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Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

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Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#511

Post by lm28469 »

dijit wrote: post #389

OK I guess I’m going to go against the deluge of comments here; And give an appreciable reason instead of denigrating those who might choose this. The context, though, I am British. I grew up in Britain. I went to British school. I can’t speak universally about my experience, (even within all of Britain), because it’s my experience which is in one small area of the country. However, school, for me, was by far the sin…

> I find it hard to think of school as anything more than forced internment for children while their parents go to work

Open an history book and look how it was before schooling was free and mandatory.

I do agree that the most recent spin on it is far from ideal and that the underlying goals seem to have shifted, but I can clearly and easily imagine an alternative way that doesn't involve home schooling.

The problem is the same as in many other industries, once you optimise everything to please the capitalistic beast we created you're set for personal hell

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#512

Post by arkey »

UltraSane wrote: post #201
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.

Homeschooling parents are divided into two separate groups. One is secular with college degrees who really want to give their children a better education than they could get in a school AND are able to do so. The other group are very religious who don't want their children learning about evolution or many other secular things. The only real issue I have with homeschooling in the US is that regulations vary wildly by…

Those groups do overlap.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#513

Post by triyambakam »

froh wrote: post #351

I find looking beyond the rim of your own plate such an inspiring thing when it comes to schooling. Germany for example prohibits home schooling. don't breed detached extremists. however Germany thinks binning kids into handcrafts, simple office jobs and academia at age nine (!) is a brilliant idea o-O. but then on the upside again, you will go to school for at least 13 years if you get _any_ kind of qualified profes…

> don't breed detached extremists.

There are plenty... Who's that Nazi kid with the face tattoos? I don't remember his name.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#514

Post by lelanthran »

wisty wrote: post #350
rTX5CMRXIfFG wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Please try to be civil. I mentioned phonics, do you agree with what I said on it or not?

What's wrong with phonics? Look-see as the only other alternative that I know of has awful results.

What did you have in mind?

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#515

Post by troupe »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #238
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…

There is a very big difference between a bilingual school and a school where half the kids don't understand the language that math is being taught in.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#516

Post by arkey »

UltraSane wrote: post #304
aliasxneo wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way this is written seems to imply that religious people don't have similar (or the same) reasons as secular people.

I suppose from their perspective they do but from my perspective they are just going to raise scientifically ignorant people. I was raised young earth creationist Lutheran and understand this world quite well.

On the other hand, my sister is a firm Creationist Christian, has a PhD and had a brilliant career in research (albeit nothing directly related to 'The Beginning of All Things').

Chances are she is less "scientifically ignorant" than many people around here, myself included.

Just like my sister's, yours is a specific case. It's sad that they didn't teach you Creation in a way that wouldn't cancel out Science, as Science itself is something profoundly Christian as well.

"O, Almighty God, I am thinking Thy thoughts after Thee!..." - Johannes Kepler

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#517

Post by synecdoche »

froh wrote: post #351

I find looking beyond the rim of your own plate such an inspiring thing when it comes to schooling. Germany for example prohibits home schooling. don't breed detached extremists. however Germany thinks binning kids into handcrafts, simple office jobs and academia at age nine (!) is a brilliant idea o-O. but then on the upside again, you will go to school for at least 13 years if you get _any_ kind of qualified profes…

”don't breed detached extremists”

This doesn’t follow. In addition, there are plenty who fit that description who did go to a state school.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#518

Post by scotty79 »

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…

"Average" does a lot of heavy lifiting here. People who affluent try to avoid are dangerous, mentally scarred and physically sick people. And if that's who you call average then it's a testament to failure of society and our systems. That's what the affluent are trying to check out of. They are the only ones who can try.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#519

Post by wccrawford »

dijit wrote: post #497
wccrawford wrote: post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to a school that had a lot of good teachers, and I learned a lot from them. But when it came to bullies, the school was just as you described. Worse, the punishment for being in a fight was the same whether you started it or you were just beaten up. If you made the fight get noticed, you got punished. It was quite clear that they had no interest in stopping the fights, just in making sure they didn't get repor…

I’m sorry you went through that. I hope life has been kinder to you following this. :(

Generally speaking, yeah. Someone else mentioned the system preparing you for life later, and I can see where the bullies made me stronger as well.

I definitely don't condone all that as a way to get stronger, but at least I got something from it. Silver linings and all.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#520

Post by circlefavshape »

rayiner wrote: post #498
readdit wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe early grade schools should be relatively broad in the subjects they teach. Not every child will be interested in math or science. And there's nothing wrong with that. I feel many parents don't agree, especially those from a technical background. A healthy society should have a diverse set of skills across many disciplines. Though I do believe if children are interested in furthering their study on a particu…

It’s shameful to not be interested in math and science—that’s like saying you’re not interested in reading. But putting that aside, the other subjects should be educational. I remember what triggered my mom was us spending an inordinate amount of time making clay models of Native American villages. American kids shouldn’t graduate high school knowing more about the shapes of Native American houses than the conceptual…

> It’s shameful to not be interested in math and science

What? Don't you know anyone who is not a nerd? I know many very fine people with no interest in either, and they have nothing to be ashamed of

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