RobbieFTW wrote:

I don't think it's accurate to paint every school with the same brush. By something wrong, I meant "especially". I.E., the local school(s) has had documented trouble with sub par administration, environment, violence or poor test scores.

I'm not gonna look at the whole of schools and think that they're all so fucked up and flawed in general that the first and only choice is to home school. My first choice would be to send them TO school.

Maybe not EVERY school, but on average, I feel the problems are widespread. You don't need teachers stripping kids naked or classmates coming in guns ablazing to have a bad school. For the most part, modern day schools just don't cut it.

Good for you. If I see a school that isn't F'ed up, maybe I would consider sending my kids there. Going TO school is overrated, especially when it comes at the cost of a good education. So my first choice is giving my child the best possible education, and since going TO school just has shown that it is no longer capable of providing that, homeschooling becomes the smarter option.

Exactly...WHAT qualifies as a bad school? In my opinion it can be one that when the teachers see a student is failing, they just pass him onto the next grade without him having learned anything from the current grade. The student keeps getting passed on instead of held behind to actually work on what he has trouble with, what's he going to do when he gets out in the real world? In homeschooling that was not an option. They didn't even wait for you to get F's, if you got so much as a D, you had to do a whole new test with the same kinds of problems, so it seems to me they would've NEVER just said 'oh well, pass him onto the next grade anyway so he can be somebody else's problem' like a lot of public schools do.

^^^^I think a school can also be bad if the education taught is just not of a high quality. Passing a class that wasn't that good or helpful to begin with doesn't really help you much. Teachers can also hamper an education. There are just so many elements that can make a school bad and most schools today have way too many. At the very least, the arguments against homeschooling don't really have much of a leg to stand on.

Nystyle709 wrote:

How are they trying to stop people from homeschooling? Last I checked, it was still legal to do so.

Um, by changing the laws? lol Just cause it's still legal doesn't mean they want it to be. If it makes you feel better, I am glad you are not homeschooling your kid.

It depends on where you live. In Germany, Brazil, Greece, etc., it's illegal, in some other countries you can ONLY homeschool your kid if they're too sick to go to the regular school OR there has to be a teacher to come to the house and do it, the parents aren't trusted with the responsibility of educating their own child.

Supernova wrote:

It depends on where you live. In Germany, Brazil, Greece, etc., it's illegal, in some other countries you can ONLY homeschool your kid if they're too sick to go to the regular school OR there has to be a teacher to come to the house and do it, the parents aren't trusted with the responsibility of educating their own child.

I don't see why not. I've seen teachers with degrees and I am not all that impressed.

Forgiveness_Man wrote:

Um, by changing the laws? lol Just cause it's still legal doesn't mean they want it to be.
Who doesn't want it to be? I haven't heard anything about anyone trying to ban homeschooling in THIS country. Give examples.
If it makes you feel better, I am glad you are not homeschooling your kid.

Well, I wouldn't have the time. I work and I have a pretty active life in general. Unlike some others.

I think it's time for you to go and breastfeed the baby now.

Nystyle709 wrote:

Well, I wouldn't have the time. I work and I have a pretty active life in general. Unlike some others.

My mother worked for the radio station by day, did medical transcribing at night and still had the time to homeschool 2 kids from 8 to 3 every Monday through Friday excluding federal holidays and school breaks.

Kral wrote:

The thing I notice about home schooling is parents sort of flagrantly deciding to do it themselves. Do they have a degree in teaching? I can agree with Chris' points about how home school kids may excel at comprehension because of the direct instruction, but that the overall benefit of a kid going to school goes beyond just book learning. It's their first real taste of the real world away from their parents belly, which can't be taught at home. I think this episode of SP makes its point...

I would only homeschool my kids if there was something dastardly wrong with the local school system. If it was decent enough, then they're going to school. In general, homeshool parents come off to me very overprotective, coddling, paranoid and distrustrustful of the world. Let the kid be around other kids. Let him learn to interact with his peers in a structured setting. Those are very important tools that they need to learn that can't be taught under parents thumbs.

Statistics show 98% of homeschooled kids are involved in the sort of activities and clubs that 'normal' kids are like 4H, Boyscouts, Girl scouts, ballet, field trips, sports, church activities and music lessons.

Besides, I was homeschooled and I was around other kids, it's called they lived on the block, and we all got together AFTER school to do stuff, just like 'normal' kids do. Now there are some people who argue their kids have to go to school in the next town or so, so they can't just do that...well I gotta wonder, people say you gotta do what's in the best interest of your child, IS it in their best interest for you to live like 5 miles or so away from any other kids in the first place?

@NY: They could outlaw it and you wouldn't hear of it.

Oh please, you'd have the time. But of course, I don't want you to homeschool your kid. You have a life? I love it when people try so hard to prove that to somebody who never questioned it. Makes me start wondering why they try so hard.


@cat: Overprotective? Distrustful of the world? Maybe the later is so because of valid reasons. lol The former isn't necessarily true. Homeschool kids hang around with other kids plenty, maybe more than in school. In school, you are supposed to be LEARNING. It is not a social club and I think the fact that people default to that defense shows how far the education quality has slipped. And I don't consider modern schools all that much a "structure" anymore. Homeschooling is NOT education under the parents' thumb. It's merely choosing to reject the status quo of education. Homeschool kids have the potential to be even MORE socialized even.

Exactly, I never got when people say it's the parents brainwashing their kids. Clearly, anybody who says this has NO idea how homeschooling works...you buy books and tests from the school, your kid does the tests and sends them in to a 'professional' teacher who grades the tests which are issued based on what's in the textbooks. Somebody please explain where parents' brainwashing comes into play in any of that.

^^^^They are likely using the stereotypes of homeschooling that the minority extreme(but still most widely publicized by the media) cases suggest.

There are ways homeschooling can not work, I admit. But that is true for anything in life.

Forgiveness_Man wrote:

@NY: They could outlaw it and you wouldn't hear of it.

I see you haven't given any examples. LOL, figured you didn't have any. Your pathetic tirade against sending children to school was just that. If you prefer to homeschool your child, fine. It doesn't make someone who can see BOTH the pros and cons of the matter and who decides not to do it a bad parent.

Quote :

Oh please, you'd have the time. But of course, I don't want you to homeschool your kid.

Nah, I wouldn't. And it'd be all well and good because my child will STILL get the best education possible by going to the best schools possible. And him/her would learn to socialize with different people and cultures. My kids won't live in a box.

Quote :

You have a life? I love it when people try so hard to prove that to somebody who never questioned it. Makes me start wondering why they try so hard.

LMAO, how am I trying hard to prove I have a life? I merely stated that I do, and I have a busy one at that. What do you do for a living? (Serious answer).

Nystyle709 wrote:

Nah, I wouldn't. And it'd be all well and good because my child will STILL get the best education possible by going to the best schools possible. And him/her would learn to socialize with different people and cultures. My kids won't live in a box.


LMAO, how am I trying hard to prove I have a life? I merely stated that I do, and I have a busy one at that. What do you do for a living? (Serious answer).

I'd say that going to school is exactly what puts them into a box. Homeschooled kids can socialize with plenty of people and cultures, and learn more from it. Homeschooling is, if anything, taking the child OUT of the box that is the school system. But good for your kids. I hope they throw a diverse bag of kids into the box with them.

I was just commenting on how people always like to throw the "I'm busy" or whatnot card around.

Yeah, like somebody's 'me time' can't be interrupted by something as insignifcant as their child's education and potentially their whole future.

Supernova wrote:

Statistics show 98% of homeschooled kids are involved in the sort of activities and clubs that 'normal' kids are like 4H, Boyscouts, Girl scouts, ballet, field trips, sports, church activities and music lessons.

Besides, I was homeschooled and I was around other kids, it's called they lived on the block, and we all got together AFTER school to do stuff, just like 'normal' kids do. Now there are some people who argue their kids have to go to school in the next town or so, so they can't just do that...well I gotta wonder, people say you gotta do what's in the best interest of your child, IS it in their best interest for you to live like 5 miles or so away from any other kids in the first place?

Look I'm not downing homeschooling, if you were homeschooled and it was beneficial for you then that's great. Really it is. I just think kids need to exposed to other kids, and not just those they choose to interact with around their neighborhood. That was what I was getting at. Again though if it was a positive experience for you, then that's good. I just don't like the sometimes cynical and paranoid attitude some people have about general school in regards to deciding to homeschool their kids.

CatEyes10736 wrote:

Look I'm not downing homeschooling, if you were homeschooled and it was beneficial for you then that's great. Really it is. I just think kids need to exposed to other kids, and not just those they choose to interact with around their neighborhood. That was what I was getting at. Again though if it was a positive experience for you, then that's good. I just don't like the sometimes cynical and paranoid attitude some people have about general school in regards to deciding to homeschool their kids.

Those attitudes are more than justified.

Homeschoolers can be exposed to lots of different kids if they want to. And in all honesty, in school, you're exposed to a lot of kids but IN school, how much time do you have to "socialize?" For the most part, the time you do spend socializing will often be with a few select kids you CHOOSE to socialize with. Hence, going to school is really no better a socialization tool than homeschooling. I frankly think you got a better chance meeting somebody to socialize with at a shopping mall than you do a school. I think people have just gotten so used to it and the supposed benefits that it has that we really aren't checking to see if it has those benefits anymore.

I guess these people just want to cut out the teaching profession altogether. There aren't any benefits to being a teacher I guess. Guess the only thing teachers do is recite from books and follow a few lesson plans. Like, realistically, every damn person in America can be homeschooled. LOL.

Nystyle709 wrote:

I guess these people just want to cut out the teaching profession altogether. There aren't any benefits to being a teacher I guess. Guess the only thing teachers do is recite from books and follow a few lesson plans. Like, realistically, every damn person in America can be homeschooled. LOL.

1. I'd be all for the teaching profession if there weren't more good ones than bad ones. I am sure good ones do exist. But the bad ones outnumber them.

2. Nobody is saying that the teaching profession should be cut out. I am all for people being able to pawn their kids off on a teacher for 6-8 hours a day if that's what they want. I already said that not every child can or should be homeschooled(you saw it too). I've never been saying to ban school, just that it no longer serves any of the purposes it claims to.

Exactly, now we were talking earlier about what counts as a bad school. And I stand by one example being if the teachers know the students aren't learning anything, and instead of holding them back and working with them so they'll get it, they just pass them onto the next grade not having learned much of a damn thing from the current year. But you know...how many schools are there today that DON'T do that? Off hand I can't think of any.