Homeschooling

Home schooling has been around for quite some time now. Recently however, home schooling has been gaining more and more advocates in support of it.

Home schooling has been viewed with a somewhat dim attitude by many. That home schooling is for religious weirdoes and social misfits. For those children who suffer from some kind of condition or whose current circumstances don't allow them to attend regular school.

However, many parents are choosing to home school their children because they believe it to be a more beneficial than traditional schools.

What are the possible reasons for parents to home school their kids? What are the advantages and disadvantages of home schooling? What is really right for the children? Will Some one please Think of the Children!?

edited 17th Feb '11 2:00:49 AM by joeyjojo

The guys who get homeschooled and turn out normal aren't noticed is probably why the religious weirdos and social misfits have the image. It seems to offer benefits, namely not having to put up with a bunch of bullshit restrictions.

I was homeschooled for nonreligious reasons. I learned a lot.

Does this conversation include cyber schools, which are technically long-distance public schools?

Since we don't allow homeschooling here, that topic is a bit removed from my experience. But what always irked me was: How do you control the quality of the education? With long distance schools I can kinda see it, but if you don't use them? Who checks up that the most important topics are covered?

I was home-schooled.

Worked fine, I'm glad I did it.

I personally think that the right to homeschool should be regulated. I believe that parents should have to submit a curriculum for approval, and be able to prove that their children can reach standardized benchmarks at an appropriate age.

I also think that stuff like this is terrible, and shouldn't have happened at all.

Page not found? Yeah, that sure shouldn't have happened. o.o

Fixed link: http://tinyurl.com/18r

edited 17th Feb '11 8:36:07 AM by Yej

http://tinyurl.com/ygo5gwv

Stupid nonstandard urls.

Remove the %20 characters from the URL.

So hold on, the family was granted asylum due to persecution resulting from homeschooling their child?

That's... I don't know what that is.

I personally think that the right to homeschool should be regulated. I believe that parents should have to submit a curriculum for approval, and be able to prove that their children can reach standardized benchmarks at an appropriate age.

And here is where this conservative looks like a libertarian. Having to submit a curriculum and whatnot is too much regulation, I say.

Why is that too much regulation? It's just to make sure the children are being taught something roughly equivalent to what they would learn in public school. Because it would really shoot a child in the foot later on if their parents neglected to teach them a subject like math or science for whatever reason.

"I believe that parents should have to submit a curriculum for approval, and be able to prove that their children can reach standardized benchmarks at an appropriate age."

That would completely shut down unschooling. Which is the main reason I'm not a high school drop out unable to handle any kind of formalized schooling whatsoever.

Homeschooling may even have saved my life. I was an undiagnosed autistic 12 year old, being bullied by my classmates, feeling chronically anxious and depressed, my teachers had no clue how to handle me, I kept freaking out and attacking people or running off and getting into danger. Then my school (the 2nd that year) kicked me out for attacking a teacher one too many times, and my parents started homeschooling me. At first, they tried to follow an actual curriculum, but I had a tendency to freak out after more than 10 minutes doing an assignment. So they finally gave up and left me to my own devices, not even testing me because I freaked out if they tried to test my knowledge.

After several years of that, my anxiety and depression had dropped dramatically and I was a happy, enthusiastic teen who hung out in the health sciences library reading medical journals for fun. Around that time, I started gradually poking my toes into formalized schooling again, and found that my tolerance had increased dramatically. And then my parents and I figured out how to go through the hoops of getting enrolled in university as a homeschooled student, and now I'm doing great as a 2nd year psychology student.

The thing is, before homeschooling, every year I spent in school, my tolerance for school dropped. If I had gone through regular schooling some more, I would never have been able to go to university. I might have ended up killing myself (I wasn't suicidal at 12, but I did often think about suicide) or perpetrating a school shooting, or something else similarly drastic. I shudder to think of what would've happened.

And if my parents, in order to homeschool me, had been forced to submit a curriculum, they'd have had to recreate school at home - and school was clearly not suited to me, that's why I was being homeschooled!

Personally, I think that by the time you've finished grade 3, you've learnt pretty much everything useful that can't be learnt by independent research. So what's the big deal if someone wants to homeschool their kid? I can see testing the kid upon applying to university, but besides that, if they missed out anything they can learn it later.

I can't really relate, to be honest, because as far as I know we don't have homeschooling in Britain. My first impression is that by and large the practice doesn't do much harm, but I don't know enough about the American public school system to say so for certain.

Etinna, not every kid who gets homeschooled won't have a crippling social phobia or be an autodidact like you are. Most 12 year old kids, if left to their own devices would just putz around wasting time and not bother to learn anything. That's why something like a curriculum is a good idea.

Of course that isn't to say the curriculum can't be tailored to each child individually. It just has to hit certain subjects, not teach them a certain way.

edit- grammar fail

edited 17th Feb '11 10:03:13 AM by Alkthash

So, currently, there's no regulation or tests for standard kids being homeschooled?

Why is that too much regulation? It's just to make sure the children are being taught something roughly equivalent to what they would learn in public school. Because it would really shoot a child in the foot later on if their parents neglected to teach them a subject like math or science for whatever reason.

It would give the state too much power to decide what we can and can't teach. It could bring many-a-storm in cases where the state may tell their child not to teach X. Biased politically charged people could easily rock the boat.

Further, half the reason for homeschooling is often to teach children differently than how they would learn in school. For example, a child who likes to write may have a different focus from one who is good at math. Like early college or something.

Making children have to follow a specific state sanctioned run-of-the-mill public school curriculum would ruin a number of huge number of benefits that homeschooling offers.

There are a number of things that one can use, such as the GED if one wants an official type certificate stating that they know what they need to know, and groups and some such.

Etinna, not every kid who gets homeschooled will be have a crippling social phobia or be an autodidact like you are. Most 12 year old kids, if left to their own devices would just putz around wasting time and not bother to learn anything. That's why something like a curriculum is a good idea.

Are suggesting that the government require a curriculum, or that parents should make sure they use some method of organizing their teaching schedule?

edited 17th Feb '11 10:00:38 AM by TheMightyAnonym

Both really. I want the requirement to learn what is necessary to pass the GED (a very low bar, gives them a lot of freedom anyway) and some sort of schedule for the lessons. You want to focus more an English and language classes then math? Fine. Just make sure the kid learns some math and you have it mapped out how you will be teaching them everything.

edited 17th Feb '11 10:05:42 AM by Alkthash

If I ever lost my mind and birthed a child I woud be very tempted home-school them through at least sixth grade. It's not that I wouldn't trust the school to teach them, it's that I wouldn't trust the school not to make my kid miserable. My stint subbing left a very bitter taste in my mouth regarding elementary school. Middle-school wasn't much better, but the way kids were treated was more tolerable, even if at least one teacher had NO clue that boys do care about self-image.

edited 17th Feb '11 10:08:43 AM by Bur

I would rate that more as a good advice than something to enforce as a law.

edited 17th Feb '11 10:08:53 AM by TheMightyAnonym

Look, regular teachers have to submit curriculums to the schools they teach at each year. It's unfair to just let homeschoolers get a free pass because they aren't part of an institution. Besides, if you are going through all the effort to homeschool your brat, the extra effort to draft out a lesson plan is pretty trivial.

When I think of regulations I imagined something more like a core you have to do. Anything you do extra is your own choosing.

And it should be free of religious weirdo shit.

Look, regular teachers have to submit curriculums to the schools they teach at each year. It's unfair to just let homeschoolers get a free pass because they aren't part of an institution. Besides, if you are going through all the effort to homeschool your brat, the extra effort to draft out a lesson plan is pretty trivial.

"Free pass"? Unlike school teachers, parents are neither paid, nor do they have the responsibility of teaching the children of someone else.

"Unfair" is ridiculous. The point of homeschooling is that it enables possibilities for those who can take the option. Unfair to whom, I must ask. Given that homeschooled kids typically come out as above average, I'd say that it's only "unfair" to the kids who can't have such an excellent opportunity. Thing is, dragging someone down just to make things "fair" isn't very ethical. Or fair, for that matter. "Even" does not equal "fair".

Whatever happened to freedom of religion?

edited 17th Feb '11 10:31:32 AM by TheMightyAnonym