what do you think of home schooling?

Question

ive been in homeschool for 13 years should i start publicschool now

Answer 1

How long you have homeschooled for should have nothing to do with whether or not you should go to school.

I know homeschooled kids who stayed homeschooling all the way through until graduation, then headed off to college. I know some kids who homechooled only for elementary and perhaps some of junior high, then went off to high school. I know some kids who started homeschooling in junior and said good riddance to school and all the ridiculous social nonsense and the teachers who throw books at you or get mad at you because you don't understand, and don't plan to go back until post-secondary.

I'm a former school teacher myself. School can be a great place or a horrible place, or just an okay place, dependent on a number of factors. The same could be said for homeschooling.

In reference to the comment about school being a microcosm of society, nowhere in adult society, except in educational institutions and perhaps prisons, are people required to ask permission to go to the bathroom, banned from eating except at certain hours, told to begin a work project at a certain time then every 30-60 minutes told to change that project, nor do most adult environments include 20-30 other adults in the same room, EXACTLY the same age, all doing the same thing and all competing for the attention of one manager/boss.

I know plenty of homeschooling parents who are giving their children well-rounded educations, whose kids have fine social skills. If you want to know more about actual research that has been done, rather than pure speculation on someone's part, check out the Fraser Institute, an institute which evaluates all sorts of educational formats and other societal 'issues', has to say about homeschooling: http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/shared/readmore.asp?sNav=nr&id=436

I will quote from that page:

Home schooling and socialization

Contrary to the concerns of the educational establishment, the typical home schooled child participates in a wide variety of extracurricular activities, including afternoon and weekend programs with public school students, day-time field trips and co-operative programs with groups of other home schooled kids. Ninety-eight percent of home schooled students are involved in two or more outside functions on a weekly basis.

Research also suggests that home schooled students are more sociable than their school peers, as well as more independent of peer values as they grow older.
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I don't know what it is that naysayers seem so quick to think that homeschooled children have poor social skills, as though all public schooled children have wonderful social skills. If they had such wonderful social skills, there would not be the gun problems and the bullying problems and the gangs and the teen sex and the drugs and the vandalism and all kinds of other issues present in public schools. Society as a whole complains about youth behaviour and attitudes. Programs galore exist to help all sorts of social skills problems. Why turn against homeschooling when public schools haven't got it all right themselves?

Also, if public school is required in order to be able to function in society, it's a shame that naysayers can't go back and tell Thomas Edison's mother that. She should have kept him in school instead of homeschooling him; he would have stayed in school and not done all the science experiments he did. The Roosevelts, too--they should have gone to school. Should never have become Presidents because their social skills were so low. I could list many others.

Bottom line is: what do you want and what will your parents say is okay? Not only that, but why do you want it? I've known of some kids to go to public school and love it, it was just what they wanted; others who went, thinking it would give them more friends and things like that and it completely bombed. There are lots of ways to connect with others, lots of ways to up your education or change its structure. Public school and homeschooling are just some potential answers, but only to certain questions based on certain wants. Essentially, figure out what it is that you want and if the reasons for wanting it are good, then go from there.

Added: About colleges? Harvard and some other top-name places seek out homeschooled students and have sections set up just for their admission. Don't let yourself think that you've got to go to school to get into where you want as it's just not true!

Answer 2

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Answer 3

It's good in the way that you can learn at your own pace, and that you have the one on one attention that you don't have to share with 20 or more other kids. On the bad side, you don't have the constant interaction with other kids, the chance to develop the social skills that you can only learn by being there, and learning how to fit in and deal with groups of people. Social skills take you further in life than you think, and are necessary to make it in virtually any working or career situation. In fact, in most corporate environments, what people lack in adademics and intelligence, they more than make up for with charisma, political power, and social gracefulness. Look at George Bush and Hitler. Both are very powerful and influential, but not really that smart. Also, learning the life lessons that the world is not there to accommodate you, and that life is not fair, and eat or be eaten, and that you are not automatically entitled to everything and anything you want or need....are some very important things you will pick up when you interact with others.
Home schooling kids all the way through high school is overly idealistic, and a bad idea. It is like throwing your kids out of the boat when you never taught them to swim. Bad idea.....

Answer 4

I was homeschooled from kindergarten till i got my GED . The only down side that I had with homeschooling was a lack of social interactment . I was really lonely as a child and I feel like I missed out on the good parts of public school . I sent my little girl to public school last year for kindergarten . She had a really good year ! I think that homeschool or public school is a personal desision .

Answer 5

I fail to understand, how anyone - except for those, like teacher, whose paycheck depends upon believing it - can believe the social skills of schooled kids are better than those of homeschooled kids.

Homeschooled kids are far and away less clique-ish, more accepting and tolerant, more polite, more interesing, more interested in knowledge, more aware of how things work in the real world (since they haven't been in the artifical milleau of insittutionalized school where everyone is the same age except your boss), more self-confident, less conforming, better informed, more helpful at home, more self-motivated, just better in every category in which 'socialization' should have impact.

(Let's keep in mind that socialization is different from socializing. You socialize with friends. You are socialized by parents and other authority figures who transmit the cutlures norms and mores to you. Your peers cannot do this.)

Answer 6

I am opposed to it. A public school is a microcosm of our society. If you can't learn to function academically and socially in such an environment, then I think your social skills and chances for success are greatly hampered. Has home-schooling been effective for some? As a public school teacher I would have to say it has been effective for very few. A well-rounded education presents far more tools for life than a slanted home school situation can generally offer. Good luck!

Answer 7

My 8 yo niece is homeschooled and she's WELL beyond the 1st grade she should be in. So that's great.

But she hasn't learned much about being patient with others, waiting her turn, and sharing the attention of the teacher. I'm sure she'll eventually go to school, (she started 1st grade but asked to leave after Thanksgiving) but it's going to be a hard adjustment because she's so used to having all the teacher's (her mom's) attention on just her.

Answer 8

I think that it's up to you. You have a better chance of getting into better univerisities if you're in public schools or private schools, though. My mom was homeschooled, and she didn't get into the best collage.

Public & private schools have better books, technology, etc. But home schoolers have better breaks and stuff and have it a bit easier.

Answer 9

My youngest sister was home schooled until she was done with junior high.. she went to public school starting her freshman year of high school. I think it was a perfect time for her to do that.

The fears of home schooled kids being socially inept to me are unfounded. My sister did just fine socially, in fact I think she did better than I (and I went to public school my whole life).

I also think she is better educated than I am mostly because she was given actual attention when it came to education. It was easier since there wasn't a classroom full of kids to worry about.

Answer 10

13 years in home school ? You should be in college now !