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Homeschooling hits record numbers

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Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#701

Post by synecdoche »

atoav wrote: post #671
hereme888 wrote: post #234

The biggest misunderstanding I hear year-over-year is homeschoolers are "not exposed to the real world". Isolation exists for some, but my extensive interaction with homeschoolers is they are immersed in healthy communities, hand-picked by parents to keep away problem children. Who would plant a flower next to a sick or hostile one? Parents of healthy children should give 0 s*ts of societal/political pressure against…

> Who would plant a flower next to a sick or hostile one? A gardener who understands that after that short grace period that plant will have to grow amongst those sick and hostile ones essentially and not only that, it will have to form a thriving ecosystem with them. I get the idea of wanting to protect your child at all cost and wanting the best possible education for them. Rarely have I found that former students…

>> Who would plant a flower next to a sick or hostile one?

> A gardener who understands that after that short grace period that plant will have to grow amongst those sick and hostile ones essentially and not only that, it will have to form a thriving ecosystem with them.

If, on the other hand, the gardener knows from experience that the flower will be suffocated, then it's pointless at best and cruel at worst.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#702

Post by roenxi »

only-one1701 wrote: post #567
JoshTriplett wrote: post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They're more awkward around kids their age, but far less awkward around adults. They know how to speak and act, in large part. This is another argument that "by age" is not the best way to find one's academic or social peers. Some people in 2nd grade should be in high school. Some people in high school should be in 2nd grade. (And, academically, sometimes that's different by subject; some people need to be in 2nd g…

This is one of the most insane comments I’ve ever read on a hackernews story. Age is very much important when finding one’s social peers as a child.

Diversity of peers is generally a win. Children aren't supposed to be learning how to act based on what other children are doing - it is a crowd where no-one has any idea how to behave. Kids by nature are supposed to be developing in the company of adults.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#703

Post by Scottn1 »

lisbbb wrote: post #492
Scottn1 wrote: post #56

Homeschooling is becoming an epidemic and a major reason is --- SPORTS. From my experience, it is growing for all the wrong reasons and I have not come across ONE family doing it properly and in a matter I would consider better for the kid. I have a 15yo son who plays sports and for the past 5 years, homeschooling has been a way to "red-shirt" kids - hold them back a year or two then re-entering them into public scho…

You should not be downvoted for telling the truth about your experiences! I have witnessed the same things. Kids being held back a grade so they can excel in sports! It is so ridiculously self-serving and narcissistic that it is crazy to witness. And the emphasis on sports at my son's high school is beyond ridiculous. The dads especially need to get back to basics and stop these obsessions they have about their kids…

I've met so many of these narcissistic dad types that I think they are either a) living vicariously though their sons as an ego thing or b) seriously think they are sitting on a winning lottery ticket and their kids will make pro. So they obsessively push the kids so they don't "waste their opportunity" and/or "don't make mistake I did and not take it seriously".

I have even felt that urge with my son at times when he was making Little League All-star teams each year and considered top 5 player in the league. But then you realize they are only 9-12 years old and playing on a mini field! So I relished in him just having FUN. It was so hard to be around those obsessive Dads when I was having fun practices.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#704

Post by dmje »

snerbles wrote: post #345
iambateman wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was homeschooled and my son is homeschooled. I disagree with your premise that homeschooling pushes kids out of group human contact. People who attend public school often assume that kids who attend homeschool literally sit at home all day...which is just not...real?

It was the predominant notion when I was a homeschooled kid 30 years ago, and for most of them there is no argument or evidence that will convince them otherwise. State-run education is their orthodoxy, and anything that challenges that is tantamount to heresy.

No, I totally get it. If you're home schooled maybe you get out to see a few kids, go do some lessons in a forest classroom or whatever. All good. But it's still not the dynamic, varied (sometimes uncomfortable) environment of school classrooms, corridors, playtimes, etc.

Again, to re-iterate, I don't want kids to be uncomfortable as a norm, but bashing up against other groups, cultures, opinions - finding your friends, finding people you dislike, learning how to work with social cues - all of this is important grounding for later life. What do you spend your life doing? Bashing up against other groups, cultures, opinions.

I also can't help but notice that amongst our friends who homeschool there is a very strong correlation between parents who didn't go to school and their kids not going to school. Around us this rarely seems to be about some kind of positive choice, mainly it's parent exudes strong "I didn't like school" vibes and kid picks it up and runs with it.

Creating silos where you closet away and attempt to "protect" people from the outside world has never, ever been good. Social Media (should) have taught us that.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#705

Post by squigz »

deadeye wrote: post #593
lanfeust6 wrote: post #583

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Many are filled with kids that aren't there to learn. That's on the kid, not contingent on whether school is public. > most here report being bullied. Anecdotes like this are not worth much. What do the stats say? > There is really nothing intrinsically good about the average public school. Schools don't just socialize, though that is also important. Whether they succeed at educating well depends on more than one f…

>That's on the kid, not contingent on whether school is public. Yes and no. The interest of the kid to learn is on the kid/family, for sure. However, the fact that a kid who has no interest in learning is forced to go to public school is a function of how public schools operate. Again, free and required is a bad model. They should either be free and selective or, less ideally, available and costly.

> Again, free and required is a bad model. They should either be free and selective or, less ideally, available and costly.

This is a good way to ensure the most vulnerable members of your society don't get educated. But I suppose that might be a feature to some people.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#706

Post by globular-toast »

ec2y wrote: post #28

Lemme just question how home schooling is at all possible without one parent (statically more likely to be a woman) staying home to supervise the learning. I don’t think we’re talking about remote ranch situations where you either do online school or have to send them to boarding school. So I’m genuinely wondering if there’s a corresponding exit from the workplace or other demographic trends allowing/pushing this boo…

Great news if true. "Staying home" is working and it's great that more people are finding it possible to work for themselves and their families rather than an employer who doesn't care about them. I think it was just a temporary blip where 100% of people worked for someone else and had to somehow then pay for or do their own work too.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#707

Post by globular-toast »

rufus_foreman wrote: post #484
jedberg wrote: post #425

I went to college with a few homeschooled kids. They were by far the least capable of "normal" social interaction. Some were quite book smart, but they had trouble communicating with others, so they couldn't demonstrate it. Also a fun side effect, they mispronounced a lot of words that they had only ever seen in books but never heard out loud. One of them was self-aware enough to ask us to correct him.

>> they mispronounced a lot of words that they had only ever seen in books but never heard out loud I did that as a kid. Still do. I read more than I talk. Nothing wrong with that. The flip side would be people who misspell words or get phrases wrong because they've never seen them in books, they've only heard them out loud. They talk more than they read. Nothing wrong with that. Although both of those might be a clu…

I do that too. What am I supposed to do? Nobody said the word "ephemeral" to me as a child. I have since learnt the OED includes pronunciation so I look words up if I remember, but sometimes I don't.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#708

Post by discardable_dan »

_blk wrote: post #519
OneLeggedCat wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the rural areas that I've lived in, it's mostly about a strong desire to supplant science and history with religious ideas and principles.

I won't pretend to know where you live or what those people's desires are but I definitely started homeschooling after the last US administration took moral volatility to new standards. The principles taught in schools just did not align anymore with what was common sense when I was in school and what I believe in. Now before you judge, I'm not looking for a fight. My wife and I have both master-degree educations in…

So, to be clear, you pulled your children out of public school because students were being educated to accept other people who do not adhere to their own set of religious and cultural beliefs, in a country founded on freedom of religion?

And now instead of learning science in a lab and socializing, they are forced to maintain your farm?

What an good job you are doing!

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#709

Post by globular-toast »

I'm the only person in my (large) family to go to university. In fact I went "all the way" and have a PhD. There's no way I could have been home schooled by my parents, they simply don't have a deep enough understanding of things beyond maybe age 10 for me. But, interestingly, it was my dad who taught me HTML, not school, and that's what I've ended up doing as a career. My dad never took HTML, or programming in general, that far, but it certainly set me on my way.

In a way this is a return to older times when children would learn the trades of their parents. I think that's great, but I do wonder how kids will acquire the broader education. Knowing how to program is really only a small part of what makes me valuable.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#710

Post by lanyard-textile »

bell-cot wrote: post #664
only-one1701 wrote: post #567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of the most insane comments I’ve ever read on a hackernews story. Age is very much important when finding one’s social peers as a child.

Per HN's Comment Guidelines, I'd assume that Josh meant sorting students by both physical age and subject skill levels. The physical/emotional differences between 2nd graders and HS kids are obvious enough. OTOH, one of my grandmothers spent her education career in a one room school house, teaching all subjects to grades 1-8. With the right social context , it can work very well.

It seems like a great way to foster a sense of community.

Our peers are more than people our age. They are the people older and younger than us too.

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