what do people think of homeschooling?

Answer 1

For some people it works and for others it doesn't. Frankly, a lot of moms that are gungho about home schooling are the last ones that should home school. Education is far more than reading, writing, and arithmetic. Many of the women I've seen that home school do so because they have issues. Their fears are diminished when they can hover over th kids. Their primary motivation is to protect their children from the world (worldliness). Often, these women are isolated socially -- so their kids get raised with little or no social interaction and they do not know how to relate to their peer.

So for homeschooling to work:
1. Mom and Dad need active social lives (so social isolationists).
2. The kids need lots of outside activities with other kids, constant-on-going, never quiting sports, church groups, music and foreign language lessons, dance lessons, etc.
3. Mom AND Dad need to be committed to the process. To do it right, it is very time consuming and expensive, certainly $1500 bucks per kid per year minimum to cover all the extracurricular classes and materials when the kids are little - more as the kids age.
4. Need groups of other homechooling families to network and plan activities with.
5. There are lots more, but these are the biggies.

Answer 2

My daughter is extremely fortunate never to have been to Public School. I prefer the term Home Based Learning, because we are hardly ever home! I have heard people state that home schooled children are not "out in the world" - they ARE out in the world every day, at the store, the market, the library, the doctor's office, anywhere the parent is going, while other kids are stuck in school all day!

My daughter has never been bullied in the school yard, teased on the school bus, ridiculed for not having the right brand of blue-jeans, nor has she ever had a teacher who disliked her. She is not caught up in the "you've got to dress like everyone else" mentality. Some people may think this is all part of growing up, but I don't buy that.

Another comment that I have heard expressed is "the home-schooled children will absorb only their parent's opinions". Would we rather they pick up the opinions, morals & values of the other kids in their school? Would they be better or worse than the morals & values of our family?

I think that most home-schooled children are extremely well socialized, and I have found that home-schooled children, in general, are well adjusted, articulate, confident and are comfortable conversing with adults. Home-schooled kids are busy volunteering in their community and most have a genuine love of learning that will last a life-time.

When you think about it, the way that a typical school segregates children into single age groups for up to 13 years of their lives, is not natural. When you compare that to home-schooled children who are mingling with a wide age range of people, I think the home-schoolers become much more comfortable with society at large.

My daughter and I went to Europe for a month this spring and that was a wonderful experience for us both - I think she did considerably more "socializing" than if she had been cooped up in a classroom for 7 hours a day with 30 other nine year olds. She was exposed to both English and Norwegian cultures, customs, currency and language - that is real education!

If nothing else, look at the grammar and spelling of some of the questions on this site - that will show you the diminishing quality of Public School education. Read some of the "Could I be pregnant?" questions. Jeeper, the ignorance is rampant and I really think that the home-schooled children are some of the next generation's leaders!

Answer 3

I have two opposite thoughts about home schooling.

We all want to protect our children from some of the horrible outside influences we see in these troubled days. However here are my thoughts, pro and con, on home schooling:

The first is that I worry the children of the home schooling parents will not grow to be any smarter than their parents and have the values of the parents shoved down their throats. This can result in a terrible backlash when the child is allowed out into the world. I had some wonderful teachers and professors in school and I don't like to think these children are denied some wonderful experiences to get a first class education. Also, they are not exposed to any outside ideas or allowed to view other aspects of society and they have fewer friends with which to interact. So, essentially I think home schooling parents are stunting their children in some ways and shutting them out of many experiences they need to be a functioning human being in the real world. Parents: eventually your children go out into the world and I worry home schooling does not prepare them for life in the real world.

The second is, oh my, I would not want a child of mine going to public school in the town where I live. In fact, I did not send my son to public school except in the elementary grades (we lived in a small town and the school was good) and I sent him to private schools and then to a boarding school when he was a teen.

Now, if I had tried to home school my son it would have been a dismal failure. I am not a teacher and I am not patient or good at explaining things: I wanted him to have more of a chance to be exposed to excellent educators who are professionals in their chosen field. I know some people cannot afford this sort of education but I do think people can move to a town where their children can receive a good public school education and their children need that outside exposure.

I think home schooled kids are not prepared for the outside world and I think they have a huge deficit they must overcome to be functioning adults.

Answer 4

I agree with Cobalt that some homeschoolers lessons are inconsistent, and I write for a college paper and one of the writers is currently being homeschooled and she's a senior in high school in upward bound level lessons for homeschooled. The only problem is that many see homeschooling as a means to protect their children when Cobalt said that you can't protect them forever because they need to be taught to think and make decisions on their own.

Answer 5

Home schooling can be beneficial if you are well educated yourself. It can be frustrating for both parent and child if you lack the necessary skills either in the subject matter or even if your patience and understanding of different approaches to learning is lacking. Although, you are the best person to decide where your strengths and weaknesses lie, you also know your children and therefore have an extremely greater insight into what will and wont work for your child. Personally I believe that home schooling can be very helpful although be careful not to eliminate social aspects, this may be combated by any activities that enable your child to socialise as this is an important part of schooling.

Good luck and remember to ask for help if you find at some stage you need it. Teaching can be hard, but also very rewarding.

Answer 6

It depends on the people.
I am an home-schooling mom. I think it is great.
The basics of reading, writing and math ARE the building blocks of all other subjects. Students that master these three areas and learn how to think and how to learn are proving themselves to be capable of anything they want to do. They can learn the inner-depths of scientific study or they can become great historians -- they are not limited to trivialized material -- they can follow their interests and develop their skills based on their gifts and needs.

Home-students can and do learn much more than their parents could ever begin to teach them. It is never fair to underestimate the ability of a child. A child that is shown how to study and how to learn at an early age does not need to be hand-held through all of the years from kindergarten through 12th grade. A child that knows how to dig deep into the books, internet and other resources can figure anything out for themself.

Teachers are great -- they are people and worthy of respect. Students are equally worthy of respect no matter which venue they are in -- public, private, or home. It is the process of knowing how to study that will make or break a child's future.

Answer 7

If it's done well, I see no problem with it. However, I've seen cases of kids being home-schooled because they got in trouble in public school and the parents didn't want to mess with them. We had a parent who thought our discipline policy was too strict, so she is "home-schooling" her child. I put it in quotes because we have to chase him off constantly, and he's seen around town riding his skateboard. A couple of problems I've seen with home-schooled kids who come to public school are their inability to concentrate around others and their inability to meet deadlines. Another problem is the fact that some parents don't have the skills needed to educate their children properly. We got a home-school student last year who was at least 2 years behind in math. If home-schooling is what someone wants to do, that's fine. However, if you're going to do it, make sure you are well versed in all the subject areas, and if you aren't have people you can go to for help.

Answer 8

Home-schooling is fine if the parents have sufficient knowledge to make it work. Sadly, many home-schooled children are deprived of adequate levels of science and math because the parents do not have the audio-visual aids, the demonstration materials nor a fund of knowledge to provide such. They may acquire much practical knowledge about life, but their schooling becomes text-book rote. Moreover, few parents have the diversity of information required to teach all subjects.

Answer 9

As long as the parent's are good teachers, and don't make their children think 'wrong' or 'bad' things, (Like, to hate people with another religion) then I, personally, think it's fine.

Answer 10

I taught some home schoolers as a Latin tutor some years ago and I found that the biggest problem was that their mother was very, very inconsistent with their lessons. As a result, they would be considered behind for their age. It can be done, but I think it should only be done by people who have a good homeschooling support group in their area and are very organized.

I also do not think it's a good idea if you're doing it to 'protect' your children from the 'bad ideas' in the rest of the world - you can't protect them forever, and you need to teach them how to think about challenging or difficult things.