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I've Been To Over 20 Homeschool Conferences. The Things I've Witnessed At Them Shocked Me.
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this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
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Homeschooling just needs to be abolished except under very specific circumstances (like kids who aren't physically able to attend schooling due to some illnesses), and even then they need to have an educator certified curriculum and regular checks that the curriculum is being followed. Too many parents use it as an excuse to brain wash their children into being perfect little idiots.
I took calculus in college with a set of twins that were homeschooled. They admitted that they'd never been taught how to solve for a variable, something I was taught in the 6th grade.
I would've failed out of highschool but homeschool allowed me to take community college classes that didn't force 2 hours of busywork every day. If regular schools could deal with different types of students I'd agree, but as it is now that's not the case.
That doesn't sound like "home" school though. It might have been the mechanism you leveraged to take alternative classes, but ultimately you got proper classes from an educational institution.
We can talk about reforming public education (a fair push for "homework is bad" exists right now, which may alleviate your problem, which is particularly common among people with responsibilities other than school) and we can talk about school choice, but literal home schooling I've not seen turn out well. Admittedly I've only known two or three folks, but they all were terrible to try to communicate with and had massive superiority complexes as well as lacking some knowledge/skills. Whether it's for "not enough religion in the school, but we can't afford private school" or "the school is not good enough to "enrich" my special snowflake ", the results are similar.
The point they're making is that homeschooling is far more flexible (for better and for worse) than most public education in the USA. Admittedly, it's a bit of a patch to fill in the gap, but for some kids it's incredibly beneficial. I was in a very similar situation: elementary school sucked and was extremely boring; despite the school psychiatrist's objections, the administration wanted to put me on Ritalin instead of proposing any real solutions. So my parents homeschooled me through middle school. I didn't actually follow much of the formal material, and instead of followed an "unschooling" approach. It was extremely beneficial compared to getting medicated.
The USA needs education reform, for sure, but kids can't wait for our value systems in the States to finally figure out good, flexible, and diverse pedagogical techniques.
I think everyone gets that ideal cases exists. But it's the other side of the matter that is worrisome. Problem is that achieved level is not tested, no one is responsible for kid getting proper professional education and everyone will just do it as they deem good fit subjectively. It's dangerous variation.
I agree. I would have just been a drop out at 16 had homeschool not been an option.
Drop out in what sense?
Drop out of school- to cease attending any formal education.
So you weren't homeschooled but had extra lessons at home to not drop out?
I totally understand the need to educate the educators. Few parents are appropriately equipped to become a full-time teacher. That's a problem, for sure.
But, as a rule, saying "X needs to be abolished" is extremely lazy, naive, and reeks of authoritarianism. If it's so bad, try proposing something better.
Like say, a standardised, govt funded education system? With dedicated professionals on staff and specialised facilities?
That still fails to prepare countless students because they don't quite fit expectations? I was one of those students.
Homeschooling isn't above criticism, for sure, but public schooling isn't perfect, either. People don't just make decisions for no reason. Sometimes they really do have some local insight that you don't.
School attendance works all around the world. If healthy kids have problems in school, teacher informs parents and they can figure out how to get them extra teaching. But how would you even know kid is lacking behind if being isolated in education. Also curiculum changes over the years. Uncontrolled homeschooling will lead to huge disproportionately in population which will enlarges with each generation. It needs to be formal gov controlled system not just what people feel like is the best.
For most kids in most places, I agree. But there are some places around the world where formal government-run school does not work. I live nearby some very rural places with chronically underfunded schools and unique social problems. The teachers I know who work there try their hardest, yet are aware they can't do a good enough job for their kids. In those communities, formal schooling just isn't enough.
Provide good options and people will make good decisions. Abolish bad options and people will still make bad decisions.
I agree there are poor countries that luck $$$ but OP doesn't seem to be about this specific poor regions around the globe though.
I live in the USA. I'm talking about people in developed nations. The richness of a large region only loosely correlates to the prosperity of its smaller regions.
People have to make decisions based upon their environment. There's no government in the world that can control this fact. The least we can do is acknowledge it and help people make the right decisions within their environment.
People in developed nations have typically something called school attendance by law. + extra math or whatever they are bad at. (aside from US) AFAIK. That is because they figured out that if kids don't go to schools, they don't get standardized education or any education at all and that often lead to poor country in few gens.