Yeah, I probably could have worded that better. I think an example will convey what I mean better.
Let’s say your kid has a bad habit of picking scabs and they have a few on their arms from running around and playing. You have told them over and over to leave the scabs alone, but they don’t listen.
If they are in 6th grade in school and they might start picking at the scabs in class because they are bored, eventually someone near them will say: “Are you picking your scabs?! Is that one bleeding?! That’s GROSS!” And the whole class will turn around and look at them. There are snickers from the boys at the front. The girls around them make faces.
Embarrassing? Absolutely.
Effective at making them realize that that activity is frowned on in a public setting? Absolutely.
When I have been able to spot homeschoolers in the past it is because of stuff like this. Their behavior is a little “off” because there has been less of a correcting function for enforcing what is acceptable (normal) behavior in social settings. You can do things in your home that you can’t do in public, and they may struggle with that.
And to answer another poster, actually I was verbally and physical abused though all of middle school and much of high school. Frankly one of the many reasons that I support us homeschooling is that I don’t put as much weight on “socialization” as many parents do. I had my fill of “socialization.” However, I can’t go too far in the other direction and totally ignore some of the benefits that it can have as well.
Too broad a brush there. My wife and I intended our kids to attend our local public schools - we had options but the public schools were the top choice for us. Our district is adequately funded and performs above average for the state. Our kids both did well in high school and attend(ed) college, and I credit the local public schools for that (along with our own influences). I agree not all school districts are equal, but to suggest all public schools are bottom of the barrel and a “last resort” for families is a mistake.
Sorry, poorly phrased. I meant that, unlike private (and voucher) schools, public schools have a mandate to accept all the students in their geographical district. This can make a lower quality experience for pupils, when disruptive or otherwise high-needs students take up a lot of the teacher’s time. In private schools these kids are often not accepted.
I looked it up, and except for anomalous Alaska, the highest funding for public schools is all in the Northeast. And of course, the higher-income districts have the most money and resources of all. So it really depends on where you live.
There’s a bit of cause and effect going on here, though. In societies where it’s expected that everyone goes to public schools, public schools tend to be much better funded and supported. The more people that opt out of public schools, the less political support there is for adequately funding them–and the more people with means will opt out of public schools.
We’re deep inside this crisis in my district and state, and I really hate it. We’ve got to improve support for public schools, and that means that people who homeschool need to be very loud about the need to fund public schools fully, even if their own children aren’t there.
That is exactly what is NOT going to happen as long as politicians and lobby groups attempt to take money away from public schools to give to private schools and homeschoolers.
The dark side of homeschooling that John Oliver brought up in the video linked above is that, because most jurisdictions have very little oversight over how or why kids are homeschooled, abusive parents can cover up their crimes simply by taking the kids out of school and claiming they’re being homeschooled.
Teachers and school administrators are often the first to discover the signs of abuse, and are mandated reporters. So lax homeschooling oversight allows abuse to continue unchecked. According to Oliver, this is not a small problem, and its seriousness is a compelling reason why there should be far more oversight of homeschoolers.
Fighting any such efforts is a very powerful lobby, the Home School Legal Defense Association, which has quickly and effectively worked to remove any restrictions, regulations, or oversight of homeschoolers. They handwave away any concerns about abusive parents by saying, Why should a few bad apples make life harder for everyone else? In other words, they are more concerned about letting parents do what they want than preventing children from being abused.
If you don’t want to trust comedian John Oliver (who relied on and cited many reputable sources in his report), here’s a Harvard law professor and nationally renowned child welfare expert:
I just want to mention that the new Speaker of the House believes that public schools are a socialist institution (and presumably would like to abolish them).
We homeschooled for two years during a temporary move. After finishing out the year in the local public school, and with no private schools nearby, this was the best option to avoid falling behind the schools we’d be moving back to.
Having taught both individuals and classes, the former is far more accessible to someone with less experience.
Socialization was maintained through sports, music, 4H, YMCA, summer camp, and neighborhood kids. We did go to a homeschooling group once but most of the folks there seemed to motivated by flavors of religion that didn’t mesh well with us.
Even after returning to school, we used a couple online classes for math classes that weren’t offered by the school, which maxed out at calculus AB. I’m hoping the offerings have improved since the 90s.
Is the public school system a socialist institution? IMHO, for that to be true there had to have been a system of private schools that were taken over and turned into public schools. Was there? Sure, there were, and still are, private schools and the same class of people, largely, go to them as before. If public education is a socialist institution, then so are the police, fire departments, and, yes, the defense departments.
No people who say things like that want to end public education. And people who went to public schools and then have two degrees from a land grant college (his are from LSU) are hypocrites.
Interesting. I’ve heard of industries being nationalized, by socialist governments, but I’ve never heard this as an a priori requirement for seeing something as socialist.
You are right. I was thinking of nationalization. Still the point about the police, fire, and military being examples of socialism remain. Actually, any form of government is socialism.
Don’t forget most roads and sewage treatment (although if you’re rural enough, you can install your own septic tank or mini treatment plant). If you’re in an urban area, you should sing “Socialism” when you flush (to the tune of the Hallelujah Chorus).