3 ms·

There's a limit to how many people can work remotely. Certainly, factory workers, restaurant employees, healthcare professionals, retail workers and bank teller

There's a limit to how many people can work remotely. Certainly, factory workers, restaurant employees, healthcare professionals, retail workers and bank tellers can't do this. And homeschooling isn't for everyone... But it's virtually impossible to do if both parents are working full time. Not to mention the effect this has on children. It's very difficult for children to be socially isolated. It's good for their mental health to be around other kids.

DoreenMichele 7y ago
Ah, the socialization argument. Such an old saw. It was openly mocked and derided on homeschooling lists when I was a homeschooling parent. That was before the argument was "We absolutely need to risk the lives of people in the face of a plague. Think of the social needs of the children!" Edit in response to your deleted comment: Particularly, socialization research confirms that young people can grow up more mature and poised than their age-peers if they avoid the age segregation characteristic of almost all schools. https://learninfreedom.org/ https://learninfreedom.org/ The author was a school teacher and he's the founder of some education organization or other. You can probably find a lot more info under his hn handle of tokenadult. I don't plan to continue this argument.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- swiley 7y ago
  As a homeschooler who grew up in a very rural area and didn’t attend a co-op I feel like I missed out on a lot of things socially. It’s not really economically impacting but not everything is about making money. I think I made up for it in college but not everyone gets to do that, and it took a lot of effort on my part.
  - DoreenMichele 7y ago
    None of us gets to go back in time and run the simulation over and see how it would have gone had we taken the other path somehow. You are romanticizing public school and assuming it would be have been a wonderful social experience that you missed out on. Perhaps it would have been a terrible experience. Perhaps you would been horribly bullied. Most people do not seem to look back on k-12 and miss it terribly as the most wonderful time in their life. They usually found it wanting, at best, or even quite awful. Please don't conflate positive college social experiences with positive K-12 experiences. College students are generally legal adults who have, to some degree, chosen the school in question, chosen their major, chosen their classes and can very much choose their social activities. In contrast, K-12 kids are usually thrown together against their will, have very little real choice, etc.

DoreenMichele 7y ago

Ah, the socialization argument. Such an old saw. It was openly mocked and derided on homeschooling lists when I was a homeschooling parent. That was before the argument was "We absolutely need to risk the lives of people in the face of a plague. Think of the social needs of the children!" Edit in response to your deleted comment: Particularly, socialization research confirms that young people can grow up more mature and poised than their age-peers if they avoid the age segregation characteristic of almost all schools. https://learninfreedom.org/ https://learninfreedom.org/ The author was a school teacher and he's the founder of some education organization or other. You can probably find a lot more info under his hn handle of tokenadult. I don't plan to continue this argument.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
swiley 7y ago
As a homeschooler who grew up in a very rural area and didn’t attend a co-op I feel like I missed out on a lot of things socially. It’s not really economically impacting but not everything is about making money. I think I made up for it in college but not everyone gets to do that, and it took a lot of effort on my part.
- DoreenMichele 7y ago
  None of us gets to go back in time and run the simulation over and see how it would have gone had we taken the other path somehow. You are romanticizing public school and assuming it would be have been a wonderful social experience that you missed out on. Perhaps it would have been a terrible experience. Perhaps you would been horribly bullied. Most people do not seem to look back on k-12 and miss it terribly as the most wonderful time in their life. They usually found it wanting, at best, or even quite awful. Please don't conflate positive college social experiences with positive K-12 experiences. College students are generally legal adults who have, to some degree, chosen the school in question, chosen their major, chosen their classes and can very much choose their social activities. In contrast, K-12 kids are usually thrown together against their will, have very little real choice, etc.