Homeschooling? That seems like a really bad idea. She'll grow up without the experience of being humiliated, making enemies, and having to struggle through life. And then it will hit her all at once when she turns 18.
I'm sure she does, but there are some things you can only learn in a public school. How are you teaching her public speaking skills? Making a presentation in front of a single teacher at your own home isn't the same as making one for 30 kids who don't give a damn. How about group work? School is about more than just learning straight from books.
Home school students usually have camps and stuff where they have to do this stuff, I know because we home school our daughter.
Anyway this thread isnt about home schooling.
I agree with you in that I am against home schooling.
I think home schooling produces people that are WAAAAYYYY to sheltered. I have met many people that were homeschooled and they always seem to have some sort of social problems.
I think it's because they never see the "bad" stuff in life. For example, at my junior high some kids did drugs and you would see it but because I was brought up well I knew to say "no" and not hang out with those kids.
Kids that are home schooled are never exposed to any of these bad things. There aren't drugs at cub scouts or any other group activities used to supplement public/private school.
Thusly, I find that when these kids finally get out into the real world it is like total culture shock for them.
For example, my cousins are being homeschooled and are super religious as well. At christmas I was reading my horrorscope aloud and they didn't even know what that was!!!! Because as good little christians they were never even exposed to it.
There are some cases though when I think home schooling is apporpriate. Like for kids with behavioural problems or who are 'slower' and need the special attention.
Anyway, maybe this should be made into a new thread since that's now what this thread is about?!
Home schooling is neccesary in Australia due to the vast expanse of outback Australia.
Our form of home schooling is cirriculum set out by the School of Distance Education and usually only enrolls children on remote properties and children who do not cope will main stream schooling for whatever reasons. The students have phone lessons every day and have regular camps.
As far as living a sheltered life, man if only. My daughter knows more about drugs then most and shocks me with some of the stuff she comes out with, she is 15 by the way.
It all depends on the type of family enviroment the children are raised in.
In a public school everyone is taught the same thing at the same time from the same book(s) in the same way.
In real life, people learn in different ways at different paces and they have different interests. In a homeschool, each child learns at his own pace in his own way and, largely, he learns that which is of interest to him. If junior likes spiders, we go to the library and get every spider book. We're doing reading, biology, ecology, geography just from the topic of spiders. Wow. How does the public school cover all these topics, eh? In a boring way, I'm sure.
In a public school, girls and boys of the same age are put in the same classes.
In real life girls mature faster than boys, so the public school is mixing the mature with the iofftopicture and trying to teach them all the same material from the same books in the same way for the same amount of time. Hello! Can we say "I'm an idiot for designing this public school system!"
After a public school education, students don't remember very much because they weren't interested in most of what was taught (in part because it wasn't taught the way they learn). We can only hope that they won't need that information later.
After a homeschool education, students remember far more, because the lessons were customized both to interest and to the way the student learns.
In a public school, you can't raise your hand and get special help just anytime you need it. In a homeschool, you can, because you literally have a private tutor. Maybe this is why historically the upper class in Europe and America hired private tutors. There's a thought.
The purpose of a public school is to teach people to stop thinking for themselves, and to start obeying the master class. Observe: the questions are given to you, and the "right" answer is in the back of the book. You don't have to think original thoughts on your own (not even original questions! they're given to you!). You just have to mimic that "they" want to hear. The final product is a generation of programmed droids accustomed from about age five to obeying the master class.
Homeschooling is the opposite. Homeschooling is original science. It's what a baby does: See ball. Touch ball. Oh, ball moved! Chase ball. Touch ball again. Oh, ball moved! Repeat. Conclude: touch ball and it moves. Next, pick up ball. Smell it. Taste it. Good? Bad? Try again. Maybe repeat a third time. Conclude good/bad. Move on to the next object in view and repeat. Etc.
That's original thinking. It's good. Every single five-year-old entering kindergarden does this sort of original thinking because it's natural, but after five years of public schooling, can you find more than three students per class who still do it? I don't think so. By age 10 or so, public school students are largely mimicing the questions and answers that are in their books. They're not doing much original thinking any more.
Homeschoolers take classes at the YMCA. They do Scouts. They're in martial arts schools. They play in soccer leagues. They do all the extracurricular activities that any other child does. Consequently, they know all about talking with children their age.
Additionally, they know all about talking with people not their age, because they do not live in an artificial environment. Public school students live in an artificial environment. A public school classroom is just about the only place on God's green earth where you'll find 30 children all within 10 months age of each other. Everywhere else in real life ages are mixed from birth to age 106. Think about it: the mall, the movie theater, the library, the grocery store, the bank, the park, the office where dad works, etc. Everywhere else in real life ages are mixed, including the dojo and the YMCA sports leagues. Thus, homeschooling is actually better for socialization.
Homeschoolers score higher than their public counterparts on every standardized test given in America. Hmm. Which educational system is better?
I wish more people would just continue their childs education outside of school to expand their minds instead of pulling them out of school all together. I agree that some children will deffinitely do better if theyre home schooled, but I think once they reach a certain age they need to be scurried off back into regular school. Maybe its only my experience, but most of the kids I knew in college that were home schooled had a lot of trouble adjusting. I remember some friends in HS that came over from home schooling in 7th or 8th grade, and they had a tough time, but at least they were able to transition to college better.
Change "public school" to "life" and everything still works in your post. So why would you "train" your kid to be successful in something that isn't life?
The reason I say public school is "better" than homeschooling is the for reason KFG said: you don't learn the "bad" things about life when homeschooled. So, when you finally go out into the real world (college, job, etc), it hits you like a ton of bricks. What? People are mean to me? Why?
Camps are a good idea, but then it's not true "homeschooling". If you have to pay for it, and you learn in it, it's just a short-term private school. Private school isn't bad. I know some people who went to private school, and now go to college with me, and they are ok. But then I know people who are arrogant a-holes. That would depend more on the parents teaching the children, though, and you don't look like an arrogant a-hole to me.
As to the first paragraph ... Are you reading what I'm reading?
As to the second paragraph, you're wrong and I think you're wrong from lack of information on the matter. Ex - I have a daughter. I've seen how little girls can treat each other -- including my daugher. I also have unpleasant relatives. My daughter is quite aware that mean people and bad things are out there because she's been on the receiving end of it many times.
You must have an illusion that "homeschool" = "lock them away in a cave all by themselves," because that's the only way that you could be right. You're so mistaken. Really, you are. I say that not to be mean (I have no beef with you at all) but to point out that sometimes assumptions are not true.
As to the third paragraph, I think it best that you let homeschoolers define what homeschooling is. To do otherwise leads to absurdities. Shall a Hindu define the Jewish Sedder? Shall a sociologist define astrophysics? I should think not.
Those who can homeschool their children well get much respect from me.
I used to work in an adult education center (where the definition of "adult" was 16 & 1/2 yrs. old or older) where people would come to get their GEDs, and some of the teens coming in there who had been home-schooled were reading at 3rd grade level. It was really sad.
aikimac what are the requirements in your state for homeschooling? does you or your wife have to have a degree in education? does she have to take standerdized tests? (just curious because I know this varys from place to place)
Thats kinda sad. I mean, Im sure youre qualified, but just like we spoke before about the masses being punished for the badness of some doofuses, this is a similar situation. While you should be allowed to home school your child without any backround in education or a topic area or whatever, there are plenty of people who should not be allowed to homeschool their children. I dont see anything wrong with homeschooling if its done properly, and for the right reasons, but regulations need to be tighter than that.
I know a lot of homeschooled kids, they seem to turn out fine to me. They have basketball tournaments, cheerleaders, proms, etc.....
I have so little faith in the public school system that my ex and I go over the boys homework extra carefully since they seldom get the whole subject covered in class very well. As an example, my six graders exposure to the civil war was a half chapter in his history book. Vietnam was hardly mentioned. Go figure.
Can you elaborate on how gov't regulations and teachers with BSE degrees have produced in our country a well-educated populous? I'm truly at a loss for why you think it is so.
We did not home school but I know people who did and do. The home schooled students score higher on SAT and other test. You can look that up. They are socialized in other ways then school. Some private schools can let them play on their sports teams if they want to. The teaches unions do not like home schooling because it cuts into their job security. My stepchildren got an OK education in public school because we stayed on them. They could have gotten a much better education in a private school or being home schooled. With the lack of discipline and feel good orientated education in public schools more parents would have their kids in privet school or home school them if they could find away. If one parent can stay home and school their child then all I can say is good for them. School is about education, socialization can be performed in other ways.
Im not trying to say that everyone that wants to homeschool needs to have a degree in education, but Im wondering where the line is to be drawn. Some parents arent capable of comprehending 8th grade math let alone teaching it. A regular teacher only teaches one grade or one subject. With home schooling you have to teach it all, so you if youre to do that well, you better be qualified. How its determined who is qualified...I dont know.... but there should be restrictions on who can home school.
I know of one parent who homeschools because she thinks her daughter can be a world class dancer. So she sends the kid to dance lessons for hours every day, and only does school stuff with her for an hour or so. Do you think thats the right situation for a kid? I dont. Im not saying home schooling is bad. There is a right way to do it. Im just saying there needs to be more checks and balances with it then there currently are in many places.
And yes the education here sucks. And yes, its mostly the school systems. But its also because parents dont play an active role in their childs education. Home schooling is just an extreme of playing an active role, its playing the only role. But that doesnt mean we should let just anyone pull their kids out of school for home schooling.
Why in the world do you assume -- wrongly, I might add -- that any parent incapable of comprehending 8th grade math would ever, ever, ever choose to teach math???
That suggestion blows my mind. It's so ... ridiculous! (And you know I like you, so don't get mad at me here.)
You're not the first to make this suggestion. I've heard it in other contexts to. It goes like this:
Person A: I want to do X.
Person B: But some people are too dumb to safely do X, and I myself don't want to do X. Therefore, because some people will do it wrong and because I don't want to do it, nobody should be allowed to do it.
I find fault with that line of thinking.
Yep. But having now agreed that our present system sucks, why oh why oh WHY do you think, even think a little, that gov't regulations would make homeschooling better? Follow me here:
Govt regulations on public schools.
Public schools bad.
Tika wants schools good.
Tika says let's put govt regulations on homeschool so as to ... huh? So as to make them good? Huh?