Is homeschooling right for your family?

You say two parents can't teach a child as much as a school, but I would say there is no school that can give my children the types of stimulation, knowledge, and experience they can get from daily hiking in the woods, growing things, cooking, caring for animals, building and making real stuff for everyday use, hearing a variety of respectful adult conversations, reading numerous books each day, playing multiple musical instruments, having varied art experiences relating to real life, and being involved in much of what their parents do each day. Most of what is going on in a classroom has nothing to do with education or stimulation. Personally, I learned a lot in elementary school because I was very bookish, I started school early, and I went to a high-standard parochial school. The stuff I learned in the sixth grade wasn't brought up in my high school until grades 11-12, and even then they didn't get into as much depth. But luckily I was very motivated to study on my own.

Look, nobody is saying that if you don't home school you are a loser. Home schooling is an option. It is the best option for some people. It is NOT the best option for other people. Why is that such a controversial statement?

Reply

I home school my son and I am proud of it. The problem is, is that you can not trust your child to be safe in school anymore. There are so many shootings and stabbings and the drugs are the most important of all. My son still plays the schools sports and his charter school has two field trips a month for the kids to get together. To me school is not for trying to fit in and being teased cause you dont and being pushed into drugs, school is for learning. As for learning to fit in with the other kids, hey I would be proud to have my kids be one of the safe ones and one of the ones who are not on drugs at 7 years old. I hated school and i do not want to put my kid through the bullying that he does not need. He is social enough with sports and the field trips and I know he is safe with me. Public schools are just horrible now days and it is scary and sad that it has come to this. I know a lot of great teachers out there but it comes down to how the school is run and who is in it. I enjoy homeschooling my son and he was in public school until he got serious concussion and had to be taken out so now he picks home school over public. In kindergarten his teacher forgo three kids in the bathroom and when they came out they had no idea where thier class was. they were roaming the school looking for their class. Lucily they were found before they had left the building and tried walking home. One of those was my son who was scared to death not knowing where anyone was . He is better off now.

Reply

Personally, I believe that putting a child in a school (public/private) might induce a child to be better socially-adjusted. I know many home-schooled children and their families (in the past and presently). One of my old neighbors homeschooled all of her 6, now 7 children. I found that the children only saw the 'one perspective' their teacher (mom) believed (and by that sense 'taught') was the ONLY right perspective. Of course, they were people of Christian faith and anything outside of the bible was 'heresy' - in some ways I was surprised how easily were we to still get along so cordially, being as we were such 'sinners' next door who didn't go to church on Sundays. In any case, I did notice some inept social qualities displayed in the children. Still, they were THEIR children and I am a firm believer we do have the right to instill in our children our own beliefs for the most part.

Before I trail off and lose focus, as far as sending my kids to public school, I would hope that through relating to many different perspectives (of teachers, peers, etc) that it would endorse an even more broader desire in themselves to explore the world and even moreso, themselves. I want them to be able to take ALL perspectives into consideration and be able to critically come to their own conclusions. For MY kids, I want a wide perspective for them to see through and I believe this is the best way to aid them in doing so.

In addition, whether their socializing with peers is of negative/positive experience it equates to experience...and how better to prepare them for world ahead of them? The social portion of schooling outside the home is not at all something that can be imitated in a home-setting, sure you can have 'play-dates', but I feel that its important for time 'outside' of only parental supervision. How my kids act when I'm not around is important and perhaps even KEY gauging of my parental skills.

I have considered home-schooling in the past, due to some inept teachers who probably shouldn't be teaching. HOWEVER, I had to ask myself am I equipped to do it? (Especially for the grades past elementary.) Most of the homeschooling moms I have known have not gone very far in their education - no degrees, most only HSD.

Personally, I feel that's not equipped enough to teach certain things (especially in math and science, perhaps even in some forms of writing). Aside from that I believe that it is necessary to be 'trained to teach'. You really have to know how to do it - knowing how to evaluate whether your student is 'getting it' is not something that comes easily to everyone. Besides, K-10th grade is NOT like college where students are just lectured to - it incorporates much more 'hands-on' teaching ability. I think that MOST teachers are awesome for what they do - it takes much patience and a great intrinsic love for the job itself (esp. with what they get paid!). Course, there are those few who I don't believe are worth their weight in horse manure...but those are rare and few. I do try to implement by children's education at home, myself. Actually, I think I got one teacher irate because I was aiding my son in Algebra back in 4th grade (basically showing him different approaches to problems they had not yet 'gone over in class'). He's now in 7th grade and I still teach him higher math - only because he catches on so fast and I don't want him to 'get bored' or lose flame for it - but we make a point to still go over what the teacher expects of him 'at the present'. Before I trail off again, I just really have to stress that I feel an environment amongst other same-age peers is the best learning environment for children.

Reply

I should add that even as someone with a degree - I still do not feel equipped to 'teach'. I wanted to stress the fact that teaching does not come easily to everyone - that's why it's a profession - that's why people go to school to practice. Yes, as a science/math geek, of course I can IMPLEMENT my child's education. But I certainly don't feel equipped to take on all subjects, nor do I pretend to think that I am 'all-knowing'. If I don't know something - I usually tell them, "Let's find out". I don't expect them to think that mom/dad have all the solutions/answers in the world - nor would I want them to think that way. In my opinion, I believe that home-schooling creates a sense of a 'little only-one-way world'. That is what I have seen/experienced in counteracting with home-schooled children and their families.

Reply

AM 9-24-2008 @ 2:32PM

You spelled MANDATORY wrong... it is MANDATORY not Manditory. :) You might also want to brush up on grammer. There were several errors.


Haha! Grammar.

Reply

(homeschooled from ages 1-15 and attendee of public school for highschool, grad valedictorian)

Reply

whoops. Nick=Evie, btw.

Reply

Why do professionals feel like they can take credit for a child's success but not their failures? If a kid learns; it's because of their
"teaching skills and training" but yet they take no responsibity if child fails or struggles with mediocrity. Certainly, if a homeschooled child is found lacking in any area socially or academically, it is considered a failure of the homeschooling parent. Isn't that a bit hypocritical?
And for those with the anti-homeschooling arguement who use the "I know a homeschooled kid who (fill in negative observation)... therefore I am against it" . Why don't you turn that same judgement on the millions of public school students who
fall into such categories as: unsuccessful academically, socially awkward, behaviorly challenged, alcohol and drug influenced, sexually promiscuious ect. Using the same logic, shouldn't you be against public school as well, and even more so especially considering that we are forced to pay for it.
Study after study has shown that it is parental involvement that is the key in a student's success. I believe a lot has to do with the student's responsibility in his/her own decisions and work ethic but perhaps this also stems from expectations at home. I think the professionals should recognize this instead of feeling defensive and
needing to validate their significance in the educational process by opposing dedicated parents.

Reply

This is a comment for Sabrina and socialization. I went to public schools. I did group sports. I took school seriously because I didn't want to waste my time (all honors or AP classes whenever available). Because I refused to skip classes and I did well in classes, I was a huge target for teasing and harassment. I was good enough at my group sports that the team wanted me there, but as soon as we were in school, it was time for them to turn on me (the team was outside of school). Then a funny thing happened in college. All of a sudden, being smart and taking learning seriously wasn't a negative anymore. The vast majority of my close friends from my 21-and-younger days are from college.

Did going to a public school and experienceing constant teasing help me? No way. It took a while for me to realize that the people that seemed to want to be friends in college really wanted to be friends, not people who were just trying to use me on their next group homework project. I think I would have been better prepared for college if I had been homeschooled, because I wouldn't have had that psychological damage known as public high school to overcome before I could trust anyone else. That was the main impact of high school socialization on my psyche...I had a very difficult time trusting anyone.

For those interested in blaming teachers, I had great teachers. I admit, the more experienced teachers tend to get the harder classes and that's what I signed up for...even when my first guidance counselor told me girls didn't need a schedule that difficult (I was quickly changed to a different guidance counselor). The biggest problem at that age is people are desperate to not be the ones being picked on and will join in if it deflects attention from them (and yes, I've had people from high school later apologize for being nasty and they pretty much blamed peer pressure).

I'm sure there are "party schools" out there that would have been more like high school part two. Those schools wouldn't have worked for me at all. But, like everyone looking at college, if your cousins find a school that's a good fit, it'll be fine.

Also, I'm a college professor now and I've had plenty of homeschool students. In my experience they are much better prepared for college and they fit in fine socially as well. If anything, they tend to be slightly more mature and are slightly better at handling living (budgets, food etc). I'm seriously considering homeschooling my own children. It isn't the answer for everyone, so I actually still support my taxes paying for public schools as well. Just don't assume your cousins will have horrible experiences in college because they were homeschooled. And if they do have a bad experience in college, don't assume it's because they were homeschooled. College dropout rates can be pretty high for a variety of reasons.

Reply