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Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

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Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#821

Post by triyambakam »

froh wrote: post #616
triyambakam wrote: post #513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

yah, Prof. TikTok (and Dr. FB before that), personally targeting political views, that's magic. can't blame schooling for that. it's rather _despite_ schooling. and it happens worldwide (thus my wild guess about TikTok and similar media products)

I'm saying your thesis is wrong. Public schooling doesn't prevent extremists and homeschooling doesn't breed extremists.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#822

Post by cbsmith »

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 hear everything you are saying, but...

Now imagine that all that is true, except it's your home.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#823

Post by dani__german »

Scubabear68 wrote: post #817
aaroninsf wrote: post #784

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"millions of parents", "their schools" should be "me", "my school." If your school isn't good, I recommend improving if for every other kid, who didn't pull the lottery ticket of affluent parents with flexible jobs. School boards benefit from parents who care and are competent.

I had to rewrite my response a few time to remove all the curse words. At least in NJ, you have no idea what you are talking about. Our school laws are completely broken. Just so you know I have spent about 300 hours a year for the past three years fighting with, dealing with, trying to improve our district.

The Hard-core History podcast had a very similar exchange.

American: well if your communist government is mistreating you, simply vote for a different president!

Cue a million responses just like yours showing how it just isn't possible.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#824

Post by paxiongmap »

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…

As another product of the British 'education' system, this is all very familiar.

If you're interested in some content that really helped me understand why I hated school so completely, I recommend "Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling" by John Taylor Gatto, and "Free to Learn" by Peter Gray. Peter Gray also has a very nice blog called "Play Makes Us Human" at https://petergray.substack.com/

As a parent of a toddler, deciding on schooling options is one of the most serious decisions I'll have to make with my partner over the coming years and it terrifies me. Home schooling is a very attractive option from my perspective, but only due to lack of alternatives that offer the sort of nurturing and positive environment that I want my child to have.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#825

Post by briffle »

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…

> Education? You probably mean repeating exercises in rote? You likely mean memorisation? That’s not education.

Funny enough, in the US, most states changed their methods of teaching (especially math) 10-20 years ago. And facebook is still filled with parents (although probably mostly grandparents) bitching about not understanding "common core math" without trying to understand it, and expressing how they learned via rote memorization and that is what we should use instead.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#826

Post by paxiongmap »

ravenstine wrote: post #698
PaulHoule wrote: post #648

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The principal always told me "just walk away" and I said, "You fool, the bullies have legs". The key thing that enables bullying is your being confined in a space with them. Bullying can leave scars that last a lifetime that will affect your employment, your relationships, your children, everything. Not least hearing complete crap from authorities primes you to distrust authorities unconditionally.

I can see why an adult who's never dealt with these difficulties in childhood would give that sort of advice, but it's bewildering how school administrators weren't (and probably still aren't) trained on the reality that "just walk away" is a platitude in the context of an environment where bullies have a captive audience. It reminds me of how we were told "stick and stones will break my bones but words will never hu…

XKCD is universal... https://xkcd.com/1216/

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#827

Post by cogman10 »

I'm a huge supporter of public education. I think it's one of the most important things for the government to fund.

And, unfortunately, that's part of what's moving me towards homeschooling my child. We've not 100% decided on it yet. However, we are on the brink.

The issue we have is our school is underfunded and our child has special needs. Their day in class, from what we've observed, is primarily just daycare with no actual schooling. Even though they are on the border of being severe, they have no interaction with their peers which is a major reason we wanted them in school in the first place. The end result is they are spending a very large amount of time watching youtube or sitting in a corner.

The issue is our school district and our state does not want to fund public schools. They want to find ways to send money to private schools. The end result is the salaries for everyone involved are pitiful. Everyone that deals with my kid at school works 2 jobs. Some of them are making more money at mcdonalds than at school. And, surprise, the end result is even if they want to find staffers they can't find them.

Our district further bans parents from volunteering. So even though my wife is a SAHM, she can't lend a hand in my child's school to make up the staffing problem and improve my kid's education.

All of this has pushed us towards wanting to homeschool. Which really sucks because I don't think that's the ideal education for my child. I worry that we'll have gaps in the education we try to give them. I worry that they won't get to socialize with any peers. I worry that they will ultimately get left behind. But school isn't providing what we want.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#828

Post by rossdavidh »

So, I don't claim to have Big Data on this, but I homeschooled my child, and one of the most common things in homeschooling I saw was that people used co-ops. Thus, the kids are around other kids, and the parent doesn't have to know everything.

In my case, I chose it because the public schools in my part of town (low income) were low achieving, and proto-fascist in their policies on being able to control your own appearance. They had both state level (Texas, conservative) and city-level (Austin, progressive) political influences, the worst elements of both.

Just my own experience, but it doesn't much match what the article describes.

Re: Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?

#830

Post by Miraste »

rbanffy wrote: post #666
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…

> Learning how to co-exist with people who aren't like you A billion times this. School is not to train you on Math, English or Science. It's also to teach you how to cooperate, how to reach consensus, how to make decisions as a group, and so on. These soft skills are absolutely critical to maintain a properly functioning society.

Schools used to do this, but the push for risk reduction, metrics, and rules has become so great that it no longer happens. There used to be thousands of student-run organizations in schools across the country. That wasn't a euphemism like it is now-there were no teachers or other adults involved. The kids running them did have to learn to cooperate and make decisions in a responsible way, or face the natural consequences of the group falling apart and social failure.

Now, such organizations are banned. The closest analogue is a "student" council, run by an adult, that might get to choose the color of the wallpaper at prom.

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