I'm done. My kids are well-educated and well-adjusted. They both went to public schools. Son is still in college.

Granddaughters are in a good school district. Both parents very involved.

No home schooling wanted or needed.

 

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I'd consider it if I had the patience and time, to be honest.

Their school is fine though. They learn what they learn, plus at home I am free to teach them randomly about any little thing that comes up, stuff that keeps their interest. We even do some "remedial" French so they don't sound all Northern Ontario French (accent and vocabulary.)

If my kids didn't go to school, they'd socialize with no children, and not that many adults, either. I'm not the most sociable person in the world and it would be a chore for me to specifically have to drag them places just so they can interact with other human beings other than the grocery clerk or something.

 

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hmmm, I hadn't planned to hand-pick the people that my kids interact with. In fact, unless I hover over them every second of the day (something I'm neither willing or able to do) it's impossible to do such a thing. I want them to get out and get involved in the community and meet people from different ages and backgrounds and cultures and expand their horizons. I simply think school is one of the most restrictive and artificial ways this is accomplished.

In fact, public school is one of the worst ways to get to know people from different backgrounds, imo. When people are looking for a place to rent/buy, typically they try to find one in the "best" school district they can. The "better" districts and schools are nearly always in more affluent areas. So where are your kids going to school? With kids who come from a similar socio-economic background, most likely.

And no one has ever said you can't challenge your child at home and also send them to school. I simply think that it is an extraordinarily inefficient and inflexible way to get things done.

 

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That's totally fair, and I definitely agree. How can you teach something you know nothing about? For instance, I cannot speak a foreign language. But I believe this is a very important thing to be able to do, and have arrangements in place so that my kids, my husband and I will learn one together. I won't be teaching it, but that doesn't mean the opportunity won't be there. Similarly, I know of some who "share" teaching responsibilities among families. If one parent is a biologist and the other is an English Lit major, they'll each teach in their area of expertise.

 

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There are Home schooler groups that either share the teaching among a small group of students, or you pay a nominal fee to belong to a co-op that hires someone to teach them the stuff none of the parents can.

 

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Again, totally fair analysis. You're making a decision based on your current situation and what you know of yourself and your kids.

Really all I ask is that people not judge homeschooling as a whole based on anecdotal evidence. There ARE lazy homeschooling families. There ARE those whose kids should be going to school because they cannot provide them with a decent education. This is the exception rather than the rule, however. Statistically speaking homeschoolers excel in all areas. The socialization worries have never been proved. For every socially "inept" homeschooler there are many many more who you'd never know homeschooled, because they are very well adjusted.

But by the same token, there ARE failures in the public school systems. There ARE lazy school administrators and teachers. There ARE kids who get "passed along" to the next grades when they shouldn't be. There ARE kids who slip through the cracks, educationally and socially. There are socially inept kids who have no clue how to interact properly with others, or are too painfully shy to do so. I don't judge the public or private school systems simply based on anecdotal evidence. There are some fantastic schools out there.

 

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Home schooling simply creates clones of the parents. The kids don't get to see other opinions and grow up to be fanatical and pig headed... As I said before, Homeschooling results in BTs.

I don't care how you try to spin it a home school kid will never be as diverse as a public school kid because you as a parent won't let them be in a situation where they might interact with a wanna be street thug. Karate class is not a suitable replacement for school, nor is the park or the grocery store or the skating rink where mom and dad are watching over them.

Also with homeschooling you are missing out in other major parts of the social environment that schools provide. Athletics, Band/Choir, and clubs. Your child will also miss out on Prom, Homecoming, and a real graduation. Finally, you are simply setting up your child for failure in college, unless you plan on making them do computer correspondence courses which would allow you to keep them at home and further corrupt their mind with YOUR views. Your child will not know how to react to a college class since you sheltered them from the large group learning environment that public school provides.

 

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Public schooling is a joke in the earliest years. Absolutely laughable. My daughter stagnates as the school system does what it can to bring the slower kids up to baseline. My sons social development includes such treasures as gang violence and having watched the schools vice principle get knocked out with a fire extinguisher while trying to break up a fight in the halls. You can keep it!

 

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absolutely none of what you just posted is true of any of the home schooled people I know, with the exception of real graduation for a few of them. Athletics, Band/Choir, and Clubs all exist in the public sector outside of schools.

NOBODY is prepared to walk into a lecture hall with 300 other students as a Freshman in college, LOL.

There is this wonderful thing called the internet, it allows children to read, learn, and experience other people's opinions on matters such as politics, religion, morals etc.

 

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The more I think about this the more I think the opposite opinions are just based on local circumstances... my school district was the size of Pennsylvania and the state really invested in our education with the oil money. We had people from all over... I took 6 or 7 A.P. classes (they even paid for my tests because I was poor).

I am guessing my views might be a little different if I grew up in an area that did not really fund/care about educating kids.

I just think that there is something with kids interacting and excelling among their peers... but I am guessing that local circumstances could push that to a secondary concern.

 

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