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I was a homeschooling parent for some years. The world would probably do well to look to what homeschoolers know about educating children at home rather than tr

I was a homeschooling parent for some years. The world would probably do well to look to what homeschoolers know about educating children at home rather than trying to replicate classroom schooling via computer connection. I was also Director of Community Life for The TAG Project for a little while. So I joined email lists that supported homeschoolers and discussed this stuff with experts, etc. Public school is about eight hours a day because it's "free daycare" for working parents. One article I read years ago indicated that a parent went and observed their child at school and found that the kind only really was actively learning about one to two hours a day. The rest of the time was spent taking roll call, changing classes, having lunch, etc. At the time, I was in California and one of the ways to legally homeschool was by hiring a tutor for three hours per day. Not eight. Just three. My very first blog began because of interest in what I was saying on homeschooling lists via email. A friend wanted to publish something I had written and it grew from there. And then I started another site because people were asking my permission to forward my emails and I was like "Oh, I will just make it a website and then they can share the links and don't need to email me." So I've never really gotten good traction and yadda, but when I see some of the frustrations people have with the current situation, I'm like "Yeah, I should maybe do something about that..." Only, I mean, everyone seems to want me to help them for free, because I "care," and then almost no one "cares" when I can't pay my bills. So I don't feel very excited about the idea that, "Oh, this is a thing I know a bunch about (and could potentially help people with this)." But, really, there is a wealth of knowledge that already exists concerning how to teach kids at home. There are lots of books, email lists, etc by, for and about homeschooling and homeschooling is best done in a way that doesn't actively try to recreate public school classrooms because a lot of the methods used in public schools are used precisely because it is a means to wrangle 20 to 40 students by a teacher who will have 20 to 40 new students every year and that's not the case if they are your kids in your home.

matt_s 6y ago
Teaching kids at home is not remote schooling. Remote means the instructor is not in the same room as the student. Homeschooling implies the instructor is present in the room, probably in a 1:2 teacher/student ratio. Even if you are using online materials, you are actively there to guide your child through the material.
- DoreenMichele 6y ago
  Yeah, I know. I've taken remote college classes. I'm familiar with the concept. Have you actually homeschooled? A lot of homeschooling parents don't actively guide their kids through anything. I used to have a page of education quotes, which included ideas like "The ability to learn is older and more common than the ability to teach" and "Education should be the lighting of a fire, not the filling of a pale." I surveyed everything in the house -- books, games, TV shows, etc -- decided which should be counted as educational and which shouldn't and for what subjects and my kids mostly did various activities independently. I only actively worked with them when they had problems with something because they have learning disabilities. I actually spent more time working with my kids on their homework when they were in public school plus taking them to school, attending parent-teacher conferences, etc than homeschooling took. My oldest son tested at the senior in college level for at least one subject on a placement test at age 11. One of my rules was "If you are above grade level in the subject, you get to do whatever the heck interests you." My kids are twice exceptional. This is probably the hardest educational profile to try to effectively educate.
  - UncleMeat 6y ago
    > My kids are twice exceptional. This is probably the hardest educational profile to try to effectively educate. This is probably true if you want to educate them to their maximum potential. But the wiggle room for ineffectiveness is enormous. If you have kids that are incredibly smart then you get a natural buffer. The challenge is that we sure would like everybody to be able to read and write at a high school level so being inefficient in teaching the kids who are already going to struggle with this ends up being less acceptable. There is no question that homeschooling can be enormously valuable for kids that are smart and interested and have parents with means to participate in their education. Scaling to the rest of the population is the hard part.
    - DoreenMichele 6y ago
      It's really a lot more complicated than that. If you have someone strong in science but weak in math, their math disability can actively block their ability to learn their favorite subject. But I really shouldn't ever bother to discuss this on HN. The only person who knew me before I joined HN knew me through homeschooling and gifted circles and never once said anything nice about me, just politely nitpicked my comments to death for eight years. No one ever said "Dude. Wow. Leave her alone." Because misogyny and double standards are alive and well. So y'all feel free to feel like you know more than I do about the topic. My sons are grown. No one here will ever either respect me or pay me for my expertise, so your current pain points on this topic really aren't my problem.

matt_s 6y ago

Teaching kids at home is not remote schooling. Remote means the instructor is not in the same room as the student. Homeschooling implies the instructor is present in the room, probably in a 1:2 teacher/student ratio. Even if you are using online materials, you are actively there to guide your child through the material.

DoreenMichele 6y ago
Yeah, I know. I've taken remote college classes. I'm familiar with the concept. Have you actually homeschooled? A lot of homeschooling parents don't actively guide their kids through anything. I used to have a page of education quotes, which included ideas like "The ability to learn is older and more common than the ability to teach" and "Education should be the lighting of a fire, not the filling of a pale." I surveyed everything in the house -- books, games, TV shows, etc -- decided which should be counted as educational and which shouldn't and for what subjects and my kids mostly did various activities independently. I only actively worked with them when they had problems with something because they have learning disabilities. I actually spent more time working with my kids on their homework when they were in public school plus taking them to school, attending parent-teacher conferences, etc than homeschooling took. My oldest son tested at the senior in college level for at least one subject on a placement test at age 11. One of my rules was "If you are above grade level in the subject, you get to do whatever the heck interests you." My kids are twice exceptional. This is probably the hardest educational profile to try to effectively educate.
- UncleMeat 6y ago
  > My kids are twice exceptional. This is probably the hardest educational profile to try to effectively educate. This is probably true if you want to educate them to their maximum potential. But the wiggle room for ineffectiveness is enormous. If you have kids that are incredibly smart then you get a natural buffer. The challenge is that we sure would like everybody to be able to read and write at a high school level so being inefficient in teaching the kids who are already going to struggle with this ends up being less acceptable. There is no question that homeschooling can be enormously valuable for kids that are smart and interested and have parents with means to participate in their education. Scaling to the rest of the population is the hard part.
  - DoreenMichele 6y ago
    It's really a lot more complicated than that. If you have someone strong in science but weak in math, their math disability can actively block their ability to learn their favorite subject. But I really shouldn't ever bother to discuss this on HN. The only person who knew me before I joined HN knew me through homeschooling and gifted circles and never once said anything nice about me, just politely nitpicked my comments to death for eight years. No one ever said "Dude. Wow. Leave her alone." Because misogyny and double standards are alive and well. So y'all feel free to feel like you know more than I do about the topic. My sons are grown. No one here will ever either respect me or pay me for my expertise, so your current pain points on this topic really aren't my problem.