Homeschoolers

Originally posted by Coletti
Actually those kids are nasty little public school kids - playing hooky and lying to you to get the education discount. 😉

Thankfully, anecdotal evidence is the weakest kind.

I've worked with many homeschoolers and found them to be far more respectful and well behaved. Where most of the public school kids make a point of lying and being disrespectfu ...[text shortened]... ds are still working.

But experience is not proof, and I've know exceptions in both groups.

I'm just saying that if you have good parents who knows what their doing, and have strong discipline, I think they are better off homeschooling,

Why? That's what I've been trying to get at. Can you demonstrate a solid causal reason?

You've given some anecdotal evidence, so have I. Col has shared his extremist position: homeschoolers (read xtians) are redeemed angels; public school kids (read anarchistic Luciferians) are rats in a cage.

You plagerized one paragraph of a website for home teaching gifted kids, but never addressed the spurious relationship problem that high highlighted from other studies.

as for the spelling bee thing, I'm not saying Homeschoolers wins every year.

Of course not. My link was to make you smile.

I have always found Home Educated to be respectful and Kind, and although they seem to be shyer then public kids, I think that is a good thing,

Shy is better? We do not all need to be the life of any party, but surely being shy isn't generally better than being outgoing?

My sister is probably gonna graduate with her high school course next year, and she'll be 15, Its amazing how she knows algebra and stuff most graduated kids don't know these days,

It does not surprise me that she finished her course early. That's the problem with those courses. When I was homeschooling at age 11, I was on a pace to finish at 13. You have that sort of flexibility. I would also point out that finishing high school with a knowledge of algebra, while crucial, is nothing to point out as exceptional. Most kids are 14 in the 9th grade, the year most kids take algebra. Many public school kids take it a bit earlier in 8th grade, and then of course, there are the future mathematicians, physicists, economists, and engineers who often take it even earlier. Personally, I don't think you should compare homeschool overachievers with the underachievers in the public setting. That's setting your standards awefully low.

On the other hand, my youngest brother Is slow at school, and he will probably be 18 before he finishes his High school course, see you can go at your own speed, My neighbor finished her High school course at age 14, then went to collage, and got her masters decree at 18 years old, That would be imposable in public school, because if your fast, you have to go at the same pace as everyone else, and if your slow, you get failing grades

There is no doubt that homeschool is more flexible. That's why I was homeschooled for two years. It's also the reason that I later went to private schools. They also have that sort of flexibility and low teacher-to-student attention (my graduating class had 20 students) with all the benefits of accomplished teachers with master's degrees or higher in their particular subjects.

Many of the exceptionally gifted do need special attention. This is where homeschooling flexibility comes into play, but then again it can also be as bad as holding them back in public school. You see even if the a parent is well-educated, they never have specialization in every area. Moreover, the children's hungry and agile mind often exhausts what the parent is capable of teaching (Your kid reads the same material and gets more from it than you.). As a result these kids end up working through the curriculum on their own. I've already talked about how easy these curriculum are. For a gifted kids, reading a book and then answering questions in a workbook about what you just read is shooting fish in a barrel. Where are the dynamic lectures? The discussion with the teacher that is not written down in the curriculum? This is what gifted kids really need. Some one who can inspire and challenge them. You can get this at special private programs for the exceptionally gifted, but for most families there aren't any in their region. The other option is to do what I did through the private school system. All the schools I considered gave out scholarships for very gifted children which made it affordable for my family.

In any case, the exceptionally gifted and the very challenged make up a small percentage of the overall student population. Again, why is homeschooling a better method than public schooling, taking into account the positives about public education that I've offered and the potential spurious relationship between homeschooling and positive behavior? I've found homeschoolers to be very zealous about their method, as would be expected, but few have offered me causal reasons for this. Instead, I get wild stories about the depravity of the US public school system. Remember from your OP, you're not just defending homeschooling as a viable alternative. You've said that a responsible, loving parent should choose to homeschool.

Maybe its just in my state that the public schools are so bad, I think my county has the highest Homeschool ratio in the USA, which could mean somthing

If many of the public schools are bad there, and homeschoolers make up a greater percentage of the state population compared to their turnout in other states, that would help explain the anecdotal evidence of bad public school experiences and exceptional homeschool experiences. I'm also interested in whether there are economic differences on average between homeschoolers and public schoolers in Wyoming.

For those, like Col, that advocate homeschooling mainly upon moralistic/superstitious grounds:

Is it generally better to homeschool your kid, or would a private xtian school of you theological persuasion be better (assume that you can afford the tuition)? That is, if we control for your idiosynchratic religious view, is a program where kids get experience with other children and attention from trained teachers preferable to a method where kids stay at home and fill up a workbook?

hOriginally posted by telerion
[b]I'm just saying that if you have good parents who knows what their doing, and have strong discipline, I think they are better off homeschooling,

Why? That's what I've been trying to get at. Can you demonstrate a solid causal reason?

You've given some anecdotal evidence, so have I. Col has shared his extremist position: homeschoolers ...[text shortened]... mic differences on average between homeschoolers and public schoolers in Wyoming.






[/b]

Originally posted by telerion
For those, like Col, that advocate homeschooling mainly upon moralistic/superstitious grounds:

Is it generally better to homeschool your kid, or would a private xtian school of you theological persuasion be better (assume that you can afford the tuition)? That is, if we control for your idiosynchratic religious view, is a program where kids get experien ...[text shortened]... ion from trained teachers preferable to a method where kids stay at home and fill up a workbook?

I did a mail in course as well. I know exactly what you're saying. I just don't think that that is a very good method to teach kids. Now the internet could make homeschooling better if the kid can get expert attention during certain hours. To be effective, the professional wouldn't just help with a question, but would be available to talk about tangential ideas related to the subject, like a real teacher. Ideally, they would offer live video conferences, but maybe that's getting closer to private education with your pajamas on. 🙂 Unfortunately, the internet wasn't available when I was homeschooling.

And since my mom never went past 10th grade, there is now way possible for her to teach me what I know now.

This is exactly the potential problem with homeschool. Teaching is doing more than reading a curriculum or watching a kid work through a book or mailing the child's work back to a company for correction. A good teacher should be very comfortable with their subject matter (most have BA's or even MA in their subject). This allows them to challenge kids, especially those who are more advanced.

I'm all in favor of smaller classrooms in public school, I visited our public school soon after I graduated, and went into some classrooms, (I knew a teacher there) and there was no respect for the teacher, the Kids there wasn't doing their lessons, they flirted with each other most of the time, And the teachers was afraid to do anything about it because of the parents, the Kids were running the school, not the teachers, Its a no wonder that even the teacher was for homeschooling,

Wow. If your perspective is accurate, then that school has problems!

So I'm not saying that everyone who goes to public school is behind, or that anyone homeschooling is ahead, I'm just saying that I seen better results. But of course If I went to public school, I would probably think homeschooling is a joke,

Remember I've done homeschool, public school, parochial private, and secular prep school. Still I'm glad that you see how some one's personal education method can bias their views. Again I don't think homeschooling is a joke. I do think that it is generally an undesirable method except in specific (fairly uncommon) circumstances.

You seem to think that there are a few gifted kids, I believe that every child is gifted, just in different areas, one may be good in math, the other may be good in English, others may be very bad in school all together but may be a very good musician or have other talent, And I think homeschooling will offer the flexibility for a child to find his/her talent more, (just my opinion)

That is true. Many children are strong at one or a few things. Often they have hidden talents that are waiting to come out. I witnessed this in some of my peers later in high school once our curriculum became very diversified. Also, exceptionally gifted children are not good at everything, but they are extremely advanced in core academic courses. These kids might not only read four grade levels higher than there age group for example, but also do history, science, and math four grade levels higher. So while I agree that every kid can find something that they are good at, there has been identified a type of learner that is classified as "gifted" and these kids are different and fairly rare. Maybe "gifted" is not a good term since it suggests that other kids are "giftless", but that is what has been used, and it is to these students that I refer.

Originally posted by flyUnity
I dont many ppl from Private school, so my opionion on them may be wrong, One of my friends who is a "muti millionair" sends his kids to private, it cost so much to go to that school, so that only rich kids go there, I would choose Private any day over public, but as I said, I know nothing about it, Allot of private schools are bigger then public schools, but at least the state dont control it

Homeschooling is a novel idea. I dream of being able to homeschool my kids (in the future), but that probably won't happen.

The only downside is that the don't get the social aspect of the schooling life. However, I do really enjoy the thought of all these sports teams that only accept homeschoolers. There are several teams for soccer, baseball, football, swimming, basketball, and track just in my area alone.

Two thumbs up to homeschoolers and the parents that stand behind them.