# Tell Me About Homeschooling **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 31, 2023, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366 "2023-10-31T13:37:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/1 "2023-10-31T13:37:58Z")
I don’t know many people who were homeschooled. There have been some previous threads on this, arguing it is often done to inculcate religious views, avoid discrimination, by libertarian hippies or the libertarian deeply conservative, concerns about documentation, etc. I’m sure the quality of education varies enormously. In general, people seem more forgiving of it if the student gets into a decent university. And it seems to be becoming much more popular. But I have questions. 1. How much of this is driven by unlikely but well-publicized fears of violent incidents? 2. How do homeschooled people you know measure up in social skills? 3. Where do people find the time? 4. What would make you consider this? 5. Does any place regulate this to ensure standards or safety? 6. Who does this? [https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/interactive/2023/homeschooling-growth-data-by-district/?itid=hp-mv-top-stories\_top-table-main\_p002\_f003](https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/interactive/2023/homeschooling-growth-data-by-district/?itid=hp-mv-top-stories_top-table-main_p002_f003) ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/2 "2023-10-31T13:43:49Z")
The Post implies 10% of children are homeschooled. Those are enormous numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/3 "2023-10-31T13:56:11Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > The Post implies 10% of children are homeschooled. Numerous sources are consistent with around 3%, e.g. [Fast Facts: Homeschooling (91)](https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=91) ETA: but maybe those are all from pre-COVID statistics. This from the census bureau: [Homeschooling on the Rise During COVID-19 Pandemic](https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/03/homeschooling-on-the-rise-during-covid-19-pandemic.html) And this cites limited 2023 census data suggesting that it has settled down to around 5% post-COVID: [Homeschooling is on the rise, even as the pandemic recedes - Reason Foundation](https://reason.org/commentary/homeschooling-is-on-the-rise-even-as-the-pandemic-recedes/) ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/4 "2023-10-31T14:08:36Z")
Cite: I was homeschooled kindergarten through highschool. My children are homeschooled. 1. I think you are asking how much homeschooling is driven by e.g. school shootings? Some, but not a lot. There are a lot of COVID homeschoolers. Some simply found that they liked having their children home, that they were learning more, that it fit their family, etc. There were also plenty of parents frustrated by a school’s response. This is on both ends of the spectrum too, with some saying the school did too much, some saying the school did too little. 2. Extremely well. The homeschooled students I have known have excellent skills, as homeschoolers tend to socialize as families. Students in a school learn a very narrow set of skills: how to deal with people their own age and their own education level. Homeschooled students are generally very comfortable holding full-blown conversations with older kids, younger kids, and adults. I should note though, if a homeschooled student was isolated and never saw the light of day…I would not have met them. I recognize that my bias is toward the more socially active homeschool experience. 1. Where do we find time for anything? A homeschooling family is literally making a lifestyle choice, and it’s not really a thing you can do part time. Usually it’s a full-time educator mother, dedicating herself to education as her primary pursuit. There are certainly exceptions and it’s technically possible for single parent working full time to homeschool, but anything other than a one-income two-parent home is rare. 2. Better educational outcomes, more well-rounded students, we value time spent together as a family, we consider ourselves the ultimate responsible parties for our children’s education and don’t want to delegate that responsibility, and we disagree with some of the things that are commonly taught in schools and would rather avoid trying to un-teach those things at home. 3. In the US regulation is almost entirely state-by-state. Some states require parents to register and submit yearly reports, others don’t. Most states have requirements regarding what subjects must be taught, but enforcement is frequently non-existant. Outside the US homeschooling is rarely permitted. The Romeikes are a well-known family that has been granted political asylum in the US after they faced legal repercussions in Germany: [Deportation delayed for German home-schooling family in East Tennessee](https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2023/10/09/german-home-schooling-romeike-family-east-tn-deportation-delayed/71117569007/) 1. Lots of people, and it’s a group growing more and more diverse over time. Certainly many Christians, but here in NH the secular homeschooler seems is very common, if not dominant. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/5 "2023-10-31T14:10:36Z")
I am curious about outcomes of homeschooling, and I don’t mean about getting into college - how are people that were homeschooled doing on the job market and in their careers? I imagine it all becomes a wash at some point, but are there any numbers to back that up - like there is for high school graduates vs dropouts, or college degrees vs none? Are earnings about equal, etc. It seems like there will be a wave of pandemic homeschoolers hitting the job market in a few years. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/6 "2023-10-31T14:36:51Z")
Homeschooling has almost no oversight in most states, and so rigor and outcomes are wildly variable. I have worked with many children who were homeschooled for years and learned essentially nothing. With the right resources (time, money, quality materials, quality instruction, strong external social opportunities), it can work. But with the right resources, so can any school. John Oliver did a good piece on homeschooling a couple weeks ago. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/lzsZP9o7SlI/maxresdefault.jpg "Homeschooling: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzsZP9o7SlI) ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/7 "2023-10-31T15:05:58Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Homeschooling has almost no oversight in most states, and so rigor and outcomes are wildly variable. Public schools have no end of oversight in every state, and rigor and outcomes are…wildly variable. The fact that some do it poorly is not really a knock on the system. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/8 "2023-10-31T15:29:12Z")
There is no system called “homeschooling.” Homeschooling is a rejection of a system. ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/9 "2023-10-31T15:42:29Z")
Eh, maybe, kinda. The point is that a parent can absolutely teach a child everything they need to know. That has been indisputably proven over the last few decades. The successes are many. Certainly there are failures, and it sounds like you are in a position to encounter those failures. The point is that the existence of failures does not discredit this approach to education. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/10 "2023-10-31T15:53:05Z")
> [@](#): > > …parents of homeschooled students were asked to identify the single most important reason to homeschool their child in 2019. The most common was a concern about school environment, such as safety, drugs, or negative peer pressure (25 percent). Fifteen percent of homeschooled students had parents who reported that the most important reason was a dissatisfaction with the academic instruction at other schools. Thirteen percent had parents who reported that the most important reason was a desire to provide religious instruction. [http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/tgk/homeschooled-children](http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/tgk/homeschooled-children) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/11 "2023-10-31T17:21:29Z")
> [@tofor](#): > > The point is that the existence of failures does not discredit this approach to education. Of course it can work. The problem is that there’s absolutely no oversight to protect children in households where it isn’t. Public school systems fail all the time, but at least they fail in the open. > [@tofor](#): > > The point is that a parent can absolutely teach a child everything they need to know. Maybe **a** parent can, but **most** parents cannot. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/12 "2023-10-31T17:22:53Z")
Anecdote: My niece was homeschooled for all of elementary and high school. She’s now a lecturer in mathematics at a very prestigious university. Her parents (my sister and brother-in-law) are highly educated biologists, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/13 "2023-10-31T17:30:38Z")
Alternative anecdote: a family member who is extremely religious, home-schools her kids. She was a teacher so has an idea of how to teach, and in most areas her kids are academically at a par with their peers. But their social skills are not well-developed. She does make great efforts to have the kids do activities with other home-school groups so the kids aren’t isolated per se. But they’ve never been allowed to make their own friends or learn to navigate the social landscape on their own. Consequently, they don’t really know how to interact with their peers if the parents aren’t around and they have trouble relating to both kids and adults appropriately. The teenage son has some real anger issues about this and the younger daughter is also becoming rebellious. They are both starting to refuse to participate in the home-school program at all, which is setting their academic achievements back as well. The latest thing I’ve heard is that the parents plan to homeschool them through high school and don’t want them to go to college either. This is not going to turn out well for the kids. ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/14 "2023-10-31T17:36:19Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Maybe **a** parent can, but **most** parents cannot. I don’t think that’s true at all. There are absolutely vast amounts of resources available to walk a parent through any academic discipline they might struggle with. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/15 "2023-10-31T17:44:09Z")
Well sure, but likewise you can ask Google whether ear candling works and it will tell you, but that doesn’t mean that most people do. At the present moment, I don’t believe that there’s any evidence that you can make things so easy that people will do it short of force - even for big and important things. ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/16 "2023-10-31T17:49:40Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > At the present moment, I don’t believe that there’s any evidence that you can make things so easy that people will do it short of force - even for big and important things. Well no, that’s why most parents choose not to homeschool. Anybody looking for the lazy way out is not choosing to keep their children under foot all day every day. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/17 "2023-10-31T17:52:01Z")
> [@tofor](#): > > There are absolutely vast amounts of resources available to walk a parent through any academic discipline they might struggle with. This is a true statement, but is also a very depressing view of what a quality educational experience looks like. ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/18 "2023-10-31T17:55:22Z")
I’m not really sure what you mean by that. Do you mean that there’s more to education than academics? Certainly that’s true, but I was making assumptions about what you meant when you said > [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Maybe **a** parent can, but **most** parents cannot. If you meant something other than academics you will need to clarify what quality or resource you think “most parents” are lacking that makes them unable to “teach a child everything they need to know”. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/19 "2023-10-31T17:56:55Z")
> [@tofor](#): > > The point is that a parent can absolutely teach a child everything they need to know. And who is determining what they need to know? The parents. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366/20 "2023-10-31T17:59:44Z")
In the beginning college computer classes that I taught, I could usually tell which students were homeschooled within the first two weeks of the school year. Either they were annoyingly arrogant, shouting out answers to rhetorical questions, “knowing” all the answers, not allowing others to share their thoughts or ideas, and refusing to work in peer teams, or sitting silently and sullen because suddenly school work was beyond what was easily found in textbooks or online. Academically, they were either my best students, or my worst. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-homeschooling/992366.md?page=2)