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I was homeschooled and I credit much of my success in life to it. It taught me to think logically, taught me to honor my parents, taught me the value of traditi

by judah 4y ago

I was homeschooled and I credit much of my success in life to it. It taught me to think logically, taught me to honor my parents, taught me the value of tradition, morality, spirituality. It taught me the value of hard work, of loyalty, of kindness. It kept me out of vices that many of my public-schooled friends and peers got pulled into. In my experience, homeschooling can create well-rounded, upright people at a ratio above traditional schooling. It insulates kids from many of the extreme elements and moores of society. Homeschooling is an excellent tool to pass on values from one generation to the next. Lack of socialization is indeed a problem. Homeschooling parents need to make a big effort to get their kids in homeschooling groups and co-ops, youth sports, etc. I have three kids myself now, but we send our them to private school rather than homeschool. What stops us from homeschooling is, my wife didn't feel like she had the skills to homeschool. She's not a teacher and feels she doesn't have the patience for it.

kleiba 4y ago
my wife didn't feel like she had the skills to homeschool. She's not a teacher and feels she doesn't have the patience for it Since you were homeschooled yourself, wouldn't you have been the better parent for the job anyway?
- corrral 4y ago
  Probably have very unequal income. That's why we don't homeschool—I'd like to, but make 3x what my spouse does, and my spouse doesn't want to, so we don't.
- judah 4y ago
  Yes, and if I wasn't working my career, I could probably homeschool. When my wife and I had kids, she wanted to quit her job as a nurse and be a stay-at-home mom. We agreed this was a good solution, even though she's not cut out to homeschool them.
  - kleiba 4y ago
    Where I live, it's not legally possible to homeschool. My wife and I feel that the main advantage of sending our kids to school is the social aspect, and that we might actually be better at teaching them "knowledge", but we're not sure. I mean, it could be the classic layman "oh, I could do that!" stance, and since everybody has been to school themselves they have a vague idea what the job of a teacher is like (which, of course, is in all likelihood a fallacy). That, paired with a certain cynicism about the job of a teacher in the first place (here, they've got super-safe jobs, almost no accountability, a strong lobby, lots of days off, and are mostly done work after half a day if they're so inclined) and less than stellar results of our educational system when compared internationally, gives us a certain "we couldn't do it much worse" feeling. As a matter of fact, as a homeschooler, you've only got your own kids to focus on, not a whole class of 30 children with a wide spectrum of different prerequisites. But then again, maybe we couldn't do it very well at all. It's such a long-term commitment, one that requires consistency over years. And the relation between children and parent is different from a student-teacher relationship, there wouldn't be such a sharp distinction between what happens inside the school and the home. Topics like bullying and other negative forms of social pressure are omnipresent in school settings, but withdrawing our children completely from such realities might turn out to be less good of a preparation for their later lives. And lastly, without a doubt school teachings are colored by certain political world views, and they might not always be ones you agree with. But when you send your kids to school, you give up control over what they are actually taught. Of course, it is recommended to keep a close eye on that at any point in time, and also challenge contents where you think things are going wrong. But I also think it will become increasingly difficult to do this as your kids get rooted deeper and deeper in the school system, where the political and worlds views of the teachers will play as much of a role as those of the political parties that are in charge of your country's educational system. So, whether or not to homeschool is a really tricky question - but as I said above, it does not even present itself in our case, because we have no right to homeschool where we currently live.
swatcoder 4y ago
> In my experience, homeschooling can create well-rounded, upright people at a ratio above traditional schooling. Sorry, you talk about your own positive experience with homeschooling (which is great!), but that’s clearly not an experience that would give insight into predicting aggregate outcomes more generally. What experience are you referring to here? Did you end pursuing a career studying it or something?
actfrench 4y ago
It’s hard. I think a lot of parents see teachers in school and think they have to imitate that - behavioral management and direct instruction. At the best, good teachers are guides for self-directed learning and don’t need to push much at all. I wish you luck ! Let me know if you want me to talk to your wife sometime more about this :) manisha[at]modulo[dot]app
idle_zealot 4y ago
> taught me to honor my parents, taught me the value of tradition, morality, spirituality Those do not sound positive at all. It sounds like you were successfully sheltered from secular and liberal ideas by traditional and conservative parents, which matches with my preconceptions of homeschooling.
- gjs278 4y ago
- _dain_ 4y ago
  Or equivalently, state-run schooling successfully alienated you from these important values.
  - xpe 4y ago
    No, these two views are not even close to equivalent. Why? Liberalism and pluralism do not attempt to deny other ways of life or philosophies. (They may criticize them, but they do not claim to have absolute truth.) On the other hand, many dogmatic religions want to protect children from influences they cannot control or understand. Studying many different philosophies leads some to conclude relativism is correct. But I disagree, as do many philosophers and ethicists. Why? There is a simple answer that captures the essence of it: start by letting in all ways of life and worldviews into a pluralistic society. Treat this as an experiment and see which philosophies do not respect the others. It is abundantly clear that some ways of life are incompatible with pluralism -- e.g. some are authoritarian, some are unnecessarily violent, some restrict freedom of thought, etc. P.S. Homeschooling has a demonstrated connection to religious conservatives.
    - wyager 4y ago
      > many dogmatic religions want to protect children from influences they cannot control or understand. Yes, for example, the state-secular religion of the US, which is enforced in public schools, wants to protect children from influences it cannot control, such as homeschooling.
actfrench 4y ago
Hi Judah, I wrote a blog about parents being teachers, largely inspired by your comment. I hope that it's helpful to you. https://www.modulo.app/all-resources/parentsarethebestteachers https://www.modulo.app/all-resources/parentsarethebestteache...
- judah 4y ago
  Awesome! Thank you.

by judah 4y ago

kleiba 4y ago

my wife didn't feel like she had the skills to homeschool. She's not a teacher and feels she doesn't have the patience for it Since you were homeschooled yourself, wouldn't you have been the better parent for the job anyway?

corrral 4y ago
Probably have very unequal income. That's why we don't homeschool—I'd like to, but make 3x what my spouse does, and my spouse doesn't want to, so we don't.
judah 4y ago
Yes, and if I wasn't working my career, I could probably homeschool. When my wife and I had kids, she wanted to quit her job as a nurse and be a stay-at-home mom. We agreed this was a good solution, even though she's not cut out to homeschool them.
- kleiba 4y ago
  Where I live, it's not legally possible to homeschool. My wife and I feel that the main advantage of sending our kids to school is the social aspect, and that we might actually be better at teaching them "knowledge", but we're not sure. I mean, it could be the classic layman "oh, I could do that!" stance, and since everybody has been to school themselves they have a vague idea what the job of a teacher is like (which, of course, is in all likelihood a fallacy). That, paired with a certain cynicism about the job of a teacher in the first place (here, they've got super-safe jobs, almost no accountability, a strong lobby, lots of days off, and are mostly done work after half a day if they're so inclined) and less than stellar results of our educational system when compared internationally, gives us a certain "we couldn't do it much worse" feeling. As a matter of fact, as a homeschooler, you've only got your own kids to focus on, not a whole class of 30 children with a wide spectrum of different prerequisites. But then again, maybe we couldn't do it very well at all. It's such a long-term commitment, one that requires consistency over years. And the relation between children and parent is different from a student-teacher relationship, there wouldn't be such a sharp distinction between what happens inside the school and the home. Topics like bullying and other negative forms of social pressure are omnipresent in school settings, but withdrawing our children completely from such realities might turn out to be less good of a preparation for their later lives. And lastly, without a doubt school teachings are colored by certain political world views, and they might not always be ones you agree with. But when you send your kids to school, you give up control over what they are actually taught. Of course, it is recommended to keep a close eye on that at any point in time, and also challenge contents where you think things are going wrong. But I also think it will become increasingly difficult to do this as your kids get rooted deeper and deeper in the school system, where the political and worlds views of the teachers will play as much of a role as those of the political parties that are in charge of your country's educational system. So, whether or not to homeschool is a really tricky question - but as I said above, it does not even present itself in our case, because we have no right to homeschool where we currently live.

swatcoder 4y ago

> In my experience, homeschooling can create well-rounded, upright people at a ratio above traditional schooling. Sorry, you talk about your own positive experience with homeschooling (which is great!), but that’s clearly not an experience that would give insight into predicting aggregate outcomes more generally. What experience are you referring to here? Did you end pursuing a career studying it or something?

actfrench 4y ago

It’s hard. I think a lot of parents see teachers in school and think they have to imitate that - behavioral management and direct instruction. At the best, good teachers are guides for self-directed learning and don’t need to push much at all. I wish you luck ! Let me know if you want me to talk to your wife sometime more about this :) manisha[at]modulo[dot]app

idle_zealot 4y ago

> taught me to honor my parents, taught me the value of tradition, morality, spirituality Those do not sound positive at all. It sounds like you were successfully sheltered from secular and liberal ideas by traditional and conservative parents, which matches with my preconceptions of homeschooling.

gjs278 4y ago
_dain_ 4y ago
Or equivalently, state-run schooling successfully alienated you from these important values.
- xpe 4y ago
  No, these two views are not even close to equivalent. Why? Liberalism and pluralism do not attempt to deny other ways of life or philosophies. (They may criticize them, but they do not claim to have absolute truth.) On the other hand, many dogmatic religions want to protect children from influences they cannot control or understand. Studying many different philosophies leads some to conclude relativism is correct. But I disagree, as do many philosophers and ethicists. Why? There is a simple answer that captures the essence of it: start by letting in all ways of life and worldviews into a pluralistic society. Treat this as an experiment and see which philosophies do not respect the others. It is abundantly clear that some ways of life are incompatible with pluralism -- e.g. some are authoritarian, some are unnecessarily violent, some restrict freedom of thought, etc. P.S. Homeschooling has a demonstrated connection to religious conservatives.
  - wyager 4y ago
    > many dogmatic religions want to protect children from influences they cannot control or understand. Yes, for example, the state-secular religion of the US, which is enforced in public schools, wants to protect children from influences it cannot control, such as homeschooling.

actfrench 4y ago

Hi Judah, I wrote a blog about parents being teachers, largely inspired by your comment. I hope that it's helpful to you. https://www.modulo.app/all-resources/parentsarethebestteachers https://www.modulo.app/all-resources/parentsarethebestteache...

judah 4y ago
Awesome! Thank you.