home schooling?

Question

How can this be accepted and/or legal? If your children are required to go to school, & teachers are required to have college degrees, how can a parent be allowed / qualified to give their children a proper education? Part of the education & development process is also learning how to deal with & interact with other kids. This aspect is also lost in the home schooling process.

Your opinions?

please don't just tell me that you know home shooled kids "that turned out just fine". I want to know how this can even be legal, if other kids MUST go to school & those teachers MUST have degrees.

OK... I was obviously misunderstood. I KNOW that home schooling can be done correctly & provide better results than public shools.

BUT - what if the parents don't do it right, have no education, -or- just plan on keeping the kids home to do chores ?!?! At least "degreed" teachers have made a commitment to an area of development. How do we protect kids from the "backwoods" parents that do it for "the wrong reasons"?

Answer 1

Hi, I have been up late in front of my computer and was about to finally
get a little sleep but had to answer your question first when I saw it!

I am a homeschooling parent of a six-year-old child, and I can
tell you a little bit---forgive my brief answers as I am quite tired:

First, the laws in the U.S. and internationally vary a great deal.
Here in the U.S. they vary state to state. In Ohio, where I am
originally from, they are rather strict, requiring parents to check in
with their school district frequently and to have their children take
district-administered tests. In California, where I live, on the other
hand, the laws are a bit more liberal, offering a greater variety of
options for homeschooling parents. For example, the private
school option allows parents to legally declare their home a
private school and then utilize it as such for homeschooling,
providing that the proper paperwork is kept on file. I personally
have chosen the private school option because my daughter is
quite gifted in several areas and this option allows me the
greatest flexibility in conducting her education.

One of the great things about being a parent is that one can
have the opportunity to facilitate a child's learning experience
as long as an appropriate environment is provided for that child.
In this regard, there are many who would argue with you that
the development process involves a vast array of opportunities for
interaction with other kids and with the community at large, when it
comes to homeschooling vs. other types of educational methods.
There are also those parents who believe that the constant, day-to
day exposure to the influences of peers who may have a negative
influence on their kids is one of the less-than-desirable aspects of
public school systems, and sometimes private schools too.
Religious parents participating in homeschooling adhere to this
belief, but so do other parents as well.
There are many wonderful websites which feature homeschooling
advice, links, etc as well as many great books out on the topic.
So you might want to take a look at someof them as well.
Generally speaking, my personal observation of homeschooling
families I have seen locally is that all in all, those kids are getting
more attention at home from parents and more individualized
approaches to various educational subjects and curriculums at
large. For this reason alone, many of these kids exceed the
public schools, and sometimes private ones too, in grades and
achievements.
Many homeschooled kids combine curriculum-based study
with various projects and pursuits in the community; they also
take numerous classes in specialized topics. My daughter takes
year-round group dance class instruction and private piano year
round too, as well as other classes. She also loves various
scientific topics and so we are planning a curriculum based on
various related subjects.
I hope this has been helpful to you, and please feel free to email
me at [e-mail]
I am curious as to where/how you first learned of homeschooling,
and what country/state/area you are located in, and if you have
any school aged children, etc. So please feel free to share if you
wish.
Best Wishes,
Lisa in Los Angeles area

Answer 2

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Answer 3

1

Answer 4

In lay terms, according to the constitution of the united states, article 10, it is actually illegal for the federal government to have a say in education or anything else not mentioned in the first 9 amendments. The better legal question would be whether the founding fathers wanted to restrict government's intervention into the lives of "we, the people.". According to the first amendment, we all have freedom OF (not FROM) religion and may not be forced to forfeit education that is in accordance to our held beliefs. Ironically, without the church (whatever denomination), most institutes of higher learning would not have been founded: Harvard, Notre Dame, or Pennsylvania College for Women (now known as Chatham College, my alma mater).

There is also a bit of difference whether people are hired out to do something (hence hair-dressing licenses) or just do it for the love of family, and there are diffence rules that apply to each role. Private schools, which by the way score higher in general on national tests than public schools, are NOT required to have certified teachers, although they often do. We all know NEA won't stand for their members being expelled any more than the bar or AMA does.

Homeschoolers do deal and interact with other kids (siblings and kids in other families and structured groups/classes) and parents and instructors. Most conscientious homeschoolers do not teach their own children chemistry or music, unless they have had higher education, but co-op with other families or hire teachers. Don't forget, usually homeschoolers have TWO parents in a family, and they take turns teaching specific areas of knowledge and encourage independent study -- called lifelong learning.

Let's face it - there are bad parents and bad teachers, and we all hope they will quit. Encourage the kids in those families to seek education where they can find it, just like we should do in some of the worst classrooms.

FYI - a couple things my kids learned when they returned to school in grades 9 & 10: 1) it is not cool to be too smart, study so hard or answer questions in class; 2) kids make out and smoke cigarettes and pot right in school with paid teachers' knowledge; 3) some parents don't care what their kids do sexually or legally; 4) most kids and teachers liked them and thought they were smart, cool enough, and well-adjusted, though rather polite.

Answer 5

1. The constitution defends freedom of religious practice. Many people do this b/c it's part of their religion.

2. What makes a college degree magical that someone can teach? Many people have that ability. The material at lower grades isn't too difficult, even public school folks know most of it.

3. "Part of the education & development process is also learning how to deal with & interact with other kids. This aspect is also lost in the home schooling process."

Says who? I thought schooling was to get an education. Maybe all this interacting is why test scores are so low, and US public schools are a disgrace.

Anyway, did you ever hear of science or logic? You've used neither in making this statement. Homeschool kids get lots of interaction w/ other kids: siblings, neighbors, kids in co-operatives AND MORE they interact w/ people of different ages, JUST LIKE IN THE REAL WORLD.

Better questions would be: why should schools be "required". (Ever read the history on that?)

Why would anyone be opposed to homeschooling when the results produce better educated students?

Why aren't homeschoolers receiving more resources from the taxes they pay, since they are getting better results than public schools?

Why would anyone be concerned w/ homeschooling when it frees up resources to the public schools?

What's being done differently in public schools to guarantee safety, religious freedom and a good education for students?

My opinion (since you asked) is that you are citing ignorant and easily answered objections, all guised as if they are sophisticated. Frankly it sickens me to see ignorance combined w/ hubris.

Answer 6

Why shouldn't it be accepted and/or legal?

Why shouldn't a parent who has spent the first 4-5 years watching a child grow and develop be able to decide what form of education is best for that child when they reach what the state says is an appropriate school age?

Who says that a homeschool child has to be a shut-in that doesn't interract with other children or that their wider variety of social interaction is inferior to the limited socialization found in public schools?

I think these are more important questions than the ones you asked, especially since you agree that homeschooled kids can turn out "just fine" or more prepared for the real world than their public schooled counterparts.

Answer 7

Children are not required to go to school; they are required to be educated until a certain age. Not all teachers are required to have teaching degrees; in many places, only those in public schools are required to have teaching degrees.

Would you say that all the wealthy (and sometimes not-so-wealthy) people of the past who were educated at home by their parents or private tutors (who had no special training, I might add) lacked appropriate social skills? How about Thomas Edison? His mom pulled him out of school after a few months and homeschooled him the rest. Was he lacking in education and social skills, unable to become a productive member of society? What about the Roosevelts? They didn't go to school. Benjamin Franklin? Had a whole two years in school.

Think about it more clearly: for how long, in the whole history of mankind, have children been lumped together in large buildings, in classes full of children the same age as they are, forced to follow a certain sequence at a certain rate? Even 100 or so years ago, most schools were one-room school houses, where the students didn't usually start attending until the age of 8 or 9, they progressed at their own rate through the different levels, exposed to all the things the bigger kids were learning...

It is ludicrous to think that the current model of public education is the only thing that constitutes a proper education and development of a person. If anything, it's creating serious problems. Kids have other kids their age as role models. How is that beneficial to a good development? It used to be there were other kids around to keep them in line, older kids with mature behaviour to emulate, but now there are just more immature kids to impress and try to be like.

Furthermore, the whole thought that kids will not interact with other kids because they are homeschooled is simply ridiculous. We don't live in little boxes, sheltering our kids from others. Most homeschooling families have more than one child, so there is natural interaction there on a daily basis. Do you know Little House on the Prairie? Do you think that Laura Ingalls Wilder grew up to be a dysfunctional person? They lived in a little log house in the woods for years, just the 5 of them. No other masses of kids around them on a daily basis. They learned quite well from their parents how to interact with other kids (aka, siblings and cousins when family get-togethers happened.)

It's time naysayers opened their eyes to a larger picture to see where the current model of education really fits.

P.S. While there are undoubtedly "backwoods" parents homeschooling, not every teacher is so great. I've known people who have had teachers tell the class repeatedly that they were the stupidest class the teacher had ever had (and complaints to the administration didn't help at all), one girl I know had a book thrown at her by her teacher because she had corrected an error he made, other kids who were in a class where the teacher was bordering on abusive, and she's still teaching. This is all in one city. And I have other stories I could share. There are bad eggs everywhere; there is no way to ensure that everybody will do as they should at all times.

Answer 8

How do we protect them from "backwoods parents"? Hopefully the same way we protect kids who go to "normal" school from any abusive home situations.
There's no reason to assume home-school parents are more likely to abuse their children than parents of public or private schooled kids.

There have been plenty of very reasonable answers provided here--most states require regular testing, a lot of states require a family be registered with an established school and their curriculum checked and progress notes submitted.

As for socialization, there are home-school co-ops where hundreds of families (such as the STAR program in southern California) come together and actually have classes together in what appears to be a "Charter school" setting maybe 2 or 3 days a week.
Further, some private schools offer an "umbrella" program--homeschooled students are able to participate in the sports, music, and other activities with other private schooled kids.

I'll agree with you--you get the odd strange family that needs to be stopped and the kids need to be helped.
But compare that with the hundreds of legitimate, successful families in California alone? Include the other families in other states?

It's not as big of an issue as people would like to make it out to be.

Answer 9

Some states require that parents have either an education degree or at least a bachelor's degree of some sort before being allowed to home school their children. Some states have more requirements (like reporting to some state agency), and some states have less.

Many homeschool families also have a lot of children and are involved in many extra-curricular & church activities ... so there are a multitude of opportunities for socialization. while minimizing some of the negative aspects of peer pressure found in public schools.

Answer 10

The same type of argument could be used to argue against gun ownership - there is a minority out there who use guns for crime, so how can we justify the legal ownership of any guns by ANYONE? In the same way, there is a small minority of homeschoolers who do not use the opportunity to teach their children, so ALL homeschooling should be illegal. Most homeschool kids with a few months of logic under their belts will recognize the major flaws in this argument.

The VAST majority of gun owners are law-abiding citizens who keep their guns for either recreational use (hunting) or personal protection. In the same way, MOST homeschool parents choose to homeschool in order to give their children a better education than the public school system and do very well. The studies that have been done of homeschoolers academic achievement show they are (on average) YEARS ahead of their age-group peers. Apparently, MOST homeschool parents know what they are doing, even without the teaching certificate.

As for socialization, I don't use playground politics in my life today and don't believe it is a necessary part of life. My kids have learned how to handle themselves in a variety of different situations with age-group peers as well as adults. THAT is the real world, not who's going to be the prom queen because she's the most popular (richest) girl in school.

I have CHOSEN to homeschool my kids because I want what is best for them. I know people who have chosen NOT to homeschool for the exact same reason. If you have decided not to homeschool your kids, that is your choice and I have no problems with that.

Answer 11

I would say it's because there is certain criteria that a child has to meet that if the parent has failed in teaching then the child will have to be enrolled in the school. I believe that nowadays sending your child to public school is just like sending them to prison, as a responsible parent who wants to keep their child safe I would do everything in my power to teach them whatever it is that they need to know to keep them out of prison. I have not made a decision as of yet on whether I'll be homeschooling my kids because of a point that you bring up, socialization, however whatever decision I make should not be condemned. I don't know why the parent doesn't have to have a degree like a teacher does, maybe it's because a parent would know at what pace their child(ren) learn at or how to communicate better with them, also it's quite possible the parent doesn't do well with other people's children so they don't become a teacher themselves. As parents we are their first teachers and it is our job to teach them and keep them safe. In my case, if I decide to homeschool and people don't like it, well, they should improve the public school system.

As I said, there are criteria the children have to meet to continue being homeschooled. At the end of each quarter they are tested by the local public school system and if they fail they must be registered in a school.