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I mentioned above, I went to a fairly good highschool. We didn't have classes on Thursdays in my highschool. Instead we were required to participate in an unpai

I mentioned above, I went to a fairly good highschool. We didn't have classes on Thursdays in my highschool. Instead we were required to participate in an unpaid internships on Thursday. I volunteered at the local metropolitan "science center" where kids went for field trips and people visited. It was awesome... Almost every other volunteer was a home schooler. My best friend was home schooled (met in college) and he is a concert level pianist and extremely well rounded. Nationally home schoolers get together fairly often and have "home school reunions". You are speaking like someone with little knowledge of and/or interaction with the homeschool population. You seem to have some severe misunderstandings about the homeschool community. I think you should alleviate this large hole in your knowledge before you berate a lifestyle you aren't familiar with.

jff 15y ago
I grew up in a small town, so you're right--there weren't many homeschoolers. I think there were two families in the area that homeschooled but later sent their kids to public school for high school. These kids were the stereotype of homeschooled kids: didn't really make friends, didn't interact well with people, got good grades. One was a very nice guy who I became friends with in cross country. Another seemed to be overtaken with the "preacher's son" thing, tended to do crazy stuff and act out once he finally broke away from the house. His sister was a strange, quiet girl who would wear her parka during indoor P.E. so she would get heat exhaustion and be allowed to sit down. The nearest towns to mine were all about 40 minutes away, and not even the largest one had more than 20,000 people--not a big population to draw homeschoolers from. In the case of the homeschoolers I met, I definitely got the impression that their lives had been pretty well isolated, outside of church--religion being the reason they were homeschooled in the first place. I appreciate the way public school throws you into a mix with a bunch of people you would not normally be around. Do homeschool kids sit in the back of the bus and have the weird dude show them how to make a marijuana pipe out of a pepsi can? When you're hanging with other homeschool kids, is there really that much opportunity to learn how to deal with macho cholo bullshit when all you want them to do is load the band truck? To me, it seems like it would generally be a very restricted community: deeply religious people who don't want their children polluted, and parents who are well-off and smart enough to do the teaching themselves. I probably could have learned more academically being homeschooled, but at least where I grew up, public school was the only social game in town, and looking back I am glad I went. When I have kids, there will be serious consideration to homeschooling for a while, but I strongly believe that their first year or two of school and at least some of the middle/high school years should be spent at a public school.

jff 15y ago

I grew up in a small town, so you're right--there weren't many homeschoolers. I think there were two families in the area that homeschooled but later sent their kids to public school for high school. These kids were the stereotype of homeschooled kids: didn't really make friends, didn't interact well with people, got good grades. One was a very nice guy who I became friends with in cross country. Another seemed to be overtaken with the "preacher's son" thing, tended to do crazy stuff and act out once he finally broke away from the house. His sister was a strange, quiet girl who would wear her parka during indoor P.E. so she would get heat exhaustion and be allowed to sit down. The nearest towns to mine were all about 40 minutes away, and not even the largest one had more than 20,000 people--not a big population to draw homeschoolers from. In the case of the homeschoolers I met, I definitely got the impression that their lives had been pretty well isolated, outside of church--religion being the reason they were homeschooled in the first place. I appreciate the way public school throws you into a mix with a bunch of people you would not normally be around. Do homeschool kids sit in the back of the bus and have the weird dude show them how to make a marijuana pipe out of a pepsi can? When you're hanging with other homeschool kids, is there really that much opportunity to learn how to deal with macho cholo bullshit when all you want them to do is load the band truck? To me, it seems like it would generally be a very restricted community: deeply religious people who don't want their children polluted, and parents who are well-off and smart enough to do the teaching themselves. I probably could have learned more academically being homeschooled, but at least where I grew up, public school was the only social game in town, and looking back I am glad I went. When I have kids, there will be serious consideration to homeschooling for a while, but I strongly believe that their first year or two of school and at least some of the middle/high school years should be spent at a public school.