachers might have been a factor. (also daycare costs for the kids not school going age yet)

If they are saving money by not paying school fees, and having to transport family and wife to the school/daycare everyday, and they are getting a professional qualified teacher at home, with a very favourable teacher : student ratio and unlimited teaching time....

well I can understand why they are willing to take the hit of losing the teacher-spouse's salary.

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

#512

Post by CuriouslyC »

ethbr1 wrote: post #472
CuriouslyC wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Research shows that people learn well when there is the right amount of stress, and the right challenge. If the stress and challenge exceeds that amount it can quickly become destructive, which is what we see in your typical public school for any child who isn't primarily concerned with "fitting in." At best, public school is useful. At worst, it's a massive waste of time and absolutely destructive to a young psyche.…

"Fitting in" is no small thing. The world would be better today if more people had the ability to empathize with someone not-them, sufficiently adjust their own way of interacting to put others at ease, and generally be less abrasive and fragile. And if we want to talk in absolutes... At best, public school provides an opportunity to learn socialization that cannot be replicated in a home environment. At worst, you g…

The problem with this "fitting in" narrative is that as adults we don't care about it so much, people enjoy meeting new and unusual people (as long as they're baseline socially functional), there's a huge social stigma against being bigoted so basically everyone views adult bullies as worthless assholes and the cops will arrest people for much less than bullies get away with on the school yard every day even in the face of repeated parental protest.

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

#513

Post by ryzvonusef »

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…

could you share more about the mechanics of it?

Do you have a separate "school" room? All the kids in one room, or separately? How many hours each day? How effective is your spouse in partitioning the "parent vs teacher" roles? How does your spouse manage to handle your kids in different "classes" (and thus education stages) at the same time?

I understand to Home-school in some US states, you are supposed to follow some sort of curriculum, how much flexibility do you have?

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

#514

Post by BeetleB »

foogazi wrote: post #363
BeetleB wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But that’s the problem with a standardization. What are the odds that all kids need the same amount of time for all subjects They acknowledge that, but it doesn't change the thought process, right? If I know my kids can learn 70% more than they do in public schools, and have all the skills/tools to provide it to them, I don't care about the reason schools are inefficient. The sentiment that homeschooling parents ha…

> For certain key subjects (history, math, science, etc), if you failed just one subject you get held back and have to repeat the whole year. Insane

They did give you a chance to do a makeup exam at the end of the summer. If you passed it, you'd get to go to the next year.

I don't find it insane at all. Well, perhaps for the lower grades, but once you're in the 5th or 6th grade, the kids are mature enough to handle it. As are their parents.

In my class, failures weren't that common - perhaps less than 5% of kids - although there was a sharp increase in the 9th grade, which is when the subjects get considerably more difficult (and I guess kids' hormones kick in).

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

#515

Post by CuriouslyC »

nickthegreek wrote: post #509
CuriouslyC wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tears eventually end with your child bringing a weapon to school or going hulk and slamming another kid's head on concrete like that viral meme you probably can remember, then getting suspended, getting put in Juvi, and having their life fucked up even worse.

Statistically? No they do not.

Maybe have a look at the rise of school shootings, student suicides and children bringing weapons to school (to the degree that there are metal detectors in schools all over the place now). Kids were bringing knives to school to fend off bullies back when I went to school, and getting stabbed with uncomfortable frequency, and that was 30+ years ago in a halfway decent neighborhood.

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

#516

Post by whatshisface »

Jka9rhnDJos wrote: post #481
whatshisface wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No parent's agenda is for their child to be kicked around by another kid.

Right, because children are never abused at home…

I added the phrase "by another kid" so nobody would reply with that but it looks like it didn't work because... you might not have read to the end? :-P

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

#517

Post by anon84873628 »

cystitis wrote: post #444
anon84873628 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not the steel man, that's a straw man where you just flipped the politics of the scenario. Letting kids feel safe to introspect and question their gender expression is a good thing. The implication that kids will be _systematically_ forced to delay puberty or undergo a transition they don't want is absurd and not a valid "chain of reasoning". Yes, I'm sure it has happened and could continue in rare instances b…

It's less rare than you might think, here are some statistics from US insurance claims, which is a lower bound as the wealthier may choose to pay privately: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-tran... Note this includes surgery on girls as young as 13 years old, to remove their breasts.

Those numbers are still "rare" and don't tell us that kids are being coerced.

My assumption for now is that the increase is due to latent demand and wider awareness & acceptance. We need to see the steady state after a decade or so.

Several of my high school classmates (from the mid-2000s) started transitioning as soon as they could skip town and decide their own life. And it was clear they had known and wanted it for a long time prior.

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

#518

Post by gemstones »

CuriouslyC wrote: post #510
gemstones wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard this “but we have homeschool play groups! It’s different!” in the 2000s from every single one of the parents for whom homeschool was a disaster. It’s funny hearing it fresh here.

I suspect this has more to do with your social circle, which given the density of homeschoolers is probably either hyper-religious, doomsday preppers or some other dysfunctional subculture, and I'm not surprised those children would grow up to hate their parents. To be fair though, I'd imagine an hour or two a week of socialization is still quite insufficient. On the flip side, 10+ hours a day of socialization is unq…

Nope! My parents were secular parents avoiding a struggling inner-city public school system, hoping to have their children take advanced mathematics courses. Same with the rest of the group.

So I heard the same refrain from you that I heard from my parents and their peers, decades later from someone I don’t know, and your takeaway is that we must be in very different circumstances? Bud, you’re almost certainly reusing the same homeschooling materials and curriculum help my own parents did.

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

#519

Post by user3939382 »

andrepd wrote: post #496
user3939382 wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has. Some of the issues parents have to worry about today parents of the past couldn’t even imagine.

Yep, bullying and poor pedagogy I can tolerate, but I draw the line at teaching kids about condoms and consent.

[flagged]

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

#520

Post by meetingthrower »

floating-io wrote: post #434
emodendroket wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Parents are not the only ones who push their own desires and beliefs. Thought experiment: how many members of the group that decides the curriculum vote Republican or Independent? Scuttlebutt (unverified by me) is that most folks in US schools and on US school boards are Democrats. Regardless of one’s opinion on political matters, that (if true) would suggest a certain uniformity of thought, and the likely prese…

Did you totally miss the part where I clearly indicated that I’ve not bothered to research and find out if it’s true? Hanging around schools to observe it firsthand would be pretty damned creepy at my age since I don’t work in education and don’t have kids. Nor do I pay much attention to the board elections for the same reason. The fact that those running for board positions typically have their political affiliation…

Another wrong thing - virtually ALL school board elections have no political party affiliation. There is currently a crazy movement by the right to institute that, but for the most part it is not true.
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