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Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#841

Post by nemo44x »

sweeter wrote: post #249

I mean its obvious. There has been a concerted effort to de-fund public schools and center the conversation about "right to choose" education, alongside a handout of vouchers to attend private religious schools AND the implementation of new laws that allow tax payer dollars to go to funding those privately owned religious schools (seriously). The intent imo is to make schools seem "scary" and push parents to put thei…

I think that’s a mischaracterization. What the movement is about is that everyone is in agreement that education is a right and that the government is responsible for funding it. But that the government is not responsible (or even competent at) providing it. Governments are good at taxing and distributing but not at meeting the needs of individuals.

So the solution is to privatize education so parents can choose a schools that fits their child’s unique needs and suits their values. We are a massive diverse country and it’s crazy to think we have so many shared, universal values.

So, let a marketplace take the place of government schools and give everyone an equal amount of money to choose the school that they see as best fit. The model works for pre-schools and colleges really well and there’s no reason to think it won’t for the rest.

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#842

Post by orangepurple »

_dark_matter_ wrote: post #672
sfink wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you. I came here to say this. We're homeschooling, and I made the mistake of reading the train wreck of comments on the Post article. It was irritating how many people were absolutely certain of what homeschooling is and what its shortcomings (or successes) are, when it's nowhere close to being one thing. Homeschooling is defined by what it is not. Homeschooling because of COVID policies in public schools? Ok,…

On the other hand, I've watched my nieces and nephews - now aged 5-13 - fail to learn to do math (any), write, read, even _say the alphabet_. We've called the school district, CPS, and the police. None are able to do anything. These children are being raised to live in poverty. So yes, I'm against home schooling because it leaves some kids worse off. We have to enforce standards, and until we do I will not comply.

What state?

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#843

Post by elil17 »

tivert wrote: post #840
Clamchop wrote: post #556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it some comfort that you can see there is something to stop or change?

> Isn't it some comfort that you can see there is something to stop or change? No, of course not. Is being helpless comforting to you? How often does anyone actually fix a serious problem with an institution? Sure it happens sometimes, but the best almost everyone can hope for it to muddle through being subjected to the problems. The impulse to put homeschooling under the thumb of government officials is not comforti…

Can't there be a middle ground? I'm not saying the government should mandate particular curriculums. What I'd actually propose is something like random checks to make sure that homeschooled kids are actually learning at some point during the day and to check for signs of abuse.

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#845

Post by vharuck »

yeck wrote: post #831
ARandumGuy wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may be true, but way more kids get sent to school then are home schooled, so that doesn't mean much on its own. The issue is that when a kid's at school, there are many people who may notice something's wrong. From teachers, school nurses, school administrators, and even other kids. This is by no means perfect, and many, many cases of abuse slip through the cracks. But it is something, which is more then many ho…

I've seen this sentiment mentioned many times. That at school "abuse is more likely to be noticed". But how much more likely? How likely is noticed abuse to be resolved in a meaningful way? As an anecdote I have close family member that teaches younger elementary school grades. They have told me about signs of possible abuse they've seen but no available recourse. I'm also aware that school is a also an environment w…

>As an anecdote I have close family member that teaches younger elementary school grades. They have told me about signs of possible abuse they've seen but no available recourse.

It's natural to want to stay out of things, especially if one doesn't know the procedure and worries about messing up a family's lives. But it's better for the people in charge of investigating cops abuse to decide the appropriate course.

As for how reporting happens, it depends on the state. In mine (Pennsylvania), all school employees are made well aware they're considered "Mandated Reporters." They are legally required to report any suspicions of child abuse, either through the state's website, phone line, local police, or the county agency responsible for child abuse cases. The suspected abuse victim doesn't need to say they're being abused or anything at all, the reporter doesn't even have to guess who the abuser is. If the reporter thinks there may have been abuse because they saw or learned about physical (e.g. bruises) or behavioral (e.g. afraid to go home) signs, they have to report it. Not reporting can led to misdemeanor or felony charges for the Mandated Reporter. Somebody who reported their suspicion is immune from civil or criminal liability, and protected from retaliation from the institution they work at, for the report (unless it can be shown they're using reports maliciously). They're also tested as confidential informants in any investigation.

The law also encourages "Permissive Reporters" to report suspected child abuse, but without threatening charges for not reporting. These reporters can do so anonymously.

All this info comes from my wife, who was a daycare teacher, and DuckDuckGo-ing "Pennsylvania mandated reporters."

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#846

Post by Tyr42 »

chmod600 wrote: post #498
burkaman wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> as neutral as possible on political or culture war issues I don't think it's really possible to be neutral about culture war issues, sort of by definition, especially when many of the wars are about schools themselves. A school is part of American culture, it can't somehow choose not to participate. To use a historical example, there was a culture war over teaching evolution in schools. A teacher at the time could…

Lack of perfection doesn't mean you shouldn't try to be more neutral. Trying by itself (even if failing) earns the trust of voters. And if you live in an area where evolution is a controversial topic, then you should leave it up to the parents. You don't have a right to use their money to teach something that a lot of people don't want to be taught. Of course, there's some line where something is fringe enough and yo…

Okay, but there are claims like: "Dinosaurs existed over 100 million years ago, before humans existed" which are controversial enough that it's part of the "culture war". And teaching it (and carbon dating) counts as taking a side.

We aren't talking about fine points of evolution, we are talking about the earth being older than mankind at all.

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#847

Post by PawgerZ »

PumpkinSpice wrote: post #755
fellowniusmonk wrote: post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who was raised in religious communities, that "higher aspirations" is only the position "in principle" in reality working with people in the religious community was just scams and moral self justification of despicable behavior hidden behind soft language and terrible behavior. So much contention, so much gossip, so much backbiting behavior and hidden evils against children so that communities wouldn't "lo…

> I know so many poorly educated homeschoolers whose lives have been destroyed with no hope of recovery by the complete lack of skills their hyper religious parents imparted them with, in jail, broke, unable to hack it in college and too lacking in common sense to make it in the trades or professional work, with living standards insanely far below their parents. In pretty much all studies, homeschooled children on av…

>In pretty much all studies

Any citations? I believe you, but would want to look at the methodology. If they're opt-in studies, then obviously the ones neglecting their kids in homeschool aren't going to join a study where they are scrutinized.

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#848

Post by le-mark »

arrowsmith wrote: post #153
lapetitejort wrote: post #137

I was home-schooled until high school. Long story short, it was a disaster. I bordered on having no education at all, on top of no socialization. I'm so fortunate I got at least four years of public school. I still think I suffer to this day. For parents who are thinking of home schooling your kids: best of luck to you. If you succeed, maybe your kids will be smarter. If you fail, you could be setting your kids up fo…

> a lifetime of stunted socialization skills and poor work habits. The joke's on you, I wasn't home-schooled and I still got both of those.

This is comment I was looking for. Any number of circumstances can lead to the same outcome, question is what does one do going forward?

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#849

Post by cooper_ganglia »

RuleOfBirds wrote: post #711
unsubstantiated wrote: post #655

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Running away from the problem will only make it worse.

Implying "instead of path B, which is good for your child, do path A, which is bad for your child, to prevent A from becoming an even worse option?"

“Sacrifice your child for the greater good of society!”

Re: Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education

#850

Post by pitaj »

scythe wrote: post #138
keiferski wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that the only relevant question here is how home schooling compares to public schools when it comes to “horror stories.” And there certainly aren’t a lack of public school horror stories…

Research on the question is limited. One review found weakly positive average outcomes for homeschooled children, although they performed worse in one interesting dimension: they were considered inferior military recruits. https://www.educacaodomiciliar.fe.unicamp.br/sites/www.educa... Selection effects create a "blind men and the elephant" problem when considering anecdotes about homeschoolers. Homeschool children w…

> they were considered inferior military recruits.

It's not that surprising given that the Prussian schooling system upon which ours is based was meant exactly for that.

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