Is Home Schooling a good idea?

[Schifference]

Public School Sucks!

 

[Occam's Banana]

[snip unbroken wall o' text]

Is Home Schooling a good idea?

Only if it involves instruction regarding the value and use of paragraphs ...

 

[eduardo89]

Only if it involves instruction regarding the value and use of paragraphs ...

Damn, you beat me to it. I was about to say:

"I guess we can conclude they don't teach the use of paragraphs in public school."

 

[XNavyNuke]

My son is thinking about homeschooling his daughter. She's in kindergarten and already hates it. It doesn't help that she's way taller than any of the kids in her class and looks like a much older child. She goes to church most Sundays and has friends there, she could also join Girl Scouts or take gymnastics or dance classes with mixed ages.
My son has to see a doctor in Lexington, Ky fairly often so I suggested that he could make his trips educational if he was homeschooling. One place that I suggested he take her is the Lexington Public Library to see their Foucault pendulum clock. She might be a little young to get into the technical aspects of how it works but it is a work of art.

Best of luck to you son! Liberty is all about making choices, preferably those that are in one's best interest.
XNN

 

[ClydeCoulter]

Homeschooling can be a great thing, if a person is capable. And, even if not, there may be resources that can be used and the parent could learn along with the children, if they learn to learn. I found, while homeschooling my youngest son, that learning to learn was a very important lesson for him.

Some parents can't homeschool because of their abilities. Or, some, because of their lack of "caring" and just wanting a babysitter to get them out of their hair.

Local voluntary schools, financed with voluntary funds, taught by interested and qualified teacher(s), are a good choice for some children.

 

[Travlyr]

Ancient Athens

Ancient Athens is a model for education rather than indoctrination.

What were the objectives of education in Ancient Athens, and how did education prepare students for their roles in society?
Athens was the main educational, intellectual and cultural center of Ancient Greece. The main purpose of education in Ancient Athens was to make citizens trained in the arts, and to prepare them for both peace and war. It was aimed at the cultivation of the students' physical, mental, and moral qualities. From Athens we get the motto: A sound mind in a sound body. All schools were very small private schools, and education was very valued.

 

[Tod]

am watching this...

 

[catfeathers]

Best of luck to you son! Liberty is all about making choices, preferably those that are in one's best interest.
XNN

Thanks, I homeschooled him for a little while and his younger brother from 3rd grade on, so he's familiar with the concept. Because of the weather my granddaughter has been out of school for most of January and she doesn't want to go back! Not that I can blame her, I hated school too.

 

[Anti Federalist]

Life is not lived inside a bubble. Keeping our children isolated from public education may not be in their best interest. Parents can teach their children liberty minded principles and keep them from becoming indoctrinated by the system. Your children could help spread liberty minded ideals to their peers. Ever known an old school type immigrant from Poland or somewhere that raises their child in the US under very strict guidelines? How do they manage to keep their children in line when all other kids are doing??? It is called parenting. Everything taught in school is not bad. A person graduating from an Ivy League college with honors will earn more money in their lifetime than most.

Public School Sucks!

Sooo...you're just trolling then?

 

[Anti Federalist]

///

 

[69360]

The biggest benefit for my kids from public school has been interacting with other kids. Most of what they teach is so easy for them they breeze right through it.

 

[osan]

Life is not lived inside a bubble.

The implication here being that homeschooling constitutes life in a bubble. FAIL.

Keeping our children isolated from public education may not be in their best interest.

Do you have the first idea of what goes on in public schools? Either you do not or you are a malevolent entity.

Parents can teach their children liberty minded principles and keep them from becoming indoctrinated by the system.

Lay with dogs, expect to get fleas.

Your children could help spread liberty minded ideals to their peers.

Sure, only it is not their job to teach someone else's brats. But that's not the real problem with your theory. Send your children out to scrub the filthy wad of humanity known as their class mates and they will attract the wrong sorts of attention. So will you. A couple in NJ some 15 or more years ago had their sone taken from them when they came to school to demand the nurse stop drugging him with Ritalin. They were arrested and charged with child abuse. That is relatively minor when compared with the offense of causing a disturbance, by encouraging other students to become infected with wrong thinking. Are you naive enough to actually believe that such children would be tolerated in a public school?

When I left teaching in '86 the state of affairs was at that time outrageous to my eyes. I caught students having sex, smoking joints, doing lines... It is probably close to an order of magnitude worse today. Teachers have next to zero prerogative and are compelled to teach to the test. Deviation from that results in impacted test scores and then administrative eyes are suddenly on you. I could go on, but suffice it to say that if you understood just what a wildly destructive deal the public schools are you would issue an apology for having written this nonsense.

Ever known an old school type immigrant from Poland or somewhere that raises their child in the US under very strict guidelines?

Ever see a parent lose his children for raising his child in a strict set of guidelines from 40 years ago? An acquaintance from MN had a son, single father. Son wanted to go to a party on a Wednesday night - school night mind you - where alcohol was to be served. Son was in either 7th or 8th grade. Dad said "no way". Son got pissed, called CPS and said dad was "touching him". Within an hour Theye arrived, arrested dad and put sonny into the system. Son immediately recanted, but it made no difference. It took two years to get sonny back and to clear the matter with the court. His name was sullied for life.

Another couple from MN, friends of an old gf, were visiting mom's mother in Michigan. Baby fell, as babies do, and took her to the ER. Doc decided child had been beaten and cops arrived. Mom and dad went into cuffs, baby stolen away. Eighteen months later they got the child back from the state of MI, and about $100K, which destroyed them financially.

These are the things that happen when you attract the wrong sorts of attention.

So go ahead, try your theory out and get back to us. Until then, rational people will keep their children as far from those dens of iniquity as is humanly possible.

Everything taught in school is not bad.

Everything doesn't have to be. Just enough and of the right things. Hello. Some of the TRAINING in public schools is quite good. That is not the issue. The point of concern is the social context in which all this good training occurs. Obedience and pro-forma question/response has NOTHING to do with proper education, but only training a child to the whipmaster's command. If that is what you want for your children, have at it. I find it all terribly uninteresting.

You need to unscrew your head from your anus, because judging by the ridiculousness of this post it is abundantly clear that some grievous spasm wedged it up their such that you are dangerously oxygen-depleted. This baloney doesn't even merit ridicule, but I'm feeling generous.

 

[osan]

Don't you run an all-girl boarding school in your bedroom?

He should be so fortunate.

 

[FindLiberty]

start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQiW_l848t8 five hours with John Taylor Gatto.

 

[jllundqu]

My wife and I have chosen to Homeschool and really Unschool for the most part. Our son is very academically advanced and putting him in Kindergarten would be a terrible mistake.

The 'socialization' meme has been beaten to death. Our son is in Karate, Soccer, Sign Language Class, Music, etc. He gets plenty of socialization, albeit not constant interaction with the same people every single day like in public school. He does have friends that we do regular playgroups with, too. We read several books a night and my wife follows a general curriculum during the week that involves reading, writing, math, civics and social studies, but he learns the most from just answering his questions (unschooling). Children are curious about the world and if we take the time to honestly explain it to them, they learn exponentially faster (and better) than in any public school.

If our son wants a 'regular school experience', we may choose to have him go to a private school or a highly rated charter school later on (maybe 3rd/4th grade and up) but we wanted to make sure that it was the PARENTS who built the foundation for learning in our child, not the broken system.

 

[jllundqu]

And maybe one of the best reasons I have heard to homeschool is the simple fact that public school is a gamble! You don't know how your child will turn out... you literally 'send them off and hope for the best.' I'm sorry, but if I can provide better education thru Homeschool Co-ops, tutors, unschooling, etc., then that is my road.

Mark Twain said it best, "I never let schooling interfere with my education."

You will not produce a Thomas Jefferson (homeschooled) in a public school.
You will not produce an Einstein (self-educated) in public school.
You will not produce an Alexander G. Bell (homechooled) in public school.
You will not produce a Benjamin Franklin (homeschooled) in public school.
You will not produce a Thomas Edison (homeschooled) in public school.
You will not prodice the Wright Brothers (homeschooled) in a public school.
You will not produce an Albert Schweitzer (homeschooled) in a public school.

All you will get from a public school is a cookie-cutter, submit to authority, mediocre education with the added risk of losing your child to drugs/porn/alcohol/violence/bullying/etc etc etc.

 

[Rothbardian Girl]

While I don't have any particular reason to oppose homeschooling or unschooling, as some of the smartest people I've encountered were homeschooled (haven't met any unschoolers yet), I would like to speak up in defense of my particular experience in public school (who knows -- maybe it will add a little bit of variety to this topic!). My parents taught me to read at the age of two and packed me off to public school, and I did just fine. I tend to enjoy more institutionalized settings for learning foreign languages and math and science. I did hate my history and government classes, but I was able to laugh about them with my mom and dad at home.

In many cases, I don't think it's purposeful indoctrination so much as not being able to tell the entire story due to time constraints. Teachers aren't always evil automatons concerned with only teaching one version of something; typically, if I debated with them in a friendly and respectful way, they would respect my interest in the subject. There's a way to disagree with something without coming off as disrespectful. My American History I teacher in particular was able to present the Civil War in a very balanced fashion, and even got into the deeper, economic root causes of the war. A lot of libertarians like to caricature public education for, I suspect, dramatic effect, but these caricatures don't always approach reality. That being said, I am quite aware that there are a lot of issues with other public schools. I was fortunate enough to go to one of the top school districts in my state.

I guess I am playing devil's advocate here because I don't like hysteria coming from either side in regard to this issue. Kids that haven't been raised properly at home being made to go to school (or perhaps any other institutionalized setting) is a toxic scenario; I am seeing the proof of this statement with my cousin's daughter now, who just had to be enrolled in cyber school -- I certainly wouldn't trust my cousin to homeschool her children.

 

[Gotfreedom]

Hard Times in Paradise is a book about homeschooled children who went to Harvard. Check out this website: www.anticlassroom.com

 

[PierzStyx]

Life is not lived inside a bubble. Keeping our children isolated from public education may not be in their best interest. Parents can teach their children liberty minded principles and keep them from becoming indoctrinated by the system. Your children could help spread liberty minded ideals to their peers. Ever known an old school type immigrant from Poland or somewhere that raises their child in the US under very strict guidelines? How do they manage to keep their children in line when all other kids are doing??? It is called parenting. Everything taught in school is not bad. A person graduating from an Ivy League college with honors will earn more money in their lifetime than most.

Dr. Leonard Sax (MD and PhD) in his book, "Why Gender Matters" actually cites multiple studies where children who are home schooled or go to school in single gender institutions actually date more and do better on tests and demonstrate knowledge levels wider and deeper than their public school counterparts. They tend to explore and seek out new experiences experiencing less peer pressure and restriction based on social standing. Kids in public schools have worse grades and are prone more to "hooking up" than actually associating with the opposite sex. They also tend to restrict their experiences based on the judgment of their peers, ex: girls won't explore the sciences because that is something boys do, and boys won't play "girly" musical instruments like the flute or clarinet.

 

[PierzStyx]

While I don't have any particular reason to oppose homeschooling or unschooling, as some of the smartest people I've encountered were homeschooled (haven't met any unschoolers yet), I would like to speak up in defense of my particular experience in public school (who knows -- maybe it will add a little bit of variety to this topic!). My parents taught me to read at the age of two and packed me off to public school, and I did just fine. I tend to enjoy more institutionalized settings for learning foreign languages and math and science. I did hate my history and government classes, but I was able to laugh about them with my mom and dad at home.

In many cases, I don't think it's purposeful indoctrination so much as not being able to tell the entire story due to time constraints. Teachers aren't always evil automatons concerned with only teaching one version of something; typically, if I debated with them in a friendly and respectful way, they would respect my interest in the subject. There's a way to disagree with something without coming off as disrespectful. My American History I teacher in particular was able to present the Civil War in a very balanced fashion, and even got into the deeper, economic root causes of the war. A lot of libertarians like to caricature public education for, I suspect, dramatic effect, but these caricatures don't always approach reality. That being said, I am quite aware that there are a lot of issues with other public schools. I was fortunate enough to go to one of the top school districts in my state.

I guess I am playing devil's advocate here because I don't like hysteria coming from either side in regard to this issue. Kids that haven't been raised properly at home being made to go to school (or perhaps any other institutionalized setting) is a toxic scenario; I am seeing the proof of this statement with my cousin's daughter now, who just had to be enrolled in cyber school -- I certainly wouldn't trust my cousin to homeschool her children.

I've come to realize that people like us- people that prospered despite the system- are few and far between. For every one of us there are 500 students that don't learn anything in public schools anymore. I'm shocked at the sad sack of students I go to college with. Some of them can't string sentences together to form a paragraph. Its pathetic.