Your opinion on Homeschooling?

Bunch of whiners in this thread. I have no problem with home school, that's your own business live amish style for all i care at least you take the good with the hard work involved, but do you really think folks who have kids in private school AND have the free time to run for fun AND access the internet in their jammies to post their musings on the day, they or their kids have it that tough? And we wonder why america can no longer produce a 13:00. When the going gets tough, we use daddy and mommy's money to go to private school with our like-minded friends yay!

I can give a personal testimonial about the positive aspects of homeschooling, as I was involved in this system for 8 years. My brother and I were both pulled out of the public school system after very poor experiences with its educational quality. I think one reason home schoolers are perceived as "quiet", "nerdy", or "different", is because they usually are-but in a good way. Gifted individuals invariably have a hard time interacting with their less talented peers. This was the case for my brother and I, who both have 150+ IQs and are very introspective people. My mother has a masters in education, and she taught us very well. She was very strict and results oriented. I was involved in spelling competitions, orchestra, sports, and other activities. The biggest skill I gained from home-schooling was self-motivation and an original mind. My creative thinking abilities are unmatched because of my educational freedom. I have done very well in everything I have attempted in life. I was the 1st chair in all-state orchestras and bands, won my conference cross country meet in college, and am now in medical school. Socially, I do have the ability to interact with anyone, and can be quite a convincing conversationalist. However, I do not enjoy light socializing nearly as much as heavy hitting discussions and critical thinking. I strongly encourage young parents to home school their gifted children. Socialization can occur through alternative routes, and fellow peers with similar talents make much better friends than the dullards that make up most of the public schools. I know I may sound elitist, and I guess in a way I am. Homeschooling is the best way for gifted children to receive appropriate learning.

stud of studs wrote:

I was at Disneyland about two years ago, and there was a huge group of home schooled kids and parents there that day as well. I have never, ever, been around a group of people who lacked as many social or personal skills as those kids and their parents. It was like land of the introvert retards.

You give me a room full of 100 kids and I can pick out the home schooled kids in about 2 minutes. They're usually a cross between a retard and the Amish.

So I was homeschooled k-12. I've lived in three different states so I've got a fairly good feel for a variety of homeschooling communities. It's been my experience that like public schoolers homeschoolers with parents who have more education tend to smarter than those with less education. However, as a rule, most homeschooling parents put more effort into their kids' education than public schooling parents. I would argue that this would cause the child to, in most cases, obtain a better education.

The biggest problem with homeschooling is the social aspect. Fortunately, I was able to participate in public school sports all through high school. Some of the kids on the team didn't even know that I was homeschooled. I have had many people tell me that I do not act like a homeschooler, and I agree. I can spot many homeschoolers just by looking at them; others I can spot after a conversation. Of course, on occasion one can run into a few a perfectly normal, sometimes smarter, socially competent homeschoolers.

So sure, I'm a religiously homeschooled kid; yeah, I still hold strongly to the faith. It might be strange that I took calculus and physics in high school for the heck of it. And I'll agree that it took a bit to adjust in college, but isn't it that way for everyone?

Homeschooling isn't for everyone, but for a for a few it is a viable option that should be considered.

By "quirks " I don't mean different I mean " Hmmm is that kid autistic or just completely doesn't get it socially. I FULLY believe it people being individuals and See that kids each have their own unique needs and values but causing your child to be socially retarded by way of completely shielding them from the real world is sad in its own right.

Shielded from the real world. Put in a box, an institution called school.

Shaped by myth and superstition. Put in a box, an institution called church.

Stunted by poor role models. Put in a box, an institution called family/culture.

Swamped in negative images. Put in a box, an institution call media.

Shagrinned by a lack of freedom, Put in a box, an institution called government.

Outside the box lives an unschooler, nonreligious, the product of a loving family and a postitive culture, who reads and watches the best expressions of human art and literature, a libertarian and a realist.

Are you going to live your life in the box or out?

Can you explain to me how you can be in the box because you're in school and in the box because of family/ culture and yet home schooling is a good thing? I thought family was involved in homeschooling. Or am I reading this wrong?

For those that say homeschooling leads to free thinking.....

I would think it's the reverse. I have taught many kids that were free thinkers and were not discouraged from being so. I've also known a number of free thinking homeschooled kids. However, I would also think that the majority of homeschooled kids adopt the ideology of their parent. I would much rather have them exposed to a variety of opinions and concepts available through traditional education.

That is not to say that traditional education is the be all, it is obviously not and there are numerous problems associated with both private and public education. the problem is, no one is doing anything to solve those problems.

ray wrote:

For those that say homeschooling leads to free thinking.....

I would also think that the majority of homeschooled kids adopt the ideology of their parent. I would much rather have them exposed to a variety of opinions and concepts available through traditional education.

Even if that is so (i.e., homeschoolers adopting parental ideology), that is exactly the point! You see, "traditional" education does little to foster your desired "variety of opinions and concepts"; indeed, it does exactly the opposite.

Oppose gay marriage in CA, NJ, or MA? Go see the principal for "sensitivity training." [Personal experience: deny permission for your child to attend the same-sex marriage of his elementary school teacher and her lover will result in a request for "consultation" with a school counselor...]

Think homosexuality is abnormal (in the sense that it differs from the norm)? Reeducation!

Raise, for the purpose of discussion, seeming gaps in the theory of evolution--is the result a lively discussion of a "variety of opinion?"

How about when a classroom holds a "mock" election, but those children voting for "other than Obama" are mocked (by the teacher) for "parroting parental politics" (as if a seven-year-old's vote FOR Obama is somehow the product of critical thought).

Let's move to the college campus: follow Christ? YOU IDIOT! Support Israel's self defense? YOU WARMONGER! Fail to see the point of racial prefernce? YOU RACIST!

Yeah: let's hear it for "traditional education's" support of free inquiry and debate, brother!

"I would much rather have them exposed to a variety of opinions and concepts available through traditional education."

You're kidding right? Do you really think there are a variety of opinions and concepts available in the Armercian public school system? Educators rarely address all sides of an issue, examine alternative theories or use anything other than material from mainstream media outlets to frame and discuss events.

The American public school system K-12 is a number of things, with positive and negative aspects, but one thing it is certainly not is a place where students are exposed to, encouraged to seek out or rewarded for expressing a variety of opinons and concepts other than those of the teacher and/or the text they are using.

What can you do in a homeschool that you might not be allowed to do in public school?

Recite the Pledge of Allegiance

Pray

Debate salient issues

Speech that will get reprimanded (or worse) on campus:

2002, Wilmington NC: a fourth-grade teacher in Wilmington, North Carolina was formally reprimanded for teaching the word "niggardly" and told to attend sensitivity training.

1993, UPenn: Student Eden Jacobowitz was charged with violating Penn's racial harassment policy for shouting "Shut up, you water buffalo," out his window.

1996, Emory and Henry College in Virginia: minority students demand that the name of the athletic teams -- the Wasps -- be changed, as it could be deemed offensive to any non-WASP group.

2008: members of the Yale Women’s Center board threaten legal action--and eventually file a university harassment complaint--after discovering a photograph posted on Facebook depicting 12 Zeta Psi frat brothers posing in front of the Center with a sign reading “We Love Yale Sluts.”

2003, Indiana University: a student filed an official complaint, saying that the College Republicans "affirmative action" cookie sale (where white males pay $1 per cookie; white females, 75 cents; blacks, 25 cents; Asians, $1.25) creates "a climate of hostility against students of color and women and can easily turn violent." To the amazed query, "Are you allowed to do this?" one cookie rebel responded, "Admissions officers do it every day."

Speech that will get you fired and cost your employer $50 million:

"So my best guess, to provoke you, of what's behind all of this is that the largest phenomenon, by far, is the general clash between people's legitimate family desires and employers' current desire for high power and high intensity, that in the special case of science and engineering, there are issues of intrinsic aptitude, and particularly of the variability of aptitude, and that those considerations are reinforced by what are in fact lesser factors involving socialization and continuing discrimination. I would like nothing better than to be proved wrong, because I would like nothing better than for these problems to be addressable simply by everybody understanding what they are, and working very hard to address them."

--Larry Summers

Joie de vivre wrote:

No, what home-school parents do (in general) is provide their kids a crappy "education",

My experience is that these kids are 2-3 years behind peers academically at this point, and frequently socially maladjusted. .

I spout that stuff too! I wonder if JdV is like me: a secret homeschooler! You see, I WANT the homeschooling community to remain small--I WANT more kids to graduate from public schools--it reduces competition.

Joie, dude, you're BRILLIANT!

PassGassInMass wrote:

What can you do in a homeschool that you might not be allowed to do in public school?

Pray

Whoops--can't pray, that is, unless you are Muslim!

Carver Elementary in Oak Park added Arabic to its curriculum in September 2007, also providing a 15-minute break in the classroom each afternoon to accommodate Muslim students who wish to pray. (Those who don’t pray can read or write during that non-instructional time.)

In Minneapolis public schools, Muslim students to organize an hour of prayer on Fridays. During the rest of the week, students pray during lunch or recess.

Scottsdale Arizona public schools hosted two professional Muslim speakers, from the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Arizona, to speak to all 7th grade social studies classes. The Muslim speakers brought prayer rugs and taught the children to pray the Muslim way, reciting from the Koran

(Just TRY hosting a BIBLE club ANYWHERE on public school grounds at ANY time!)

KSTP-TV in Minneapolis-St.Paul, trying to investigate compliance with state law regarding prayer on school grounds, reported an incident at the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy in Inver Grove Heights, housed in the same building as a mosque and the Minnesota chapter of the Muslim American Society. The station said a photographer was injured while wrestling with two school officials over a camera.

New York City public schools host 3300 students and graduation rates of 31 percent. The schools are filled with behavior problems, truancy, violence and low scores, but that doesn't stop them from making (Muslim) prayer accommodations!

Publicly funded University of Michigan-Dearborn and Minneapolis Community and Technical College installed footbaths in its bathrooms...

Dr. Spock wrote:

You give me a room full of 100 kids and I can pick out the home schooled kids in about 2 minutes. They're usually a cross between a retard and the Amish.

Which is likely why you fit in.

The homeschooled children I've been around are well adjusted kids who participate in sports and are not the socially inept baffoons depicted by the idiots on this board.

Rosa Parks was homeschooled.

Hmmmmmmmm My 3.5 yr. old is home schooled, speaks fluent English & french, and is learning Spanish.

She knows her ABC'S in two languages. Is very well socially acclimated.

The homeschooling resources are available for any subject you can think of - thus the parents are able to teach these subjects and test them.

Oh by the way a higher percentage of the best math and sceince students come from the home schooling sector.

Joie - BRM hasn't posted at all on this thread and I posted only on the first page....so all these other people think you're a bitter fool too. Here's what Joie think s about statistics, from the thread about man-made climate change:

[quote] I'm happy to say I have better things to do than google for stats for entertainment.[quote]

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2825196&page=4

Joie de vivre wrote:

Your comment about superintendents also makes no sense. Of course they would know, they have most likely worked as teachers and principals before becoming superintendents and have seen the lacking social skills and discipline problems in home-schooled kids for themselves and reported as much in the survey.

How would they know of the homeschooled kids lack of social skills if they were once teachers in the public school system, given that the homeschooled kids are HOMESCHOOLED?

[quote] Joie de vivre wrote:One actually needs to subscribe to a reputable journal or on-line service recognized by the field to get this information. Unlike with Google, it typically takes more than three minutes to pull it together, but in the end, you have data you can trust.

Um, I'm sure you think I'm stupid, being educated K-12 in private Catholic schools, but if it's an online journal you're subscribing to, can't you cut and paste from that?

He does not know how to cut and paste!

darkness wrote:

You start with Kindergarten and the teacher there has taken four yrs of school of how to deal with these hyper little f***ers.

blah blah blah, big snip on how hard it is to be a teacher

With all the years of training and ongoing education, they should have learned that they shouldn't have sex with the students.