Homeschooling (wage, versus, career, subject)

[flik_becky]

Yes Bean, very good links.

I think that Ivory ran off scared. Or Ivory is searching online for proof. Oh wait, it's Saturday. I'm sure Ivory is too use to having weekends off to "work" on proving all those claims.

[Aconite]

Originally Posted by flik_becky

(Ok, honestly, do you ever get people looking at the size of your family and, after they find out you homeschool, ask how many more kids you're going have. "Uh...three kids is more than enough, thank you." We're also a secular homeschool so I also dread those, "You are so blessed to homeschool your kids. Which science program do you use?")

We're fortunate in that the HS community here ranges from vegan food Nazis to garden variety secular to the JMJ and biblical literalist crowds. (This being Florida, we even have Scientologist HSers.) I did threaten to buy a denim jumper about a week ago, though.

[Aconite]

By the way, good to see you join in, CW. I'd rep you for a couple of those, but I've got to spread the love first.

[malone7384]

Can I step in and throw a link in to the mix? This is from Massachusetts about a homeschooled student who graduated Harvard University!

Home-Schooled Kids Get Into Harvard And

[uptown_urbanist]

Originally Posted by malone7384

Can I step in and throw a link in to the mix? This is from Massachusetts about a homeschooled student who graduated Harvard University!

Home-Schooled Kids Get Into Harvard And

I just wanted to point out one glaring distortion in the article - the author claims that homeschooling averages only $400 per student, it's much cheaper than private school. That, of course, fails to take into account the likely loss of one parent's salary (it does mention "financial sacrifice"). I don't necessarily have a problem with homeschooling (I think in some case for some kids it is the best option) but this article is pretty biased, and left me with a rather bad taste in my mouth, in part because of the paragraph blaming Columbine in part on "government school culture."

[TouchOfWhimsy]

I didn't read the article, but I'd like to comment on this:

I just wanted to point out one glaring distortion in the article - the author claims that homeschooling averages only $400 per student, it's much cheaper than private school. That, of course, fails to take into account the likely loss of one parent's salary (it does mention "financial sacrifice").

You are right in that most homeschooling families have one parent at home, so it may be a financial sacrifice. Remember, though, that some private schools are $10,000-15,000 per year. I have two children. If I wanted to send my kids to the private school in my general area that I've considered briefly, it would cost me over $25,000 per year. If I worked fulltime to pay for this, then I'd also have to pay for some type of after school care. I could see that my salary would be basically eaten up by private school tuition and after school care (plus all of the things go along with not having a parent at home... more convenience foods, more gas used, work clothes for me, etc). If I had a third child, the tuition alone would use up almost ever dollar I was bringing in. In many cases, especially if there are several children in a family, I could see that having a parent stay home and homeschool would be cheaper than sending them to private school.

[Aconite]

Originally Posted by uptown_urbanist

I just wanted to point out one glaring distortion in the article - the author claims that homeschooling averages only $400 per student, it's much cheaper than private school. That, of course, fails to take into account the likely loss of one parent's salary (it does mention "financial sacrifice"). I don't necessarily have a problem with homeschooling (I think in some case for some kids it is the best option) but this article is pretty biased, and left me with a rather bad taste in my mouth, in part because of the paragraph blaming Columbine in part on "government school culture."

That assumes that homeschooling necessarily results in the loss of a parent's salary. Many the homeschooling families wouldn't have had that second salary anyway-- either because of a parent at home with younger-than-school-aged sibs, or because of schedules meshing conveniently, or because (as bean noted) that second salary would have been eaten up by the costs of employment or private school or some other financial burden. Or there may only be one parent in the household, which is the case in some families. Or one may be self-employed. Or any of a bunch of scenarios.

Were someone to look at our family, for instance, I'm sure they'd draw the conclusion that homeschool is why I'm not working. But I wasn't working when the kids were in school, either-- unless you want to count a pretty laughable income as a writer, which I still have.

[uptown_urbanist]

I wasn't trying to argue that private school is or is not cheaper than homeschooling, just pointing out that to suggest that it's necessarily "cheaper" is fairly misleading.(and of course it would be cheapest of all to send them to public school) Really, though, I was more upset by the Columbine reference than anything else.

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by Aconite

That assumes that homeschooling necessarily results in the loss of a parent's salary. Many the homeschooling families wouldn't have had that second salary anyway-- either because of a parent at home with younger-than-school-aged sibs, or because of schedules meshing conveniently, or because (as bean noted) that second salary would have been eaten up by the costs of employment or private school or some other financial burden. Or there may only be one parent in the household, which is the case in some families. Or one may be self-employed. Or any of a bunch of scenarios.

Were someone to look at our family, for instance, I'm sure they'd draw the conclusion that homeschool is why I'm not working. But I wasn't working when the kids were in school, either-- unless you want to count a pretty laughable income as a writer, which I still have.

In my neck of the woods, it's more likely they homeschool to avoid working. I can, personally, name three women who made the decision to homeschool when their husbands started talking about them going back to work. One only homeschools her older kids because they can homeschool themselves. She doens't have to do anything.

I don't see people quitting to homeschool. I see stay at home moms deciding to continue to stay at home and homeschooling. It's more homeschooling is an extension of staying home not the reason mom stays at home.

[uptown_urbanist]

I do think that when factoring in any decision it's important to factor in the lost wage (and benefits) issue (this is assuming the more traditional model of one parent works, one parent stays home and does the schooling); that's true whether or not one is homeschooling, staying home with kids, or even just staying home without kids. A mother making the choice to stay home with a young child is still making a choice to go without money, both in terms of wages and potentially in terms of retirement savings, future social security payments, etc. I chose to stay home with my son (I work part-time from home) and we decided that it was worth the loss of salary, but if I were to homeschool my son when he's older it would still make more sense to compare the financial element of the equation against what I would be making at a job (including potential lost earnings down the road from taking time out of a career) versus my continued at-home status.