homeschooling

[QueenOfDa702]

Here is from a parents point of view. I homeschooled our oldest when she was in first grade. The teacher came to me and said that basically our daughter was too smart to be in school and she couldn't challenge her. Ok, is school only for "dumb" kids? We had her tested and found out that she was well above a 3-4th grade level (mind you she was in 1st grade). The solution from the Principle was to give her a harder reading book....um, NO! So, I took her out of school, homeschooled her as a 2nd grader and she went back to school as a 3rd grader the following year. I definitely think there are pros and cons to each side. I think kids need the interaction with other kids, but the things that they are learning in public schools are kind of a joke. Teachers only teach to the "standards" and heaven help you if you have kids that need to be challenged. I would do it again in a heart beat, all my kids have to do is say the word! =)

Oh, also now a days homeschooling is getting more and more popular and there are TONS of activities for them to be involved in. So the interaction isn't as much of a concern.

Again, JMO!

Couldnt they have just skipped her a grade or 2??

 

[MissyBaby]

I came out of the public school system when I was 12. I had just finished the 5th grade and was about to go into another school building. My main reason for coming out of the system was because I was deathly ill. The school I was in was a health hazard and I have no idea how they allowed children to go there everyday (After I left, the school closed due to it being a, here's a shocker, health hazard). My immune system was SHOT and I had been admitted to the hospital 18 times that school year. When I wasn't in the hospital I was ahead in my schoolwork and ended up doing the teacher's job for her by teaching the other kids the stuff she couldn't be bothered to go over with them again. Anyway, my parents decided to take me out for one year and get my immune system back to normal and then if I wanted to I could go back...I loved it so much I decided to stay out and I have since graduated high school and am beginning college in two weeks!!

I think being homeschooled allowed my imagination and my artistic ability to flourish. Since being homeschooled I've begun a writing career, a few novels and even more screenplays, I've started writing and illustrating a children's book, I've learned to play 2 intruments very well and I have joined an acting troupe! I never would have been able to do that if I had been schooled publicly.

In 5th grade you still have your "recess" time and my classical piano lessons were scheduled for 3:00 and in order to get across town I needed to leave school at 2:30, meaning I would miss the ten minutes of recess and 20 minutes of getting ready to leave and going to the cafeteria to pick up milk or lemonade or kool-aid or whatever (It was a thing my school did, we brought milk money from home and as an "after recess" treat we could go to the lunch room and by a refreshment to keep up occupied until the bell rang and we could leave.). My principal had a fit saying that I COULD NOT miss the ten minutes of recess and I COULD NOT miss the snack and my mom told him to do whatever he needed to but I WAS going to leave at 2:30 to go to town for my piano lessons, because I loved them so much, and if he had a problem with that my family was good friends with the school superintendent and she could take this situation to him, if the need arise.

Anyway between my health and a "corrupt" school system, lol, it was in my best interest to leave. One of my best friends and her two little brothers have been homeschooled all their lives and they all play 3 instruments and sing in a Gospel group. I think it's a good thing for kids, of any age. I don't regret a moment of it!

 

[EmilyK]

I was homeschooled my whole life and never went to "conventional school" until college. I was mainly self taught / unschooled - the very flexible sort of student-led homeschooling. No curriculum to speak of. A lot of reading and self teaching.

By the time I was 15 though I started to take college courses. By the time I was 17 I had a two year degree... then slowed down a bit and finished with a double BA when I was 21.

I absolutely loved it, and college was a VERY easy transition for me. I had such discipline from being self taught that school seemed really, really easy for the most part.

 

[legaldiva]

How interesting ... I'm so glad I asked.

 

[kuching48]

I was homeschooled in the UK all my life, then I went to university a few years early. I did not have any problems socially at university, but then my brother says that I am a natural 'extrovert' anyway LOL.

it was a wonderful experience being home-educated, had plenty of time to do the things that interested me, play sports, interact with people from different backgrounds, and we didn't have to study at any particular time either. So we could take our holidays when other children were in school.

It's not for everyone though, as my mum had to put in a LOT of effort - no support at all from the local educational system.

We were taken out of school because the schools in England taught according to age rather than ability, and after six months of learning 'nothing' academically, we left school for good.

 

[Neeya]

Homeschooling does have its pros and cons. Personally, I've seen more cons. I know many people who were home schooled from birth, and have had a terrible time fitting in socially. They were home schooled largely out of religious reasoning. They have struggled in a college atmosphere; one quit because she couldn't handle it. A distant relative was home schooled for religious reasons and despite the fact that he scores well on tests, he couldn't get into the university he selected.

Honestly, I'm against home schooling, especially if it's for religious reasons, but that is another boat I won't go into. There are enough schools out there that at least one of them should fit each kid; montessori schools, private schools, public schools, governor's schools, boarding schools, magnet schools, etc. When my parent's decided that one school wasn't working out for us, they moved us to another. When the HS wasn't working out for my sister, she went to governor's school which was much more challenging. Sure I've had problems with a number of teachers in middle school and high school; some teachers just shouldn't be teaching. But guess what? I've had the same issues with college professors. It's just something in life you need to learn to deal with. Luckily, I had a very motivated mother who wouldn't let anything negative happen to her children. In college, I avoided certain professors or made it known to them that there was a problem. Now, if you're home schooling and you are doing it to benefit your child educationally, and you socialize your child appropriately, and make a sincere effort to do so with both large/small groups and a range of ethnicities/personalities, then great. But I could see that being difficult to do for a person. If you're not extremely diligent in your teaching, then problems will arise.

If you're homeschooling your kid at an older age, then I'll assume that they are already well socialized. I don't see any issue with that, honestly, but be prepared for, from what I have seen, more of a battle to get into a college/university. I honestly do not think it is worth it. Every school has it's problems. One of the most religious and prestigious schools in my area has the biggest drug problem in the area. My public school was much better than my original private school, but it still had its share of not-so-great teachers, drug/sex talk, etc. If you're 15+, that's pretty hard to avoid in a large group of kids these days. I wasn't a huge fan of my high school, but I made the best of it and turned out just fine.

Youth teachers have always been miles, leaps and bounds away from college professors for me. I didn't have a single memorable youth teacher, but I have many, many memorable professors. You have to get through the crap to get to the good stuff. I would have never wanted to be home schooled, because I would have missed out on a great deal of life experience that I'm thankful I have today; I believe it prepared me very well for college. I put up with bad teachers in youth school, but today I will not put up with university professors that give me a hard time, and I learned how to deal with the situation appropriately.

 

[amanda]

neeya brings up an interesting point - if you think high school teachers are rude and unreasonable, just WAIT until you get to college. you haven't seen anything yet. they make their own rules, enforce them as they see fit, and there's very little oversight. they don't know your name and most don't want to. they're not interested in your problems, your financial aid, or why you need a certain grade in their class. they get paid, first and foremost, to research (unless you go to a very small college), and teach because they have to.

 

[kuching48]

Wow, amanda, college in the US doesn't sound appealing at all! Hopefully not all are like that.

Actually, I got on very well with my teachers & peers at school; we just weren't learning that much. The teachers couldn't provide any additional help - they catered for the 'average' student, but not for those who are capable of learning outside of this range. I guess an alternative would have been private school, but with five children, my mum couldn't really afford 12,000 pounds per year, per child!

My lecturers at university were extremely supportive - my brother also attended the same university and the majority of teaching staff would always have a free minute to discuss concepts and provide extra exam help (very important lol!). Maybe it was because we were doing maths though, because my friends from other departments often complained about the lack of support.

As Neeya mentioned, home-schooling isn't for everyone - I have heard of some unfortunate cases where 'home-ed' children play computer games all day, and their parents make no attempt to provide them with an education of any kind. I personally wouldn't call these children 'home-educated' because it is hard to see when the education is taking place!

At the same time, some children learn more, and are happier, out of school. Learning at home does allow for children to be exposed to a very creative and supportive environment, for example, my mum would often teach us our spelling, mathematics, geography etc. on one of our train trips to a tennis tournament. We often learned through our real-world experiences.


Therefore, I believe the right place is where children are learning to the best of their abilities, have the opportunity to gain experiences in a number of different settings (real-world education, not just book learning), and most of all, feel happy and safe.

 

[MaxHavoc]

neeya brings up an interesting point - if you think high school teachers are rude and unreasonable, just WAIT until you get to college. you haven't seen anything yet. they make their own rules, enforce them as they see fit, and there's very little oversight. they don't know your name and most don't want to. they're not interested in your problems, your financial aid, or why you need a certain grade in their class. they get paid, first and foremost, to research (unless you go to a very small college), and teach because they have to.

Not only College Professors but what about future employers???

I actually think kids need BOTH- school and "homeschool". Why does everyone seem to make a choice of one over the other??? Lil Max has always been in public school, but that doesn't mean I don't have him learn more/different subjects at home and take other classes. Lil Max's school also "ran out of curriculum" (his principal's word) for him at the start of 2nd grade. I was faced with 3 options....1)have him skip a grade (or 2 ); 2)homeschool; or 3) have him stay put and tutor others, spend time in the spanish classes to pick up spanish etc (a plan I came up with). I chose #3 for many reasons. I obviously enriched this with lots of home study after school and several activities/classes. Parents seem to think it's all or nothing....either they let someone teach their children or they'll do it themselves....it really should be both.

I think there is a lot of very valuable life lessons to be learned in school. In life you're always going to have a job where you know more than your boss; where you will have a nasty coworker or boss; where you aren't praised for efforts; where you'll give respect and receive none etc. When better than childhood to learn how to master those situations???

 

[kuching48]

I agree, that it would be great if schools would allow children to learn both at school and at home, so they could get the best from both worlds.

For example, if a child was ahead in one subject (say mathematics), he/she could either attend classes with older children, or learn this subject at home. But with other classes, the child could attend them as normal.

Another issue, is that it is very hard (at least in the UK) for home-educated children to take exams and courses involving labwork, because of the lack of materials available outside of the school system. At the same time, many children do not wish to study *every* subject in school - just the science subjects, such as chemistry etc.

So if schools allowed children to take classes according to ability, and to study certain subjects at home (if they wished), it would enable children to socialise with their peers/teachers, make use of school facilities, as well as learn at an optimum rate.

Unfortunately, the schooling system in England tends to be an 'all or nothing affair'. Either you attend all the classes for your 'year group', regardless of your ability, or you choose to home-educate and receive no support at all from the local education authorities.

It is also the case that the educational standards in state schools are slipping, with the numerous new education 'strategies', lack of support for teachers, and rising discipline problems - some of my friends are teachers, and they spend more time telling off the students than teaching.

The good news is that I've heard some countries (Tazmania, Canada) are allowing a flexible approach to learning, where children are welcome to combine both a school and home education.

 

[Aslan]

There is a lot of general ignorance about homeschooling, but the fact is, a homeschooled child is more likely to academically successful. The most interesting thing to me is that, homeschooling removes the gap in performance of school aged children across race (there has been a longtime gap in achievement between hispanic/black students and white students in public and private schools).
Here are a few links showing the success of homeschooling:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57055

http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000010/200410250.asp

http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v7n8/

Link from ACT showing homeschoolers' superior test scores:
http://www.act.org/news/releases/2000/08-17-00.html

An excerpt from one of the aformentioned links:
These 5,124 homeschoolers' composite scores on the basic battery of tests in reading, math, and language arts ranked 18 to 28 percentile points above public school averages. For instance, 692 homeschooled 4th graders averaged in the 77th percentile in reading, the 63rd percentile in math, and the 70th percentile in language arts. Sixth-grade homeschoolers, of 505 tested, scored in the 76th percentile in reading, the 65th percentile in math, and the 72nd percentile in language arts.

The homeschooled high schoolers did even better, which goes against the trend in public schools where studies show the longer a child is in the public schools, the lower he scores on standardized tests. One hundred and eighteen tenth-grade homeschool students, as a group, made an average score of the 82nd percentile in reading, the 70th percentile in math, and the 81st percentile in language arts.

Neeya, I don't know how someone who claims to be a liberal can be "against" school choice. Very fascist. I, too, am an atheist, but I support school choice and the right of all American families, religious or not to educate their children as they wish.


Also about kids being badly adjusted, it depends on the environment they are in, just like every other public or privately schooled child. Was Dylan Klebold's bad adjustment due to homeschooling? I think not.

I was homeschooled through high school and was the better for it. Like others here have said, I had no problem adjusting to college life and graduated with a B.A. in June. I'm 21 and in my first semester of graduate school.

My professors have, on more than a few occasions, expressed their appreciation for my classroom contributions and I graduated with honors. I like to tell them, I'm average, I just had the best teacher (my mommy!)

 

[lorihmatthews]

This is a very interesting thread. I was not home schooled, and for me, having a social aspect at school was very important. But, I also had the luxury of an extremely high ranking school system so I didn't have many of the issues mentioned in this thread.

I don't think home schooling would have worked for me, only because I don't think I could have tolerated being with my mom all day long -- and vice versa! So it also obviously depends on the teacher as well as the student.

 

[Aslan]

I was homeschooled my whole life and never went to "conventional school" until college. I was mainly self taught / unschooled - the very flexible sort of student-led homeschooling. No curriculum to speak of. A lot of reading and self teaching.

So I finally get to meet an un-schooler! Can you tell me a little more about how your days were structured?

Don't want to put you on the spot, but I'm very curious about un-schooling. My mother adhered to a very strict schedule and curriculum.

 

[Aslan]

This is a very interesting thread. I was not home schooled, and for me, having a social aspect at school was very important.

Socialization can occur other places than at school. Homeschoolers are often involved in a range of activities that include people of different ages and abilities, very much unlike the typical artificial schooling model where children are only around people born in the same year!

 

[amanda]

Wow, amanda, college in the US doesn't sound appealing at all! Hopefully not all are like that.

i actually really love my college and have had many good professors, but there's a much higher incidence of rudeness and unreasonableness among professors than high school teachers.

and aslan, i think it would be hard to prove causation between homeschooling and high achievement - i would think that homeschooled kids are more likely to be intellectually gifted to start with (which is a reason a lot of kids begin homeschooling) instead of homeschooling creating the higher achievement.