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Homeschooling hits record numbers

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Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#801

Post by programjames »

wildzzz wrote: post #359
ecshafer wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My kids are not school age yet, and I am not sure on if I will home school or not. But I do think its possible to get good socialization exposure while homeschooling. There is the neighborhood kids, you have sports and clubs kids can join, religious groups. Plus not all homeschooling is just a student staying at home all day. Some people "homeschooling" I know are groups of parents getting together to educate their c…

You don't need a degree in math to teach children age-appropriate math topics. Teachers don't become teachers just because they have a degree in that subject, they have been taught the methods on how to teach. Having prior knowledge of the subject is almost irrelevant. Teaching is really just applying solid methods on how to build knowledge from the most basic concepts as well as having the patience in dealing with h…

My father has a PhD in physics and couldn't really teach me math past seventh grade. On the other hand, my father has a PhD in physics and ran out of math to teach me around seventh grade.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#802

Post by victorbjorklund »

eucyclos wrote: post #733
WalterBright wrote: post #613

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stalin wasn't elected. Neither was Gorbachev.

North Vietnam's leaders were. So was Iran's.

technically North Korea has had elected leaders since the founding. They have elections in North Korea. Doesn’t make me convinced North Korea isn’t a communist dictatorship.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#803

Post by programjames »

chongli wrote: post #780
BeFlatXIII wrote: post #768

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish there was a way to filter out those dumb-dumbs from the teaching profession. Stop ruining students’ future math ability.

There isn't. That's why homeschooling is taking off. People invest absolutely everything into their childrens' future. They're tired of seeing that investment wasted by subpar teaching and dysfunctional schools.

There is, but lowering standards is a cheap trick to get a bonus/promotion.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#804

Post by programjames »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #469
TheGRS wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That has been the case for a long time, and I guess something about the current generation of parents has gotten them to act more on it. My dad came from a very religious family and they all did private religious schools for their early grade school years. Then they went to public for high school years. If I had to guess, its maybe something about the demise of church life that has gotten religious parents to just pu…

> It wasn't that uncommon for public schools to make nods toward Christian ideals/lifestyles before like the 90s, but now that stuff just doesn't happen anymore. Schools should absolutely teach Christian mythology and history, and Greek mythology and history, and Egyptian mythology and history, alongside many other subjects. But to the extent that they used to make "nods" towards "this is the cultural default we defe…

Why? How does this benefit the students, except in understanding allusions in books and poetry? Or is that the goal, in which case, sure, but I think Eastern mythologies should be included too.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#805

Post by programjames »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #510
TheGRS wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That has been the case for a long time, and I guess something about the current generation of parents has gotten them to act more on it. My dad came from a very religious family and they all did private religious schools for their early grade school years. Then they went to public for high school years. If I had to guess, its maybe something about the demise of church life that has gotten religious parents to just pu…

States are saying that schools have to post the 10 commandments and when teachers put up a poster about “everyone is welcomed here” showing kids of different colors it’s “too woke”. Which is funny since I (a Black guy) went to a mostly White Christian school in the 80s where they sung “Jesus loves the little children - red and yellow black and white they are all precious in his site”.

> States are saying that schools have to post the 10 commandments

Yeah that definitely seems against the First Amendment (and Texas' equivalent in their Bill of Rights). I feel like the world makes more sense if you read the First Amendment as a treaty between the Christian sects that were executing one another in the colonies for heresy, rather than y'know what it literally says.

> when teachers put up a poster about “everyone is welcomed here” showing kids of different colors it’s “too woke”.

Keep gang signs out of the classroom. In places where university rivalries are high, teachers are also asked to keep ensignia off their doors. It's the same here. "Everyone is welcomed here" (without a cross) is now a callsign for "registered Democrat". Imagine if a teacher put a big "don't trample on me" sign with a snake... I feel like that would send a message other than, "be respectful in class."

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#806

Post by nightshift1 »

bgnn wrote: post #412

Asking as an non-US person: Is there mandatory education for children in the US? I guess homeschooling fits well with extreme individualistic American culture, no surprises there.

As a Canadian, all I can say after reading all of this is: WTF? I can't understand why anyone would want to keep their children at home instead of sending them to school, and how the government could fail so badly that so many people want to avoid public schools. We are so similar and yet so different

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#807

Post by programjames »

WalterBright wrote: post #714
chii wrote: post #711

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The schools also get more funding if the students perform poorly. that's such a weird policy. The teachers can produce poorly performing students easily (without much effort i might add), but cannot do that very same for well performing students (even with effort). The incentive to produce poor performing students to get more funding means it's misaligned with the student's best interests. Schools and students _sho…

> that's such a weird policy Yup. I've taken adult lessons in things, and I don't continue to buy lessons if the coach is unable to teach me. But in the public schools, watch what happens if you suggest merit pay. Shields up, Mr Sulu! Instead, teacher pay is based on years of service and how many credentials you have.

We could all learn from Hengshui.

(This is kind of a joke, because while the Hengshui school system is much more meritocratic, including in teacher salaries, it's also infamous for a stressful school environment. It's not really a joke though. While there are problems with the long hours, it's definitely better than whatever America has going on.)

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#808

Post by programjames »

gbacon wrote: post #512
usefulcat wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are certainly tradeoffs, but it's not all negative. In my experience, what it boils down to is that home-schooled kids tend to have more experience with adults and less experience dealing with a wide variety of other kids, particularly assholes. When I was a kid in public school, there was no shortage of assholes and I definitely would have preferred to not have to deal with them. OTOH, I don't doubt that there…

All over this discussion, the big negative has nothing to do with missing out on stellar education, skill development, or expert teachers. Instead, it’s the perpetual handwringing that homeschooled kids won’t be Properly Socialized, i.e. , be exposed to and have to endure mistreatment, disruption, and sometimes assault from other maladjusted, cruel, or even mentally ill peers — because that’s “the real world.” This i…

A common justification for group projects was, "you have to learn how to work with people, even people who will not work." Yeah no, that's not the case. People get filtered through a much finer sieve when they're older.

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#809

Post by programjames »

ryandrake wrote: post #362
BrenBarn wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Religion is definitely a big motivator. My perception though is other motivations have been on the increase, especially since the pandemic. One other group attracted to homeschooling is the hippie-type who thinks school is some kind of diabolical machine designed to crush kids' souls. Since the pandemic there's also been a big surge in the "I don't trust vaccines" group (which already had a good deal of overlap with…

I have a feeling a really large percentage of homeschooling is about religious separatism and political separatism, and not about academic performance. Yes, you'll hear HN commenters sing the praises of homeschooling because this site is going to be disproportionately represented by the group doing it for actual educational reasons. Also, we HN commenters typically see the success stories around us at work, not the f…

I don't want the separatism, but I also want the ability to give my kids a decent education. There ought to be some way to determine which is which. Do you have any ideas?

Re: Homeschooling hits record numbers

#810

Post by programjames »

afavour wrote: post #255
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…

> 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? ...a healthy community hand-picked by parents is not "the real world" though, is it? I think your view is a very black and white one. Kid…

> ...a healthy community hand-picked by parents is not "the real world" though, is it?

It's much closer to the real world though, isn't it? Your child is likely going to live most of their life in similar communities to them, not a wide cross section of the public.

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