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I am a big proponent of smaller government and less governmental control, and I'm glad that we as Americans can choose whether or not we want to home school our

I am a big proponent of smaller government and less governmental control, and I'm glad that we as Americans can choose whether or not we want to home school our children. With that being said, it's a lot of responsibility for a parent to take on themselves. I was home schooled, as were most of my siblings, and I think that it really depends on the parents. Some parents actually teach their kids, spend the time with them, offer some sort of direction, and I think it can really give those kids a great start to life and a positive outlook towards learning. My parents, on the other hand, didn't really put the effort necessary into teaching us, and as a result I didn't learn to read until I was almost 12, and than only because my mother finally put me into public school. Reading, writing, basic math, history, geography, you name it, I was missing it from my education. My poor 5th and 6th grade teachers had a heck of a time trying to catch me up to the other students. That doesn't do a whole lot for a kid's confidence, when he can see that he is obviously and severely behind academically compared to his peers. I just thought I was stupid. My mom thought I had dyslexia or something. Turns out I just needed someone to sit down with me and actually teach me. There's also a lot of social development that takes place at school, and most of the time you can tell when a kid is home schooled by the way they interact with people. Or maybe it's just me, coming from that background, I can usually tell when I'm talking to a home schooler, they often have a certain social awkwardness about them. I know I was the same way until I met my wife and she straightened me out. I often had a hard time appropriately regulating the volume of my voice ("do you realize how loudly you're talking?), or knowing when certain things were inappropriate to say under specific social circumstances. And I totally fail at Trivial Pursuit (we didn't watch a lot of TV growing up either.) Having said all that, I finished my college degree early, graduated with honors, and am a successful software engineer and wannabe entrepreneur. I have a strong hunger to learn, a well developed sense of curiosity, and I have a knack for teaching myself new skills. I don't know if I am who I am because I was home schooled (although you could probably make a pretty good case for it due to my unstructured upbringing), and given my success in life I don't mean to sound unappreciative. It just would have been nice to be able to read a little earlier in life, that's all. And I'm still not very good at math.

ilamont 17y ago
Why did your parents decide to home school you, and what made your mother decide to put you back into the public school system? Did your siblings go back at the same time, if at all? Did they have the same challenges relating to basic skills?
- megamark16 17y ago
  My mom had a fear of the government putting ideas into her kids heads. When I was 11 some of my older siblings decided that they wanted to go to public school, so one by one we all eventually started following suit. I think my mother just figured she'd let us do what we wanted. My next younger brother (not an electrical engineer) had many of the same problems that I had, although he was two years younger and so wasn't quite as far behind his peers. My older siblings taught themselves to read and write (somehow, I should ask them how they managed that), but I found myself incapable of figuring it out on my own.
araneae 17y ago
I always hear this (that public school is better for social development) but there's some evidence to the contrary; i.e. children who go to daycare have more behavioral problems, etc. The idea is that kids learn the proper way to behave from adults. If they're spending too much time with other kids who also have no idea how to behave, they never learn to. I wonder if cause and effect is reversed. The parents of kids who are homeschooled are more likely to be socially defective to begin with, and the reason for the maladjustment is genetic. To add anecdotal evidence, both my SO and I are socially awkward, found school a living hell, and will probably homeschool. The kids will never be socially adjusted due to genetics, irrespective of whatever "socialization" they go through.
- megamark16 17y ago
  You're probably on to something there, as both my parents are pretty weird (dad's a band geek and mom's a theater geek). I'd be interested to see a study of how a child's social and behavioral integration relates to that of their parents.
- 17y ago

ilamont 17y ago

Why did your parents decide to home school you, and what made your mother decide to put you back into the public school system? Did your siblings go back at the same time, if at all? Did they have the same challenges relating to basic skills?

megamark16 17y ago
My mom had a fear of the government putting ideas into her kids heads. When I was 11 some of my older siblings decided that they wanted to go to public school, so one by one we all eventually started following suit. I think my mother just figured she'd let us do what we wanted. My next younger brother (not an electrical engineer) had many of the same problems that I had, although he was two years younger and so wasn't quite as far behind his peers. My older siblings taught themselves to read and write (somehow, I should ask them how they managed that), but I found myself incapable of figuring it out on my own.

araneae 17y ago

I always hear this (that public school is better for social development) but there's some evidence to the contrary; i.e. children who go to daycare have more behavioral problems, etc. The idea is that kids learn the proper way to behave from adults. If they're spending too much time with other kids who also have no idea how to behave, they never learn to. I wonder if cause and effect is reversed. The parents of kids who are homeschooled are more likely to be socially defective to begin with, and the reason for the maladjustment is genetic. To add anecdotal evidence, both my SO and I are socially awkward, found school a living hell, and will probably homeschool. The kids will never be socially adjusted due to genetics, irrespective of whatever "socialization" they go through.

megamark16 17y ago
You're probably on to something there, as both my parents are pretty weird (dad's a band geek and mom's a theater geek). I'd be interested to see a study of how a child's social and behavioral integration relates to that of their parents.
17y ago