Feelings about home schooling?

[XemaSab]

There's a large discussion on home schooling on this thread that's a worthwhile read:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3420994#3424346

I'm curious, having read a large number of posts arguing various sides, what the mood of the community is about home schooling.

What do you think of home schooling?

[thinkingwoman]

1. It would hae been nice

if you had bothered to balance the poll between negatives and positives.

[XemaSab]

2. I tried

to capture most of the arguments used on the other thread, but it seems like there were fewer "pro" arguments--not BETTER pro arguments, mind--but fewer.

[October]

4. How many negatives arguments

come from parents who've done this. Just wondering.

[thinkingwoman]

29. are you asking

how many critics have first hand experience with the thing they're constantly dissin'?

None that I have ever known.

[October]

31. LOL

Well said.

[nonconformist]

3. I chose "other", because I think it's a personal choice

And there is no concrete good/bad here. I support someone's right to homeschool. I believe some do it for reasons I find disturbing, but hey. I'm very live and let live. If I decided it was right for me and my family to homeschool, than that's my right.

I do have problems, however, with the issue that started all this homeschool discussion today - and that is homeschooled children being able to participate in public school activities. I'm adamantly opposed to that.

[EFerrari]

5. Do you mean because of the expense, or? Could you say more? nt

[nonconformist]

15. Expense is a main reason, yes

And it's also why the public schools will win this fight.

School funding is not simply based on taxes. It's based on enrollment. Schools receive a set amount per student based on enrollment and attendance.

Homeschooling is a choice. If you chose it, then you're going to give some things up. Like public school sports. Some community centers have organized sports, though - so there are options in most areas. But you can't selectively pick and chose what you'd like to utilize from the public school system because you "pay taxes". They want to take advantage of the resources the schools have, yet they think that for whatever reason full enrollment (and therefore, funding) is not right for them. They can't have it both ways. A child in public school shouldn't have to be bumped off the football team to accommodate a non-student who wants to play. It's preposterous that it's even suggested.

In areas like music, drama and art - there are other resources available for homeschooled children. Some of these things cost money. When you opt out of the public school system, you have chosen to take these expenses on yourself.

[EFerrari]

33. Sure.

And maybe it's time to reconfigure the funding of our public schools? I.e., to potential enrollees based on the local census instead of those bogus enrollment numbers.

Also, there could be an "opt in" for some activities fee for families who are homeschooling for whatEVER reason. (If I had a high functioning autistic child, I would NOT want him/her to be in a public school all day. Too stressful.)

Imo, we could tinker a bit and get some flexibility going without losing (maybe gaining revenue and funding.)

Beth
/typos

[patricia92243]

6. If I were a child, I would not want to be home schooled.

[XemaSab]

9. Why not?

n/t

[XemaSab]

11. Accidental dupe

[patricia92243]

7. If I were a child, I would not want to be home schooled.

[gizmo1979]

8. Where do they get their social skills from?

The child may be well informed,but be a social outcast.Then how have you helped them.

[KittyWampus]

23. Little League, Sunday School, Girl Scouts. Also, Socialization Doesn't

mean exclusively with kids your own age.

I went to public school and, until high school, was picked on to a certain extent. Didn't fit in.

However, I got along FINE with adults and read adult books and had more of an adult imagination.

[fortyfeetunder]

36. Socialization to some extent.

The most segregated institutions in America are in churches, so Sunday School, children are housed mostly with others that think just like them.

Little League and Girl Scouts (and Boy Scouts) are organizations that are mainly "Pay to Play" and can't always count on diversity in those organizations. And IIRC the Boy Scouts have a problem with gays joining their organization...

So there is socialization but not necessarily a multicultural socialization. Unless a parent intends to have a child become a hermit for the rest of its life, then the social activities should reflect a diverse and inclusive base to demonstrate the richness of the world the child lives in.

[kk897]

10. Homeschooling *can* be a terrific way to teach kids

but unfortunately, it seems that it's also a terrific way to torture kids and indoctrinate them into a culture of hate. I read a lengthy series on the subject in the Akron Beacon Journal (I think it might have won a Pulitzer--not this year, though). You can get to part of it from here, but it's a registration site (free):

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/local/10301306.htm

[LeftyMom]

34. Here's a response to the ABJ series

There are plenty of other refutations out there, but here's a little bit from Home Education Magazine, as far as I know the oldest homeschooling magazine still publishing. http://www.homeedmag.com/nc/2004/120304.html

[mondo joe]

12. We could have home schooled w 4 parents but chose not to.

My kids have 4 parents - 2 are physicians (one a former chemist), one a writer, one a historian, so I think we could have had an impressive curiculum.

We didn't want to for a variety of reasons.

But if we did, I would not expect the public school we opted out of to provide other aspects of education or socialization.

[wuushew]

13. It strikes me as fundamentally inegalitarian

I would like the population as a whole to be educated in a integrated and pluralistic environment, where advantages in education or wealth are not compounded over succeeding generations.

Be it a good or bad quality of education I feel the negatives of increased social stratification outweigh the positives.

[stanwyck]

14. Why is it that people who would never

think of being their kid's pediatrician or lawyer feel perfectly justified in being their sole teacher? One person is going to replace the collective educations of the public/private schools' science, math, literature, grammar, PE, accounting, government, music, foreign language, and art teachers? What hubris these people must have. Yet the home-school parents I know admit to being poor students (part of their hostility toward organized education) with very sketchy knowledge of either the core subjects or teaching methods. The intent is idealistic. But think of the commitment. Not only does the parent need to master a variety of core material, they also need to know the guidance counselor's job. Are all requirements being met for future college applications?
And then there's the problem of the student only receiving one person's point of view instead of a multitude of teachers. Having many teachers is good preparation for life. You have exposure to a diversity of backgrounds and educations. That is enriching.
I continue to maintain that home-schooling is more about Mom or Dad's ego and need for control than about the desire for a truly comprehensive education.
And, no, I am not a teacher.
I just happen to strongly feel many of these parents are doing their children a major disservice and it's tragic. Their children don't have a choice. The decision was made for them. And it could adversely affect their chances in life.

[thinkingwoman]

30. I come from a family of teachers

and they all support my homeschooling.

[RevolutionaryActs]

16. No one can say for sure if homeschooling is good or bad.

It is a personal choice and in some cases it is good, and in some it is bad. The EXACT same thing can be said for public schooling.

What makes me mad are the rash generalizations people are making based on a few experiences.
I would like to know how many would be upset if I was to make the generalization that all public schools have violent shootings?



The one's who speak the loudest are not always representative of the majority.

[BuyingThyme]

18. You're right. This poll question is equivalent to asking,

"What are your feelings about people with the last name of Jones?"

[RevolutionaryActs]

21. Yup.

And frustrating to boot. :banghead:

[XemaSab]

22. From the other thread

it seemed like many people were trying to argue that it's good or bad based on one key salient feature.

I'm curious what makes or breaks the idea of home schooling for liberals.

Sorry if my poll seems reductionist, but it's hard to make a non-reductionist poll, and it's hard to get a sense of which side most people are on from reading 200 posts to a thread. I wish I had had more than 10 choices, but such are the limits of the medium. Alas.

[BuyingThyme]

25. No need for explanation.

But thanks.

[LSdemocrat]

17. Bad: it's about not being exposed to different viewpoints about the world

[XemaSab]

20. It's a double edged sword though...

I was exposed to different viewpoints that were appalling and abhorent. I might be more tolerant were I exposed to the theories and not the practice of, say, gangsta culture or unabashed favoritism.

[LSdemocrat]

26. That's better than being brainwashed into one ideology by parents

[conflictgirl]

38. Even that depends, though

I know someone who pulled her kids out of public school because the schools where she lived were steadily being infiltrated by religious conservatives who were trying to move the curriculum in a very inappropriate direction. She did initiate legal action against the school district with the help of other parents, but in the meantime she wasn't going to be leaving her kids there. Sometimes teaching your kids at home is escaping an ideology, not brainwashing kids into one.

[Mend]

19. One of our eight kids

wanted to be home-schooled in his sophomore year of high school. One of us is a former college professor, the other an M.D. so we said sure, we could handle this. By mid-year he transferred back to public high school. Apparently we were "boring". Anyhoo, he is now getting his PhD in chemical engineering so we didn't screw him up too much.

[beyurslf]

24. We require teachers to have Bachelor's degree (at least) so why should

someone who knows how to breed be able to teach Biology or Algebra?

[stanwyck]

28. because there are always people

who believe they can do everything as well, or better, than anyone else. They just can't acknowledge that someone else might know how to do a job better. I believe in letting those who have studied and trained for an occupation do their jobs and let me benefit from their expertise and experience. The parent's ego is more important than the child's education. Plus, many of these parents don't want any other adult having influence over "their" (child as property) son or daughter.
Despite suffering from severe depression which required her hospitalization as well as being prescribed numerous psychotropic drugs, Andrea Yates was home-schooling her children. Because that's what her husband wanted. Was it really about education? Or ego and control?

[donco6]

27. Most situations I've known have been bad.

Parents pulling kids out of school because the kids themselves have been in trouble (i.e., facing expulsion). "We're just going to pull him out and home school."

Yeah, right.

But I've *heard* of other instances where it's been good.

[Abelman]

32. It works.

It has to. In Alaska, many students homeschool because it is their only option. Some of the students I've met who lived in areas with schools were homeschooled, and actually were much more capable of coherent and intellectual conversation. They fit in fairly well in social settings.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

35. To each his own.There are good and bad points.

The bad points, as far as I'm concerned, are the general lack of social interaction, and the potential lack of an established cirriculum. Many feel however, that homeschooling allows parents to control the cirriculum (there are accredited homeschooling programs out there), and that public schools may contaminate the values of their children. It's ultimately up to the parents. We should have a plan that fully funds public ed, but doesn't subvert the parents' choices.

P.S. I don't mean vouchers. The problem with vouchers is that it drains money from public schools, and never really helps the kids who need to get into the private schools.

[CornField]

37. Other: I think there is a better middle ground yet to be found.

As for now, I wouldn't call it necessarily good or bad... just a choice that should not be made lightly.

[LiberallyInclined]

39. we don't have kids- but if we did, i'd consider home schooling...

especially if the public schools are only concerned with "teaching to the test" to satisfy No Child Left Behind legislation-
I'm an athiest who was educated in lutheran schools my whole life, except for grades 7 & 8, but i would never send a child of mine to a parochial scool of any flavor.

Does the left have the same kind of organized support/structure for home schooling that exists on the far-flung christian right? if not, they should.