Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I can say this with surety; there is no other time in your life you will be exposed to as many opportunities to make friends or have dating opportunities than in your high school or college years.
Homeschooled kids do not usually sit around home 24/7 either by the way. My friends that do it with their kids have their kids out and about doing things that kids stuck in school 8 hours a day can't do. They all have lots of friends and social interaction.
You can't help it, but you could refrain from telling anecdotes about the singular person you did know, as if she was definitive and forms a case against homeschooling.
This thread isn't about how great homeschooling is. People who support it and do it well should ignore these comments if bothered. Of course lots of us will question it now. The Turpin's couldn't have abused these kids for years if they weren't so isolated.
Just this morning it came out the kids were only allowed to eat once a day and shower twice a year. This wouldn't have gone on unnoticed if they were in school. It's not the neighbor's responsibility to look out for signs of abuse either.
NBC recent report had a partial pic of the wedding where the adult kids who faces aren't obscured and with names and ages tagged on them...all start with J. Duggar wannabees gone wrong?
My God! The boys especially look horrific! No where near the ages listed, and obviously they've been severely stunted and have suffered physical harm from whatever it is the parents did to them.
The girls don't look great, either, but they would probably look closer to their ages if they were dressed more appropriately.
All of the kids have been psychologically and emotionally harmed as well.
Also, any "Duggar wannabe" has, by definition, 'gone wrong.' They're on the same branch of the tree -- isolationist, severely religious, patriarchal groups who revere the father and eschew education. As noted by someone else, these people's oldest kids are the same ages as the older Duggar kids, so while they may have known them, and may have been influenced by them in some ways, they were't the ones who sparked this family's craziness.
Are you aware that homeschooled students, as a group, far outperform public school students academically? It's really absurd to claim that public schools are superior because they produce stellar results. That is sheer propaganda put out by those who know that every child who doesn't go to public school means less money for the school.
I could rephrase your bolded sentence as, "There are SO many underperforming public schools which don't do it right, and the kids end up horribly uneducated, at best." Is that not, indeed, the truth?
I think the blame being put on homeschooling for this sad case in Riverside is a red herring, anyway. Many, perhaps a majority, of the "kids" were over legal schooling age anyway. What if they all had been? Do you blame "homeschooling" for parents' keeping their ADULT children confined to the house in squalid circumstances?
I homeschooled my daughter for the 6th and 7th grade. She was being passed along in public school even though she wasn't learning the material. I thought everything was well because she was making good grades until I finally got to see some of her graded work for math class and a lot of problems that were marked correct were clearly wrong. I tested her at the start of homeschooling to see where I needed to start with on these subjects and she was having trouble with 3rd grade level math from homeschool packets. I ended up having to start out with 1st and 2nd grade math trying to catch her up.
My family sabotaged my efforts constantly. And my daughter was refusing to do the work. She finally yelled at me one day that her uncle (my biological brother) said if she refused to do the work that I would have to put her back in public school where she belonged.
It was a two year battle that I lost. Even with her being uncooperative though, she still learned from my efforts. She actually passed 8th grade placement test to get back into school in a different county.
I used it as a threat to get her to do her homework and behave though after she went back. If she slacked off on her school work I threatened to pull her out and homeschool her again. So, she studied and did her school work and actually earned high grades. I kept on her and made sure what happened before in school never happened again.
My brother and his wife were quite hypocrites though. They homeschooled their own children, but they did it a lazy way. They just had them sit and watch educational videos all day while they did their own thing. I overheard his wife and my mother complaining about how hard it is to send kids to public school because they have to wake up early and get them on the school bus and all kinds of various stuff they thought was hard to do. I homeschooled my daughter to help her learn and to parent her and they did it to avoid having to parent while they interfered constantly with my parenting authority. They were constantly leaving their little kids home alone in filthy conditions and got away with it. There'd be, for example, messy diapers spread throughout their apartment because they didn't throw them away. You'd be hit with the smell when the door opened. My mother would go into their place maybe once a week and clean it up. CPS did not care.
Homeschooling has benefits to families who want to do it to benefit their children. It hurts the children when the parents do it for selfish, lazy reasons.
I homeschooled my daughter for the 6th and 7th grade. She was being passed along in public school even though she wasn't learning the material. I thought everything was well because she was making good grades until I finally got to see some of her graded work for math class and a lot of problems that were marked correct were clearly wrong. I tested her at the start of homeschooling to see where I needed to start with on these subjects and she was having trouble with 3rd grade level math from homeschool packets. I ended up having to start out with 1st and 2nd grade math trying to catch her up.
My family sabotaged my efforts constantly. And my daughter was refusing to do the work. She finally yelled at me one day that her uncle (my biological brother) said if she refused to do the work that I would have to put her back in public school where she belonged.
It was a two year battle that I lost. Even with her being uncooperative though, she still learned from my efforts. She actually passed 8th grade placement test to get back into school in a different county.
I used it as a threat to get her to do her homework and behave though after she went back. If she slacked off on her school work I threatened to pull her out and homeschool her again. So, she studied and did her school work and actually earned high grades. I kept on her and made sure what happened before in school never happened again.
My brother and his wife were quite hypocrites though. They homeschooled their own children, but they did it a lazy way. They just had them sit and watch educational videos all day while they did their own thing. I overheard his wife and my mother complaining about how hard it is to send kids to public school because they have to wake up early and get them on the school bus and all kinds of various stuff they thought was hard to do. I homeschooled my daughter to help her learn and to parent her and they did it to avoid having to parent while they interfered constantly with my parenting authority. They were constantly leaving their little kids home alone in filthy conditions and got away with it. There'd be, for example, messy diapers spread throughout their apartment because they didn't throw them away. You'd be hit with the smell when the door opened. My mother would go into their place maybe once a week and clean it up. CPS did not care.
Homeschooling has benefits to families who want to do it to benefit their children. It hurts the children when the parents do it for selfish, lazy reasons.
Very well put. It's like most things in life. It's not a one size fits all type of thing.
Please, can you all just STOP with the unnecessary and prejudicial digs at homeschooling? Actual homeschooling as done 99% of the time has absolutely no similarity with the sad and disturbing case of this family.
And there is a massive number of public-schooled adults in the US who are now in their 20s, don't date or go out much, and still live at home. It's a major societal phenomenon. But find one person like that who was homeschooled and somehow it's all the fault of homeschooling. <sigh>
Bears repeating.
Signed,
Public school attendee
Mother of public school students
Huge proponent of a strong public school system
This really is less about homeschooling per se and more about America's ingrained culture of 'stay out of our business'. There are thousands of @#$@ like this pair doing similar nastiness under the noses of their neighbors and local authorities all over America. That's the way we want it. Soon this thread will run its course. Until the next awful reveal <shrug>.
I can say this with surety; there is no other time in your life you will be exposed to as many opportunities to make friends or have dating opportunities than in your high school or college years.
This is simply not true.
A friend of mine has homeschooled her daughter since preschool. She is now 14 years old. They are part of a strong homeschooling group who do wonderful things for the kids. They are all profoundly intelligent, creative and mature kids. They act like kids with their cell phones and such but when you talk to them, you are amazed at the length and breadth of their knowledge on different topics. They are well spoken, witty and just fun to be around.
The girl I am talking about has been to England, France, Argentina, and Iceland not to mention numerous states. She is considering a career in engineering and can speak two other languages besides English.
I'm jealous of her and I wish my kids had the opportunities this girl has had.
This thread isn't about how great homeschooling is. People who support it and do it well should ignore these comments if bothered. Of course lots of us will question it now. The Turpin's couldn't have abused these kids for years if they weren't so isolated.
Just this morning it came out the kids were only allowed to eat once a day and shower twice a year. This wouldn't have gone on unnoticed if they were in school. It's not the neighbor's responsibility to look out for signs of abuse either.
A friend of mine has homeschooled her daughter since preschool. She is now 14 years old. They are part of a strong homeschooling group who do wonderful things for the kids. They are all profoundly intelligent, creative and mature kids. They act like kids with their cell phones and such but when you talk to them, you are amazed at the length and breadth of their knowledge on different topics. They are well spoken, witty and just fun to be around.
The girl I am talking about has been to England, France, Argentina, and Iceland not to mention numerous states. She is considering a career in engineering and can speak two other languages besides English.
I'm jealous of her and I wish my kids had the opportunities this girl has had.
That's great, I think the bolded part is the key. Lots of kids aren't part of any group. The one I know definitely was not. That's why it's good to listen to other people's experience. You are talking about a child who has been to Europe and I am speaking of one who wasn't allowed to spend the night away from home from the 1st - 12th grade.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
