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I've actually seen the opposite, that homeschoolers (especially in large urban areas), have a ton of friends. A lot of people think of homeschooling as kid sitt
by actfrench 5y ago
I've actually seen the opposite, that homeschoolers (especially in large urban areas), have a ton of friends. A lot of people think of homeschooling as kid sitting in a kitchen with their parents learning math on a chalkboard. In fact, modern-day homeschoolers tend to be much more out and about in their community. They connect with others in classes led by parents or experts, in big park days where they play on the playground - or explore nature, or in co-ops where parents share skills. In places like Portland and NYC, there are large centers where homeschoolers go to take classes together. Unlike school, they don't have 30 minutes of recess to interact and are in classrooms with mixed ages, they have long periods to play and learn with kids of different ages. Being exposed to older peers is actually quite healthy for growth and development because kids learn by modeling. For example, if an older child knows how to read, it inspires them to learn. I'm doing a study on this right now and finding that homeschoolers are much more satisfied with their social life than parents with kids in public school (and this was true both before the pandemic and now with kids back in school). A large part of this is because they can curate their own social experiences. And homeschooling, unlike school has much less bullying, clicks, etcetera. And the groups are much more diverse and inclusive. Since many of the people who choose to homeschool were having unpleasant social experience in school, they tend to be quite a welcoming community. I really think a lot of this can be attributed to homeschoolers getting to curate their own social experiences as opposed to having this socially engineered for them.
- znpy 5y ago> They connect with others in classes led by parents or experts Then it's not homeschooling. Easy.
- actfrench 5y agoTechnically, they are legally homeschooling, not in school. In this case, we're dealing with the misnomer problem. I also agree that homeschooling is the wrong word for this type of education. It's more like alloparenting, or what I like to call Modular Learning. https://manisharoses.medium.com/homeschooling-needs-a-new-name-any-ideas-4423f68822c5 https://manisharoses.medium.com/homeschooling-needs-a-new-na...
- znpy 5y ago> Technically, they are legally homeschooling "They're homeschooling, just not at home".
- gregjor 5y agoYou’re giving a good example of poor social skills and poor reasoning skills. I’m guessing you weren’t homeschooled.
- actfrench 5y agoI don't see how these are poor reasoning skills. If a child is not enrolled in a formal school, their legal category is homeschooling, regardless of whether they are doing that primarily through study in their house with their parent or taking lots of extracurriculars. I guess haters have to hate though:)
- gregjor 5y agoA child not enrolled in school or something equivalent is called truant, and that’s against the law. Every state has rules that define acceptable homeschooling. Keeping children confined at home with no social interaction is not homeschooling even if the parents call it that. It does happen that parents remove their kids from society for various (usually religious) reasons but they are not mainstream homeschoolers. Analogously some people who don’t have regular jobs are criminals, but a lot of them are self-employed, independently wealthy, retired, etc., so you can’t equate no having a job with not working, or engaging in crime.