With so many parents opting for alternative education in the area, I thought it’d be a good idea to start a conversation about home schooling.
A few starting topics:
What are the challenges home schooling parents face these days?
Is increased regulation of home schooling making it more hassle than it’s worth?
Do the benefits of home schooling outweigh the risks?
Does home schooling — for either secular or religious reasons — still have a place in modern society?
What techniques and lesson formats do you find most useful when teaching your children?
How do you deal with others who feel that you’re “robbing” your child of socialization experiences?
For what it’s worth, I was home schooled for many years, so if you have questions about the impact of this educational format on adults, I’ll be more than happy to relate my experiences.
I have a boy who just turned two and we are pretty sure we want to home school. His mother and I both feel like we spent way too much time combating boredom in school. We also think we learned far more from our independent reading.
Said boy is counting to 12 and knows all his colors, so we think he will have similar experiences.
I think the socialization thing is over rated. At least for now, he gets plenty of that.
It is a scary responsibility, so I look forward to this thread developing.
Steve, just for turds and giggles, what do you think your parents did wrong, should have done but didn’t, etc.
Steve, just for turds and giggles, what do you think your parents did wrong, should have done but didn’t, etc.
Nothing really comes to mind. My “home schooling” experience could be more accurately described as “being left almost completely to my own devices,” which meant that I was more-or-less free to learn what I liked at my own pace. And, with the telling exception of higher maths, I learned most things with ease.
That said, there’s a good chance that I’m an exception to the rule. Given that I was a bright kid, and that the school system my Mom opted me out of was in a “bad” school district in the already backward educational prison of 1990s South Carolina, almost anything would have been an improvement.
The only trouble I’ve run across is that there’s a trade-off to being allowed so much freedom during a time that most people are learning how to conform to classroom standards, do busywork for no real gain in knowledge or skill, recite information of no lasting value and generally learn how to accept authority.
As a result, I’ve found it very hard to work in jobs that expect blind conformity (which pretty much means most minimum-wage and service-sector jobs, at least in my experience). Please don’t misunderstand this; it hasn’t make me into an anti-authoritarian troublemaker or anything. It’s just made me the kind of person well-suited to jobs involving personal responsibility and accountability—like freelance writing or working at a place like the Xpress—rather than jobs that reward you for doing what you’re told.
I have no idea if this is a common trait among people that were home schooled, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn it is.
Until recently, the common trait I noticed about people who were home schooled was an urgent need to save my soul. Steve, you said:
“It’s just made me the kind of person well-suited to jobs involving personal responsibility and accountability—like freelance writing or working at a place like the Xpress—rather than jobs that reward you for doing what you’re told.”
I would hope that we could raise a young man with such traits. It took us 10 years to figure out for ourselves.
I have no idea if this is a common trait among people that were home schooled, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn it is.
in my infinitely finite experience with homeschoolers, this is not a common trait. might be your personality, but i don’t think it’s a by-product of homeschooling, or at least not inherently.
most of the homeschooled i’ve known are timid and seem a little overwhelmed by the world ... and their role in it. seem to prefer a plan and permission ... but they weren’t left to their own devices, but rather micromanaged by their parents (which may or may not have been related to the decision to control the educational aspect of their lives as well) ...
i’ve met extraordinarily bright people who were products of homeschooling and some who were products of public school systems ... i don’t think the context of the education is as critical as the demeanor of the student and educators, in whatever form they may take. an involved parent can team with the public school system to provide the best of both worlds, and either without the other, in my opinion, leaves a gap in a child’s development as a person. kids DO need socialization, and lots of it ... but again, it has to be appropriate or it becomes detrimental rather than beneficial ...
My daughter was part of a home school group. we had five kids who were not doing well in their reg. school in 5th grade so we started this group. We used Oak Meadow guides, and the kids seemed to do well. They did their core work from 8:30- 12:00 and in the afternoon a parent would take turns doing either art or athletics (I was the athletic person).
Anyway, they re-entered the local school at 7th grade and 4 of the five are honor roll kids now. I believe the home schooling gave them a jump on the work and taught them how to be self motivated and to learn material better and own their own. My daughter loves the social part of school but is kinda bored with the curriculum. I think she needs more of a challenge academically, in reg school.
We are in the VI’s at a small school that is very expensive. I have a home in A-ville and wonder if I should come up to send her to Asheville High, It seems like a school with endless possibilities.....What do ya’ll think of A-ville High??
I have no idea if this is a common trait among people that were home schooled, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn it is.
in my infinitely finite experience with homeschoolers, this is not a common trait. might be your personality, but i don’t think it’s a by-product of homeschooling, or at least not inherently.
To be fair, I was also enrolled in Elementary School and (briefly) Middle School, and attended Asheville High for a little while (a semester, I think), so I’ve seen a little of both sides. What I haven’t seen, and have no experience with, is the religious-based homeschooling environment, which is almost certainly a more formal and structured situation than I was in.
Also, in rereading my earlier posts, I’m a little concerned that I’ve come across as “homeschooling makes you independent and awesome,” which wasn’t actually the point I was trying to make. It was seriously difficult for me to adapt to jobs that expected a clock-in, clock-out mentality (which is most of them, really), and I spent most of my late teens and early twenties becoming increasingly concerned that I’d end up as one of those defeated people who can’t keep a job because they just can’t handle the responsibility. It was very frustrating at times.
What I’m getting at here is that homeschooling, or at least my particular brand of it, didn’t particularly prepare me for the working world. It’s just something to take into account when you opt your kid out of school.
I think everyone can agree that this is a complex issue dealing with the competency of the parents and children alike. With the social networks here in Asheville, this is probably one of the best areas in the country to home school.
However, this is also one of the better school systems in the state so our kids go to public school. Trust me, there is plenty of challenging work for children that are “bored,” starting in third grade. My daughter is starting high school next year (holy crap!) and is enrolling in very advanced program that is funded in part by Bill Gates… SILSA I think. It is a high school within the high school with its own principal and accountability.
To repeat a little of what Steve is saying, personally I feel that the whole school experience is necessary to make it in the real world later on. You are able to encounter teachers that are mostly great, but you also get a few clunkers along the way, just like people in real life. My children ride the bus and have had to deal with teasing but also making friends and in my son’s case protecting other kids getting picked on. These experiences, good and bad, I feel will give them fortitude when they step out into the world on their own.
This is not a comment on homeschooling as a whole, but two of the most socially screwed up kids I’ve ever encountered were homeschooled. We have always asked are they screwed up because of the homeschooling or were they homeschooled because they are screwed up?
To repeat a little of what Steve is saying, personally I feel that the whole school experience is necessary to make it in the real world later on. You are able to encounter teachers that are mostly great, but you also get a few clunkers along the way, just like people in real life. My children ride the bus and have had to deal with teasing but also making friends and in my son’s case protecting other kids getting picked on. These experiences, good and bad, I feel will give them fortitude when they step own into the world on their own.
I agree with that. I was never home schooled and don’t personally know anyone who was, but I feel I would have missed a lot of invaluable social experiences growing up if I’d been kept out of public schools. So many good times, so many bad times, just so many things that are now part of my memory and therefore part of who I am I suppose, I would never have known if I’d stayed at home all the time and only my parents taught me. I think education is a lot more than books and assignments. It is also learning to live in the real world by experiencing the real world.
... I feel I would have missed a lot of invaluable social experiences growing up if I’d been kept out of public schools.
I think it’s more a matter of getting different life experiences. Putting the whole hourly job-acclimation thing to one side, I can’t say that I’ve regretted not spending my teenage years in a classroom. If anything, I’m glad I did, because it gave me a head start on being self-sufficient, and I have a wealth of experiences from that time that I wouldn’t trade for anything. I’d think of it more as a trade-off.
Home school kids are often social and emotional malcontents. I don’t know how many times I’ve looked at some spaz and asked someone what’s wrong with them, and somebody goes “Dude, they were homeschooled.”
Home school kids are often social and emotional malcontents. I don’t know how many times I’ve looked at some spaz and asked someone what’s wrong with them, and somebody goes “Dude, they were homeschooled.”
I would say the majority of ‘homeschool’ kids I know want to go to public school, but their parents wont le tthem. It usually seems to happen by about Junior High.
