Home Schooling Just for Wingnuts and Truants?

So you are basically saying that people who are Christian or have conservative views aren't educated or smart. Got it.

Yet another thinly veiled "if you don't agree with me politically, you aren't smart" thread. You should probably find a new schtick. This one has gotten very stale.

 

Public college admissions are still fairly straightforward. If you have the resources and time to bring in tutors, structure and track curriculum and prioritize math, technology and science (which is more than just evolutionary biology); home schooling probably works better than public school. Extra points if you can control the kids' environment and expectations, and set a good enough example to filter out any media or recreational distractions. Some public schools are too big and have too many dumb kids from crappy families; that extra-curricular activities get more praise, attention and often times better funding doesn't really help.

A person's parents' political or religious views, even when projected on a single academic subject, have less to do with their academic achievement or long-term economic productivity than their race, the educational level and engagement of their parents, or their parents' income.

 

glynch,

I've not had experience with it personally, but here is another side of this which you may wish to consider.

Let's say there was a country, called country "A". Now, in A the regulator of education enforces a minimum curriculum. The minimum curriculum includes extreme perversion of domestic history to favor the existing power structure which clashes heavily with any existing shred of evidence available to review. It includes theological indoctrination transmitted with the help of fear. It glorifies violence and aggression as a means to any end desired by any individual. The curriculum is also infused with the kind of structure which would champion the most obedient hard workers and marginalize creativity towards improving the foundation of what's being taught. In addition, there is a media regulator in A and this media regulator bans any contradictory accounts of these subjects unless they are deemed by the media regulator to be harmless. They also ban incoming books and obviously ban the schools from espousing contradictory views.

In such a situation, home schooling is really a matter of necessity.

Resorting to homeschooling in order to convince your kids of your religion is cowardly. If your argument is true and strong, then scientific evidence won't sway your beliefs. If you are worried that someone will fool your kids, then look no further: you are feeding an isolated piece of information to a human whom you readily admit is easily fooled. If you are not feeding them all the available information with a balanced standard of evidence, then you are really just brainwashing your kids and whether they initially believe or not is irrelevant because they were not given the chance to make a fair choice to begin with.

But there are very good reasons, depending on circumstances, to homeschool your kids. So let's not give homeschooling a bad name by tying it to those in the business of religious indoctrination. It's a tool which can be used for good and bad reasons, and it's unlikely many people will come to an agreement on what is a good/bad reason.

 

Homeschooling is utterly stupid, but for reasons completely different from glynch's.

Homeschooling is stupid because at the end of the day, the most important thing you can learn from high school aren't grades. It's learning to understand people, to navigate cliques, and to socialize with others. And no parent can ever teach that due to the inevitable different relationship between a parent and child as compared to two teenagers ( and it should stay that way, as parents should absolutely not try to be their child's "friend").

It's unfortunate that government can't do anything about it, because it is important to preserve the relationship between parent and child, but I do definitely would never homeschool any kids I would have.

 

That is not at all like my homeschooling experience. I was home-schooled grades 6-8. At first, it was out of necessity. I was very much sick and had to miss many days to see the doctors. In order to keep up with the material or else I would fail, we had a teacher come to the house. Eventually, I dropped out of public school and did all work at home. I stayed active participating in sports and acting at a local theater.

As far as the schoolwork, we followed the basic Texas curriculum- math, science, reading. However, for electives I was limited to more advanced subjects like sociology, psychology, etc. In all, I advanced at a faster rate than my non-homeschool friends since I didn't have to deal with that usual BS.

Bu hey, believe what you want to believe wingnut.

 

Bob Jones University?

 

Our Valedictorian was homeschooled until high school. Her older sister was a Valedictorian and her older brother was a Salutatorian.

Home schooled children tend to be from Relgious families, but also tend to be more studious.

 

My daughter in law will home school their kids and is currently home schooling their 5 year old. This lazy, wingnut, nut job has him performing beyond a second grade level. She has a couple of years left of college so she can home school other kids and will complete that when her lazy, wing nut, nut job husband finishes law school.

While performing her home school responsibilities, she manages to also take care of their 2 year old and five month old, even while my son drives 100 miles into the Twin Cities for his nightly law classes four nights a week.

Yeah, those two sure are lazy, wingnut, nut jobs you can add to your narrow minded brain. Go back to mourning Chavez.

 

Close buddy of mine was home schooled his entire grade school life(k-12) and then went to the Marine Corps where we became friends. I have to agree with Kojirou's post at least when it came to my buddy. He was honestly the most introverted and shy individual I have ever meet. From my entire time knowing him I never once witnessed him commence a conversation with a girl. Guys from my unit and I tried getting him out of his shell and we were somewhat successful.

 

I was homeschooled for 9 years. Probably explains a lot.

It is a selective indoctrination that myself and my best friend where able to escape. My two other friends drink the KoolAid and moved to Marshall Texas to live under the teaching of a crazy, power hungry cult leader named Randy Shankle.

It is something almost like the Amish, if you dont buy into the lifestyle you will be shunned from the herd and your family will refuse to acknowledge you exist unless you come back into the fold.

 

This. Those who are homeschooled are shielded from how the world actually is. Grades aren't everything in this world, sometimes it's how charming you are and having a good golf swing.

 

Parents can't teach manners/charm or a proper golf swing at home? **** parents are useless, lets throw 'em back!

 

We will homeschool our 5 month old daughter. We are not religious (agnostic). We are not lazy or dumb (my wife has two degrees, speaks multiple languages and I have my own IT consulting firm with clients all over the US and Europe). We want the very best for our daughter while being able to offer her the ability to live and understand our different cultures (US and Sweden).

Once people have to put their kids through the public school system, which I have because my older kids (12 and 15) go to Klein ISD, they will realize why many are opting for the chance to homeschool. The public education system is a travesty.

 

My wife wants to home school our children since a suitable Jesuit school is not in the area. I have mixed feelings on it. I have met some incredibly wel adjusted and educated people home schooled, but have met even more bible banging off spring that know only basic math, history and the bible.

I suppose it depends on the quality of the teaching. To the OP, I wouldn't assume all kids home schooled are fundamental Christians or drop outs.

 

glynch -- I'm not sure, but do you have dislike for Christians and those who vote for right-leaning politicians?

lol welcome to my ignore list....

...wait just kidding I would miss a lot of laughs

 

As a former teacher, the best thing to do is have your kids go to public (or private) school and continue to educate them at home- take them on educational trips, not just to Disney World, have them read at least a book or two in the summer, etc. There are definitely kids who are homeschooled who turn out great- but many need to develop social skills that can only be done in a school setting. The work environment resembles more of a school environment than home, unless you start a home-based business.

 

I don't see glynch's stereotype as the home school image much these days. There seems to be more kinds of different "alt" parenting and mothering ideologies now.

The newer brand of home schooling is just as much if not more a liberal over-protective helicopter parenting "I don't want MY child in ANY HARM'S WAY exposed to ANY danger" or "PUBLIC school's are TOO BEHIND - WE can teach BETTER AT HOME". More a lack of faith in the "system".

I've known 2 confirmed home schooled people. One a very down to earth guy, home-schooled through elementary. The other a very narrow-minded girl, wingnut type. And really the homeschooling probably held back her education and smarts instead of advancing it.

I think home schooling is a decent option. But it has to be the right kind of people that can do better than a public school to EDUCATE. Not overconfident parents with an agenda. Private school if you can affort it is a bit of in-between option of the two in my opinion.

 

It seems the OP is out of touch with reality as usual. I don't think I've recalled anyone being homeschooled due to laziness or for truancy issues. I will agree that the vast majority of them do not trust the public education system, not that I can blame them.

Christian schools are a complete different story. While home school students seem to excel well in academic studies, it seems to be quite the opposite in Christians schools. I have known quite a few who have gone to Christian school and to be quite honest, their education is a complete joke. There seems to be a common theme; The parents simply drop the kids off at school and let a bunch of unprofessional teachers educate their children and the parents seem completely uninterested in the childs progress.

Home schooling has come a long way. There are many programs out there geared towards home schools. Co-ops are also very common to allow socialization. Most of the kids seem to be pretty sharp. Much of it has to do with the parents playing a vital role in the upbringing of their children. They tend to be the parents instead of letting things like TV and video games and other peoples parents raise their kids.

In summery, the OP, as usual, had no clue what he is talking about.

 

You can always teach your kid after they come back from school. School is not the end of your child's education process. Most parents cannot do a better job of teaching their kids than the schools due to many factors, but many parents can do supplemental teaching pretty well. That is one of the biggest reasons why Asian kids are ahead in schools.