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In the past, Obama said he was prepared to help students escape from bad public schools by considering school vouchers. But he now toes the anti-voucher party line and thus the special interest of the Democratic Party’s biggest funding and activist base, the National Education Association.
Homeschooling is silly. Public schools teach one how to interact with people in the real world. In the real world being charming or having a good golf swing can be more important than being the smartest person in the room.
Not silly if the schools are bad, the teachers are bad, or the school environment is not conducive to learning. The things you mention are important. But public schools are not the only place to learn them.
Not silly if the schools are bad, the teachers are bad, or the school environment is not conducive to learning. The things you mention are important. But public schools are not the only place to learn them.
I wonder what the anti homeschoolers think of the trend of public schools setting up cyber schools? My state has one set up, so does Florida. Are they against that too?
This may come as a surprise to you, but many home schooled kids are very well socialized via community activities, home schooling co-ops, volunteer work, and/or living in a neighborhood full of kids they play with on a regular basis. They play on soccer teams, Little League teams, and even sometimes compete on local public school teams (yes, it's true!).
I won't dismiss the notion that some are perfectly socialized.... But come on... Being at a public school for a good chunk of the day among a population of random, diverse, non-parent approved children isn't the same. I am not saying home schooled kids are weird or not socialized, but there is no substitute for the real world. Academics aren't everything. Knowing how to interact with people can be just as important.
Not silly if the schools are bad, the teachers are bad, or the school environment is not conducive to learning. The things you mention are important. But public schools are not the only place to learn them.
Yea.... hiding your kid from the world is the answer. It maybe hard to imagine but even kids at bad schools can succeed with good parents.
Simply, homeschooling isn't a place to get real world experience no matter how you cut it. The world isn't some organized place, with good intentions, and all it takes is a good is a good attitude and smarts to succeed place.
Homeschooling is silly. Public schools teach one how to interact with people in the real world. In the real world being charming or having a good golf swing can be more important than being the smartest person in the room.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dv1033
I won't dismiss the notion that some are perfectly socialized.... But come on... Being at a public school for a good chunk of the day among a population of random, diverse, non-parent approved children isn't the same. I am not saying home schooled kids are weird or not socialized, but there is no substitute for the real world. Academics aren't everything. Knowing how to interact with people can be just as important.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dv1033
Yea.... hiding your kid from the world is the answer. It maybe hard to imagine but even kids at bad schools can succeed with good parents.
Simply, homeschooling isn't a place to get real world experience no matter how you cut it. The world isn't some organized place, with good intentions, and all it takes is a good is a good attitude and smarts to succeed place.
Why do you think getting real world experience can only happen in school settings? But seeing as how more and more people would rather record someone in trouble and laugh rather then help, public schools are turning out empathetic and caring people with good socializing skills. To go along with the crowd and never questioning anything (peer pressure)? or conforming to everyone else and having no real identity of your own for fear of being labelled an outsider and being ridiculed.. But at least they are "socializing". But I get what you are saying but giving the mess of today's school, the only experience kids would be getting is how to survive rather then learn and grow. But what is more important?. Academics or learning how to not bring about unwanted attention, least you get bullied? That is real world experience right that for anyone who was a nerd in school. Believe me, I know. Like the previous poster said, kids can connect well with the world of their peers, it don't have to be at school which it too is strictly monitored and controlled.
And when it comes to running a company and turning a profit, I would rather have the smartest person around then the one I could have a cold one with. A good golf swing and a clever joke isn't gonna pay the bills. But liberals are always complaining the higher ups didn't work for it and just rubbing backs. With your line of thinking that may be true. That line of thinking probably lead to this mess we are in now. Nobody knows what the hell they are doing but at least they are good a bar games.
I know some of you been trying to spin this with that case about the German parents homeschooling their kids but the OP point was how the Attorney General of the United States says homeschooling isn't a parent's right. If you could see the implications of such a statement and not through partisan lens as nothing more then "right wing paranoia" then you could see why such a thing would raise a few eyebrows. That is what's feared. If it can be declared that homeschooling isn't a right then how much of a stretch is it until they start yanking kids from their homeschools?.
It's odd though...you have a right to free health care, housing, high paying job, college, birth control, cell phones, abortion, etc, etc, but not to teach your own kids?. The left is suppose to be the party of smart people and academics. Unless you want to teach your kids at home, which has proven to turn out smarter kids, then academics isn't everything. That's liberalism for you.
Well, the real benefit to public school, is cultural assimilation. And the problem with public school is also cultural assimilation. And depending on your opinion of mainstream culture, is going to be the basis of your opinion on whether or not homeschool is good or bad.
The people who are against homeschooling, generally aren't doing it on the basis of test performance. So quality of education has absolutely nothing to do with their opinion. The reality is that, people who are opposed to homeschooling tend to believe that children should effectively assimilate into the mainstream culture, because to them, "that is the real world". And by pulling a child away from interacting with diverse people in a public school, denies them the ability to develop skills enabling them to interact with those diverse people in the future. Thus, you are making their lives more difficult when they eventually have to get out into the "real world".
The people who tend to support homeschooling, are people who generally don't like mainstream culture, and they don't like what is being taught in schools. They see public schools as indoctrination facilities to create kids who are pro-government, and pro certain social policies, like birth control/abortion, gay-rights, atheism, etc. And they see public schools as being immoral, overly sexualized, with issues of substance abuse, and violence.
The funny thing about homeschooling, is that it was created for the purpose of assimilating immigrants into becoming Americans. A lot of immigrants from Europe for instance, didn't come here speaking English. And in the past, a lot of those immigrants weren't quick to learn English or become American. Many of them were basically from radical religious homes, which tended to see themselves as separate from the rest of the country. They came here to sort of setup colonies/communes within this country, to preach their own history and language and laws and beliefs.
Which is the sort of peculiar situation we are in in regards to homeschooling. The kinds of people who support homeschooling, tend to be the kinds of people who want to stop all immigration, and to set a national language(English), which everyone should be forced to learn if they want to live here. Which was exactly the reason many people were opposed to homeschooling in the past, and created public schools.
As for my opinion on the matter. When my nephew was younger, he was having problems at school, and my sister said she was going to pull him out of school and homeschool him. At the time, I thought it was a bad idea. I felt he needed to resolve some of his issues in school, he can't just hide away for the rest of his life. And he already has a difficult time in social situations as it is, which is why he has issues in school.
As I've gotten older, I realize that the public schools have problems that are basically unfixable. And the reality is that, while children certainly need experience in social situations, it doesn't require public school to achieve the ability to interact with others. There have been psychological tests that argue that we shouldn't be sending kids to school so early. Most kids really aren't ready to "leave the nest" until more like seven or eight years of age, not three four or five, like many believe(no benefit to sending your kid to preschool).
Furthermore, the school systems are filled with immorality and violence. To a large extent, you are better off throwing your kids into that kind of environment at a later age when they are more mature. Rather than toss them into that situation when they are young and easily influenced.
Lastly, there is no statistical benefit whatsoever for sending your children to public school in regards to achievement, neither on standardized tests or in life. In fact, kids going to public schools are statistically inferior to homeschoolers, by far, in basically every single category.
Even if you take the anecdotal evidence that you know a guy who is socially awkward who was homeschooled. I know plenty of people who are socially awkward who went to public school. And even if it is true that homeschoolers on average are more socially awkward. The question is, how does that affect him? Does it make them less likely to be successful in life? Does it make them less likely to be able to get a girlfriend?
The question is easy to answer. All you really have to do is ask the question, when homeschoolers have kids, do they send their kids to public schools? Or do they homeschool them as well?
If the argument is that homeschoolers are disadvantaged, then the people who were homeschooled, most likely wouldn't want their children to have to endure the same difficulties. On the other hand, if homeschoolers don't feel disadvantaged, or if they feel advantaged, its likely that they will homeschool their children as well.
With the state of society these days, I can't lie, I don't see how any sane person would actually want to send their children to public schools. We have the worst public school system in the developed world. And it seems that for the most part, public schools are more a means to babysit kids so their parents can work, rather than for any real benefit for the kids.
Are you trying to say "normal" public school grads are repulsive to you?
What do you prefer? Some non-socialized nutjob, well-trained in Bible-banging, unable to function in the REAL world because he's lived under his mommy's skirt from birth to 18? Homeschooling just sounds like such a well adjusted way to raise kids! I'm forever impressed.
In my experience, public school kids are repulsive to a significant number of homeschooling families (The fundamentalist, crazy ones). I used to go to a fundamentalist church full of homeschooling families, and it was amazing the myths I had to dispel to homeschool parents about what it's like teaching in a public school. It was also deeply irritating hearing people diss my students while self righteously building up their own kids--and themselves-- as being so wonderful because they homeschool.
I fully support the right to homeschool, and some homeschoolers turn out all right, but that experience has always left homeschooling with a bad taste in my mouth.
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