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When I was still in school, all the homeschooled kids I met were incredibly weird and I thought the same thing. Then later I had a friend whose little sister wa

When I was still in school, all the homeschooled kids I met were incredibly weird and I thought the same thing. Then later I had a friend whose little sister was homeschooled and they did it right. She was a part of some homeschooling group where the kids would get together frequently and the parents would takes turns leading different activities, often leveraging different parents' professions or special expertise. She was both well-socialized and had much more deep and engaging experiences than you can get in school. Though you still end up with the problem of when and how to rejoin the normal world since you're so far ahead.

ponker 6y ago
Homeschooling doesn’t always make kids weird — parents of weird kids often pull them out of school because of bullying or fears of bullying.
surge 6y ago
The other thing about this stereotype everyone remembers the one weird kid from home school. But its not like weird kids with socialization issues and social anxiety don't come out of public schools. Also no one factors that maybe the kid is being home schooled because they're weird. It's also possible they just have weird parents, and they're weird as a result, and school isn't going to save them from that.
- Polylactic_acid 6y ago
  There is probably a bias of people who choose to home school. The home schooled person I know was home schooled because their parents were deeply religious and didn't want a school teaching their child unapproved content but they also didn't have the skill or time to properly educate on things like math so they ended up far behind others. How many people that homeschool are actually knowledgeable enough and have the free time to replace full time teachers.
  - imtringued 6y ago
    I'm thinking that even if you are a competent "home teacher" you would still fall behind in areas that are outside your expertise. You'd need a collective of home teachers at which point all the perceived benefits of homeschooling disappear because you're handing your child to those weird teachers who aren't you.
    - as_keyof_typeof 6y ago
      > You'd need a collective of home teachers Most home school parents already do this - dance class has a dance teacher, math has a math tutor or teacher, swedish class has a swedish teacher. It's like school a la carte
  - surge 6y ago
    At the elementary level, most people don't need child development courses to understand their own kids, its only needed to manage classrooms. So its not hard. But two college educated parents can run circles around professional teachers when you factor in the individualized focus given.
Broken_Hippo 6y ago
The problem is that homeschooling so often has lack oversight (as do private schools). There isn't always someone there making sure the kids are learning what they should be learning nor that they are getting together with other kids. And you wind up with a few kids that do really well and others that struggle with science and still others that just don't get the help they need with stuff. It is easy to overlook a learning disability at a young age when you aren't trained to look for it. We don't even have a program to test parents on the material they are teaching. In a perfect world, parents would have to pass testing a level or two ahead of their lessons and we'd have more short, standardized tests to make sure kids were learning what they should (no skipping out on sex education or evolution, for example). Short, meaning once or twice a month for 15-60 minutes, depending on a child's age in addition to something akin to finals for older students.
balabaster 6y ago
One of the major problems of homeschooling is that there is undue influence by a single perspective of the parent teaching. There is no balanced opinion. I've known quite a few homeschooled kids that believe that their opinion, preached to them by their parent is the one true opinion, or fact. That's quite a problem when there's no oversight. That said, having spent quite some time following families on the internet that have done this with their kids - including the Bucket List Family... https://www.thebucketlistfamily.com/ https://www.thebucketlistfamily.com/ and Logan LaPlante with his Hackschooling TED Talk... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h11u3vtcpaY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h11u3vtcpaY To name just a couple of examples. I have to say there are quite some advantages if it is done right, but not everyone is fortunate enough or has the background or passion to pursue this kind of schooling with their kids. It takes the kind of commitment that not many parents have.
throwaway4715 6y ago
So you're saying that homeschooled kids have the same variance in outcomes as kids that go to school?

ponker 6y ago

Homeschooling doesn’t always make kids weird — parents of weird kids often pull them out of school because of bullying or fears of bullying.

surge 6y ago

The other thing about this stereotype everyone remembers the one weird kid from home school. But its not like weird kids with socialization issues and social anxiety don't come out of public schools. Also no one factors that maybe the kid is being home schooled because they're weird. It's also possible they just have weird parents, and they're weird as a result, and school isn't going to save them from that.

Polylactic_acid 6y ago
There is probably a bias of people who choose to home school. The home schooled person I know was home schooled because their parents were deeply religious and didn't want a school teaching their child unapproved content but they also didn't have the skill or time to properly educate on things like math so they ended up far behind others. How many people that homeschool are actually knowledgeable enough and have the free time to replace full time teachers.
- imtringued 6y ago
  I'm thinking that even if you are a competent "home teacher" you would still fall behind in areas that are outside your expertise. You'd need a collective of home teachers at which point all the perceived benefits of homeschooling disappear because you're handing your child to those weird teachers who aren't you.
  - as_keyof_typeof 6y ago
    > You'd need a collective of home teachers Most home school parents already do this - dance class has a dance teacher, math has a math tutor or teacher, swedish class has a swedish teacher. It's like school a la carte
- surge 6y ago
  At the elementary level, most people don't need child development courses to understand their own kids, its only needed to manage classrooms. So its not hard. But two college educated parents can run circles around professional teachers when you factor in the individualized focus given.

Broken_Hippo 6y ago

The problem is that homeschooling so often has lack oversight (as do private schools). There isn't always someone there making sure the kids are learning what they should be learning nor that they are getting together with other kids. And you wind up with a few kids that do really well and others that struggle with science and still others that just don't get the help they need with stuff. It is easy to overlook a learning disability at a young age when you aren't trained to look for it. We don't even have a program to test parents on the material they are teaching. In a perfect world, parents would have to pass testing a level or two ahead of their lessons and we'd have more short, standardized tests to make sure kids were learning what they should (no skipping out on sex education or evolution, for example). Short, meaning once or twice a month for 15-60 minutes, depending on a child's age in addition to something akin to finals for older students.

balabaster 6y ago

One of the major problems of homeschooling is that there is undue influence by a single perspective of the parent teaching. There is no balanced opinion. I've known quite a few homeschooled kids that believe that their opinion, preached to them by their parent is the one true opinion, or fact. That's quite a problem when there's no oversight. That said, having spent quite some time following families on the internet that have done this with their kids - including the Bucket List Family... https://www.thebucketlistfamily.com/ https://www.thebucketlistfamily.com/ and Logan LaPlante with his Hackschooling TED Talk... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h11u3vtcpaY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h11u3vtcpaY To name just a couple of examples. I have to say there are quite some advantages if it is done right, but not everyone is fortunate enough or has the background or passion to pursue this kind of schooling with their kids. It takes the kind of commitment that not many parents have.

throwaway4715 6y ago

So you're saying that homeschooled kids have the same variance in outcomes as kids that go to school?