why do you think homeschooling is not as good as public schools?

Question

I have no Idea why everyone thinks homeschooling is less or a bad idea. I have been homeschooled all my life from kindergarden and am now in 10th grade. It is a proven fact that homeschooled kids are smarter than the average public school kid. I am 15 years old and am 1 or 2 grades ahead of any kid at my age. i have set foot in a classroom only one time in my life. Plus an advantage I did not start school until 2:oo in the afternoon one day who else can say they did that? I think we deserve as much respect as any public schooled kid. I am very soccial contary to what others have said. That is complete crap that we are not as soccial. Collages are reluctant to have homeschooled kids in there college because they think they are more likely to succeed. Trust me I have done my research.

Answer 1

I think the best way to view this is by looking at the issue generally, not at specific cases. There are some homeschoolers who are not socially adept. However, there are also some public school children who are not socially adept. National averages show that home schooled children score better on standardized tests and national tests (such as the ACT or SAT).

School is not about teaching social skills. Social skills can be learned through friends, family, work, etc. I was home schooled through high school. I have never had trouble in the classroom and adapting to college was easy for me. Numbers don't lie and those numbers show that generally home schooled children are smarter than public schooled children.

Answer 2

I agree with you on some respects of your arguement- I disagree with you on other respects. First off you should never trust statistics. You do not know who they asked or observed with the fact that homeschooled kids are smarter than the average public school kid. It is not like you can pull one out from the crowd. It wasn't till quite sometime this past year at college that I was even aware that some of my closest friends were homeschooled and that college was their first time in a government run institution.

An advantage that school didn't start till 2 pm for you? Possibly- or a disadvantage. Some students can cope with an alternative schedule of learning- some can't and need the structure that public high schools give. I can agree that you may have gotten a better amount of sleep which has prove to help improve grades and education as a whole of a student. Though I believe with the schedule that the public high schools set do help students who are college bound become more responsible in a few cases of following schedules in college.

Being social or non-social has been a stereotype for years. Though there cases have been observed that some students that are home schooled are less social than others- it is the parents who make the difference. My mother taught brownie girl scouts for 6 years and a good religious family who homeschooled had twin daughters who were signed up in my mothers troop along with many other activities. They have become well-rounded people throughout the years a long with their two sisters who have also followed in their footsteps. They joined public school in 9th grade and did not find a difference between anything except perhaps how parents teach their children and how public schools teach.

Colleges are not reluctant to have home schooled kids at their colleges because they are more likely to succeed. If any case they are worried that the education that public school students have had was much more wider and they just want to make sure that everything that should be covered has been covered. As I stated above, some of my closest friends at college were homeschooled and it is because of how their parents have taught them that they were fully ready for the requirements of college.

Answer 3

I don't see anything wrong with homeschooling. Sure, I went to public school all my life, but I was never social. Even in elementary there were years when I just sort of wandered about the playground. Most people are either going to be social or their not. I think they may be a bit more so though if they are around their peers more. Colleges not accepting to homeschoolers, huh? Well, you've got to think about it. Public schools are government run, right? When you homeschool you fight the system. The system doesn't like it when you fight with it. Colleges are knee deep in government affairs as well, so it makes sense that both institutions would work together to support each other and try to shun those who go against the grain so to speak. Some of the posters seem to be a bit hard on the asker in this case. I would advise them to read the question again and look for the part where the asker states their age as 15. Pick on someone your own age "genius." :)

Answer 4

Yay glurpy! You're spot on. I'm tired of reading these know-it-alls who don't have a clue as to what they're talking about.

Anyway, homeschooling is inherently superior for several reasons:

1. One-on-one learning w/ instructor
2. More efficient use of time
3. Instructor can accommodate individual's learning style
4. Instructor can accommodate individual's learning pace
5. Instructor can accomodate individual's interests
6. Little distraction from unruly peers
7. Curriculum can be refined, or changed mid-term if discovered to be faulty or inadequate.

Hey BigTeach- Since when is teaching K-12 comparable to providing medical services?
What kind of teacher makes absurd, hyperbolic analogies like that one?

And since when was the "cornerstone of democracy" public education, since most people were educated at home when the "democracy" was founded. (BTW, you do know we have a republic here in the US, dont' you?)

Your other reasons are full of fallacies as well. Frankly, teachers who spout this sort of nonsense prove the point why homeschooling is superior to what you get at most public schools.

Answer 5

anoldmick, if the girl posting needs to have her research published, how about yours? Where's your research backing up all the nonsense that you wrote? You want research? See the links below. I would like to see your published research on the following specifically:

"Not all home schooled pupils are at a disadvantage, but many are."

How many is 'many'? How do you know this?

"Home schools tend to highlight topics that enjoy the support of the parents but ignore or severely downplay and limit exposure to topics and ideas the parents are uncomfortable over."

How do you know this? This is nothing more than an opinion with absolutely no research done by anybody to back this up.

"This has led to graduates of home schooling being left in the dark regarding topics that are of extreme importance to their daily lives, their jobs and their very liberty. And yes, many of them suffer for want of that information. "

Again, how do you know this? What is your sample size from your research?



Cassandra, try not to take it to heart. People think homeschooling isn't as good because they can't take their minds out of their little boxes to explore the idea that it could possibly work out. They've got mistaken beliefs in their heads and refuse to see anything else.

Know that many successful adults did not go to school or didn't go for long, including both Presidents Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Benjamin Franklin, royal households of the past, many members of nobility. More modern examples include Christopher Paolini, best-selling (teen!) author of Eragon, Venus and Serena Williams, various actors. Don't feel threatened by what people who haven't done their research are saying.

FWIW, not all homeschooled students are smarter than the average public schooled student. Many homeschooled students have some form of special need and will never attain that level. Some homeschooled students don't care about their education any more than the average public schooled student. But the research is there, more than just one study, showing that ON AVERAGE, homeschooled students are better off academically than their public schooled peers.

Answer 6

I was home schooled and graduated from an accredited academy. I think children who are properly home schooled (by someone who is actually putting the time in, not just "saying" they're home schooling) often fair better than their public school counterparts. I liked that I was able to work at my own pass with home schooling. I excelled at English and flew through the language arts related classes, while I struggled more with Algebra and could move slower with that.

As far as colleges being reluctant to accept home schoolers, I didn't have any problems getting into the college of my choice, which was a state university.

Answer 7

cut and pasting for you---

Ann Arbor: Teaching children at home won't make them social misfits, a University of Michigan study suggests.

The detailed study of 53 adults who were taught at home by their parents is one of the first to examine the long-term effects of homeschooling - a practice now followed by as many as 300,000 American families.

"One of the major arguments against home schooling is that it deprives children of the peer contacts needed for normal social development," says J. Gary Knowles, U-M assistant professor of education. "Public school educators and other critics also question whether home-educated children will be able to become productive, participating members of a diverse and democratic society.

"But I found no evidence that these adults were even moderately disadvantaged in either respect. Two-thirds of them were married - the norm for adults their age - and none were unemployed or on any form of welfare assistance. More than three-quarters felt that being taught at home had actually helped them interact with people from different levels of society." cut and paste ends-----


The general public has grown much more accepting of homeschooling since the numbers have increased dramatically in the last five years. Yes, many homeschoolers work above the grade level for their age. Socialization is no longer an issue to discuss when parents decide whether or not to homeschool. It is obvious the other poster hasn't done their homework :) or is very anti social and has not met many homeschoolers.

Colleges today are recruiting homeschoolers.

People can be very afraid of the unknown and a lot of the comments on this yahoo board advertise the poster's ignorance of the homeschool community and lifestyle. Parents can become defensive of their choice to send their children away to be schooled in institutions, they have knowingly limited their child's educational freedom - narrowed that child's world to a generic education. Don't let their comments get under your skin!!
(IMO John Gatto's essays on public school should be required reading )

Answer 8

Why should we trust you simply because you say you've done your research? Has your research been published in a peer-reviewed jouurnal and verified? If not, it's just your opinion, which is no better or worse than anyone else's.
Not all home schooled pupils are at a disadvantage, but many are. Home schools tend to highlight topics that enjoy the support of the parents but ignore or severely downplay and limit exposure to topics and ideas the parents are uncomfortable over. This has led to graduates of home schooling being left in the dark regarding topics that are of extreme importance to their daily lives, their jobs and their very liberty. And yes, many of them suffer for want of that information.
If you believe that homeschooled children are smarter than others, that's an extremely good example of how poor your education has been and how unprepared you're going to be upon graduation. Not only is that tragic, it's evidence of criminal neglect on the part of those adults who're responsible for you.

Answer 9

Thanks for the cut and pasting funschoolingm!
Sometimes when the facts support the under dog people just have a hard time accepting it.
I also agree with what sam had to say. I do think there is some kind of a conjoined effort to work the public school system with the colleges, but hey there is alway private colleges. Bottom line....home schooled kids are making it to college and proving that they have adjusted well.

Answer 10

i dont knwo about the smartness of kids from each kind of education. but i do know if you are homeschool you miss out on alot of social experiences. im not saying you are not social, because that has nothing to do with home schooling or public school. but at any school you eteract with other kids in a way you dont get out of school. jsut things like dances, football games, meeting hundreds of new people, and other things. you might have had some of this growing up but not all of it. im not saying its a bad thing, its just different. but im sure you are usually smarter when your homeschooled because i guess theres less distraction. this is my opinion, but i was neither homeschool nor attended public school.