Public Schools or Homeschool

[lorelei2873]

I previously worked in the Montana University System in admissions and academic advising. While what I saw was completely anecdotal, the homeschooled students usually did have socialization problems when they tried to enter the college system. Moreover, because we don't have any type of uniform home school accreditation, they had widely varying levels of academic preparedness. Sometimes they were great in math or computers but terrible in another area. It was as though many of them were allowed to focus on primarily those subjects where their interests lay.

We had terrible problems with the parents wanting to accompany students to all appointments, dictating all their course choices, and even following them to the first day of class. The students seemed dazed--like they'd never had an opportunity to make any decisions for themselves. The parents wanted us to bend federal laws about disclosing info their students who were over 18. When they couldn't get where they wanted with us, I'd often see them strongly direct or bully their kids into signing waivers so that they could have access to their adult children's personal info.

Basically, neither the students nor the parents had any socialization from the K-12 system to prepare them for the culture of the higher ed system. Students often still had their moms calling us in the second semester to take care of their personal business for them. College is not just about book learning; it's supposed to be a transition to adulthood. Again, while completely anecdotal, often home school parents were reluctant to let go.

I think homeschooling is a great option for parents with a minimum level of academic preparedness themselves. If Montana is home school friendly, does that mean it has less intrusive laws on homeschooling standards? If so, I probably would not want Montana to be known as friendly to homeschooling. I'd like to see basic minimum levels of academic preparedness for the instructors (usually parents) and standardized exit testing for home school graduates. I think homeschooling is terrific as long as all students in Montana are cared for academically and the system is held accountable, whether that system is private, home school, or public.

[thevaliantx]

lorelei2873 doesn't have a clue as to what he or she is talking about. I HIGHLY doubt that person even worked in the Montana University System as claimed. Why do I say this? Because my wife and I homeschool our son and he is THE most sociable person we know. My family, who are all in social-friendly positions of work (ie, real estate, insurance sales, public school administration), don't hold a candle to how friendly and capable of conversing with others that he is, and he is EIGHT YEARS OLD. Yes, much of it has to do with his personality and the way we go about teaching him, but credence must also be given to the fact that he is homeschooled. As mentioned in previous posts in this thread we choose who (and what) he is exposed to, yet we explain things to him and try to prepare him for social situations. After all, people who appear to be very sociable are CONDITIONED that way. They've had practice. Those who give public speeches have practiced many, many times and given speeches of all sorts. What goes on around them when they are conversing no longer gets in the way of effectively delivering a message. I, too, have run into homeschoolers who are NOT friendly or seeming able to make decisions for themselves, but I will tell you that it's a reflection on the parents themselves, not the fact that they homeschool. They don't spend much time with their children, instead homeschooling because they just don't want to have to get their child(ren) up, fix them breakfast, put them on the schoolbus and help them with homework at night. The things they don't do negatively impact anything their child does do in social situations.

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by thevaliantx

lorelei2873 doesn't have a clue as to what he or she is talking about. I HIGHLY doubt that person even worked in the Montana University System as claimed. Why do I say this? Because my wife and I homeschool our son and he is THE most sociable person we know. My family, who are all in social-friendly positions of work (ie, real estate, insurance sales, public school administration), don't hold a candle to how friendly and capable of conversing with others that he is, and he is EIGHT YEARS OLD. Yes, much of it has to do with his personality and the way we go about teaching him, but credence must also be given to the fact that he is homeschooled. As mentioned in previous posts in this thread we choose who (and what) he is exposed to, yet we explain things to him and try to prepare him for social situations. After all, people who appear to be very sociable are CONDITIONED that way. They've had practice. Those who give public speeches have practiced many, many times and given speeches of all sorts. What goes on around them when they are conversing no longer gets in the way of effectively delivering a message. I, too, have run into homeschoolers who are NOT friendly or seeming able to make decisions for themselves, but I will tell you that it's a reflection on the parents themselves, not the fact that they homeschool. They don't spend much time with their children, instead homeschooling because they just don't want to have to get their child(ren) up, fix them breakfast, put them on the schoolbus and help them with homework at night. The things they don't do negatively impact anything their child does do in social situations.

You do know that this thread is 7 years old, most of these folks are no longer here.

[thevaliantx]

Originally Posted by ElkHunter

You do know that this thread is 7 years old, most of these folks are no longer here.

I was aware of that, but someone's posting status or the age of a prior post has little to nothing to do with the content itself.

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by thevaliantx

I was aware of that, but someone's posting status or the age of a prior post has little to nothing to do with the content itself.

Very true about content, but when you challenge somebody that is no longer here, I simply wanted to point that out. Nothing wrong with mining an old thread as long as you are aware of it. So many time I see somebody do a search on google and see a post on city data, not aware of the date of the post they log and start asking questions from somebody that is long gone.

[Heart]

Originally Posted by GiftShoppeGuy

2 hours a day, or 6 hours a week is, quite frankly, not enough....
No one works those kinds of hours out here in the real world expecting to make it.
And studies are indeed showing that homeschooled children, by the lack of direct social skills, are coming into their own with some fairly unrealistic expectations of how things really do work in the real world.... they simply are not equipped to handle the way things really are on the social level.


Children need to know the good, right along with the bad. Controlling our children in such a fashion as to picking who they can see or not see, is not at all healthy in my opinion. How are your kids supposed to know the good from the bad when they grow up?.... The world is not all good, and glory be to the kid that knows this, and has the ability and foresight to pick his or her own friends.

I would much rather have my 8 year old son pull some girls hair now, than to be doing it when he's 34.
Learning lessons at 8 years old, is much preferred over having to learn lessons at a later adult age.

The sooner you allow your kids to "learn" about other people..... the better off both you and they will be.
Looking 20 to 30 years down the road, with regard to the growth and development of your children, might assist you greatly in the decisions of today.


The socialization issues are very valid in this case...

You have an interesting perspective on this, however, it's not at a realistic one for all home schoolers. We're going on ten years now. My daughter has absolutely no problems with her social skills. She has friends that are in the public school, and is involved in girl scouts, soccer, gymnastics, summer camp, church and volunteers her time with an animal shelter because she wants to become a vet. The possibilities for her future are endless.

Because she does not use the public school, she has more free time for these activities which allows for socialization with people of different backgrounds and talents. Sitting in a classroom is not socialization, in my opinion.

[Heart]

Originally Posted by ElkHunter

You do know that this thread is 7 years old, most of these folks are no longer here.

Well darn it, Elk. It's 6:32 am, and I haven't had my coffee yet!

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by Heart

Well darn it, Elk. It's 6:32 am, and I haven't had my coffee yet!

I got mine. Ground up some fresh. ;-)