home schooling good or bad???

Great Debates
21

Well, many home schoolers are being held out of public school so they can be brainwashed into odd religious cults. But of course- kids in public school are being brainwashed also. Just that we, as voters & taxpayers we get a voice in the content of that brainwashing- thus it is generally acceptable to the majority.

Whistlepig? I am afraid that winning a “spelling bee” is hardly a kudo to homeschoolers. In fact- IMHO, it shows the opposite- that these kids are being brainwashed into rote learning of meaningless trivia to win a contest instead of learning some useful skills. If their parents drilled sports trivia, or Star Trek trivia into their little heads for the purpose of winning a similar trivia contest- would you be as excited? This is a damn good reason for NOT allowing homeschooling. Winning spelling bees! How about reading, hmm? :rolleyes:

22

Sigh, gullible I would try to take care of in a child that went to public school or one I home school. I am still working on my husband. He has looked up gullible in the dictionary at least 3 times when I told him it was not in the dictionary. My cousin was, probably still is gullible. He would fall for anything. Public school did not seem to help there.

23

I went to a school that my dad had gone to and my cousin had gone to. There were teachers who took out the misdeeds of my father on me and my cousin. Teachers with vendettas are a good reason not to put your kid in a school.

24

What’s wrong with that? Why is it that so many people think that the best way to prepare their children for the trials of life is to throw them to the wolves when they’re five?

25

Hey, for those of you who do homeschool, would it be possible for you to list here some of your favorite books or online resources that you’ve found helpful? As I said above, I’m looking into it, and I’d like to know what you’ve each found helpful in your situations.
For my $.02 the latest comment on the Evil People, I suppose it depends on which Evil People you mean. People with other beliefs–well, one reason many people cite as an argument for homeschooling is that their kids can meet a larger variety of people than they can by sitting in school all day. ‘Bad kids’-- like many parents, I would prefer that my kids not have to deal with bullies at a young age, or at least in a place where someone is willing to help them out (I doubt that many public schools are that place, as many Dopers can testify–they certainly aren’t generally places where bullies are helped to become nicer). Teachers with vendettas–definitely something to avoid.

The kind of harrassment and bullying that go on in schools and that we seem to think is necessary or character-building somehow is behavior that isn’t tolerated in any other place. If you were being treated the way many kids are in schools, only in a job or relationship, everyone would tell you to get out, and get out immediately. Why is it a good idea in junior high if it isn’t in real life?

26

There is a clinical definition of brainwashing, and it doesn’t fit either public or home schooling in general. I’m guessing that you’re using hyperbole.

A better word is indoctrination. And yes, parents have the right to indoctrinate their children as they see fit. Any effort by the state to infringe on that right should be considered very carefully, and we should err on the side of the parents.

27

Homeschooler here – kid who tests off the charts with IQ level and who has learning disabilities and ADD primarily inattentive. At home, we’ve solved his reading disability to the point he topped out the last reading test he was given by an LD tutor. A year prior to that I was told he would be lucky if he read and he would never read for pleasure.

This year it was spelling he would never learn and he’s almost at grade level. Maths, science, history, geography, he’s working well above grade level. School was impossible for him though as his LD’s impeded him from learning.

Socialisation is an issue for us in that where we live there are few homeschoolers and most of those are fundamentalist Christians or unschoolers. We don’t fit in either group. This year I’m hoping to have him at school on a part time basis for the stuff I can’t manage at home like art and PE. But ultimately I’d rather he grew up academically capable even if his childhood years are less socially optimal. But in school he was just as socially isolated only in a group. In some ways that’s far worse to my mind.

I don’t think homeschooling per se is either good or bad and I don’t think outschooling is either good or bad. It’s what suits individual families and individual children.

28

genie

email me and I’ll point you in the direction of some resources :).

29

Well, in my opinion, homeschooling is good. I use my daughter as evidence. :slight_smile:
But I do not think there is an effective way of measuring the success of homeschooling.
Standardized tests don’t do it. We are accused of “teaching to the test”.
Scoring big at competitions only raise eyebrows.
Portfolios are fine, but they are hard to evaluate by strangers and could still misrepresent what has been learned.

What I do think is that it is a very individual thing. If a child can succeed via public or private schools, great. If a child can succeed through homeschooling, that’s great too. There are horror stories enough on both sides of the fence. (We were one for a while.)

I do not think that anyone in the public school system should be in charge of my daughter’s education. They should be concerned with the children in their charge. Some homeschooled children might fall through the cracks due to this freedom, but children fall through cracks every year in public (and private) schools.

Every year my brother, a high school History teacher, runs into another senior unable to read much more than his or her name. Of course every year he sees many promising students too; I’m NOT against public education. I was a member of the profession myself for eight years.

As for socialization… my daughter has always been very shy, just like mom. (Mom attended public school). Lara is a writer. She is involved in several writer’s groups, both online and in real life. She learned social skills from her family. We do have trouble finding accepting homeschool groups because we tiptoe around the fringes of pantheism in a Christian-majority environment. But we have friends and family, we join groups, we explore. I don’t see any reason why she must be social with people her age. She simply has little interest in the things most 13 year old girls are interested in. She would stick out like a sore thumb in in a public school. Or she would conform.

I don’t know which would be worse! :slight_smile:

note: Please excuse any errors, spelling or otherwise. I just came from work, where I painted with KillZ for the past six hours. I am painfully buzzed.

30

I homeschool two of our three children. I did not choose to homeschool in order to brainwash them into some odd religious cult, as DrDeth likes to believe. ( One child is a self professed Pagan, one is a self professed Christian, I am Agnostic, SO is Atheist and our daughter in college is Christian).
I chose to homeschool for the simple fact that they were not getting the education I thought they should be getting. A 16 year old should be able to name the states when presented with a map. A 16 year old should have a least basic knowledge of how our government works. She couldn’t and didn’t. A 9 year old should know how to construct complete sentences and know the parts of a sentence. He didn’t.

But they do now.

I wish I had started earlier, and homeschooled them all from the start. I watched my eldest daughter, who was reading 2nd grade books at 4 years old, get beaten down by her teachers and peers for being too smart. I watched her being “dumbed down”. I will not let that happen to the other two.

As for the socialization debate, it is pure BS. Both of the homeschooled kids have plenty of friends, from public school, outside classes and the neighborhood. Additionally, they spend more time with an adult in a one on one environment, which teaches by example. They are confident, polite and respectful when speaking to an adult, are much happier and so much more enthusiasm and curiosity in learning. Homeschooling also allows them to explore in depth things that are only briefly touched on in the public schools.

However, in response to the OP, there is no “good” or “bad”. It all depends on the child and the system. Homeschooling does not work for all students, just as public schooling does not work for all students.

31

Um, yeah, but that’s a good thing, right?
As for shielding kids from “The Real World” (not that school is anything close to that, in my humble opinion), either extreme is bad. You shouldn’t get chjldren frightened of it and you should encorage them to try to have fun, be adventurous and all that…but you should provide a good home base for them at the same. A happy medium, of sorts. My parents pulled me out of a really supposedly prestigious Catholic school when I was in first grade because I was really unhappy and put me in another one. From my experience, I think you should balance the dangers of the outside world with encouraging your kids.

32

I respect those who homeschool their children. Especially the ones who are really doing the job to the point their children are excelling. I do not respect those who are lazy about it and do not take it seriously.

The homeschooled children I have been around are very well mannered.

There is great cirriculum for home schooled children, which surpasses the public educations cirriculum by far. This is also the only alternative to private schools which most people can’t afford in the first place.

When I was checking into this and the public educations’ stance, I once read which frightened me that government wants industry workers for the future, so with public education being the way it is and continually being dumbed-down home schooling is the alternative.

But beware school districts want to degrade you as you attempt this, and there is a Home School Orgranization which protects you by law.

33

i homeschooled myself, though i didn’t think of it that way at the time. try the asimov institute and clarke college.

http://presidentjackson.no-ip.org/knavelacademy

why isn’t there a national recommended reading list? or multiple lists with explanations of paradigm of reality?

Dal Timgar

34

I just assumed that Audrey was referring to things like this (warning: PDF file) when referring to “keeping the Evil People away” and therefore agreed with the stance.

It seems like these kids might have a tough time in college, unless they’re going to BJU, of course. While I acknowledge a parent’s right to teach their kids whatever they want, if we allow home-schooling at all, I have the right to find this sort of thing scary.

35

I am very likely to homeschool my child and I find the entire existence of BJU very scary. Rest assured that not all homeschoolers use geometry textbooks that claim that “God said so” is a valid justification for a proof step.

36

Although working through geometry with pi equalling 3 is probably a blast. :smiley:

37

I don’t like Public schools. I don’t hate them, or think they should be done away with, but they need work. The social enviroment I think kills the desire to learn in many, and I daresay most cases. I can remember many times I hid interest in a subject or was wary of raising my hand to answer a question because of what I feared others would think of me. Sometimes others would get made fun of openly in class. This occured as far back as I remember to the point of Graduation. Smart= geek, and stupid= cool in at least my public school. From what little I have gathered of human nature this would hold true in most cases. Perhaps private schools are different- a bastion for the intellectually elite.

Homeschooling, IMO has alot to offer, and If I have children I will homeschool them or hope that my wife will as well. I say this with tongue in cheek, because at the same time I think homeschooling can be bad as well. Not many people have a wide spectrum of views or tolerances of the world, and homeschooling does not offer a wide variety of opinions, views, and does not allow the student to see things from many peoples viewpoints. Variety is very important in education IMO. A teacher that teaches every subject is a bad Idea I think. Letting one person have control over a childs education is not going to allow for a well rounded adult. In most cases anyhow- I see alot of tolerant, intelligent, and mentally adaptave indivduals on this message board that because of good parents/teachers, they grew up well. I would hazard and guess that these are the top 5% and 95% of homeschoolers are ignorant and biased with nearly an identical worldview as their parents/teacher.

I don’t want my child to have my viewpoints or bias’ in life. I want him to form his own viewpoints and figure out what life is for himself. For that to occur, I think he needs to see the myriad opinions, viewpoints and bias’ of other people, compare them with mine and my wifes, and use his intelligence to form his own bias’, opinions and viewpoints.

I think the major reasons for people to homeschool is lack of tolerance and ignorance. Fundies and eccentric loons pulling their kids out of public schools for wierd reasons- like stated above, she didn’t “like” her fellow classmates in an education major. A bit out there IMO. Or the secular humanists excuse, they wish to imprint their kids and control what they think, this is bad, very bad.

Let your kids grow and form their own lifes and opinions, it is their life, and they don’t deserve to grow up racist, eccentric, and loony just because the parents are.

Of course, sadly, I think homeschooling is a good idea in most regards- The cirriculum for public schools is pathetic, and I would hope those that homeschool are much brighter than public schoolers. (any percentages on this out there?)

Public school vs homeschooling I would go with the latter, it offers more than the public “one size fits all” approach to education, it’s faults aside.

38

Got a cite for the 95% of homeschoolers being biased and ignorant, Epithemus? It’s not that way in my experience. Sure, there’s some people who you look at their emails and think how on earth are they teaching grammar and spelling if they can’t post a reasonable email but they’re few and far between.

39

Hmm

I’m thinking that if we haven’t moved to a different school system I just may homeschool my daughter (she’s only 19 months now so this is far in the future but I want to do a good job should I decide yes)

Some of my reasons are:

The city we live in is about to lose accreditation for it’s schools.

There are constant debates even at the elementary level about schools failing to properly educate kids and only teaching to the MCAS.

Teaching issues aside, some of the school buildings are set to be condemned!

…

Somehow public school shouldnt be the only place where children learn how to take turns, stand in line, hold conversations etc. so I don’t see her becomsng a social failure because she doesnt go to school. Last time I was in class socializing was grounds for detention anyway :slight_smile:

Should we public school her I plan to be very active in her education. I don’t believe education works very well if you only learn inside the school building.

40

Primaflora:

I said that this was a guess. Do guesses and opinions based on subjective experience need cites now?