4 ms·

A lot to unpack here but I've seen homeschooling work wonderfully and completely fail -- within the same household. Homeschooling is not for every family, perh

A lot to unpack here but I've seen homeschooling work wonderfully and completely fail -- within the same household. Homeschooling is not for every family, perhaps not for most families. Parents may not have the luxury of time. Teaching is a profession that requires a level of expertise in subject matter and the art of education itself that parents may not have. Kids have differing levels of intrensic motivation for learning school subjects. Some children do much better with other authority figures than their parents for some activities. Not to mention children with learning challenges that most parents are ill equipped to respond to adequetely. Not to mention the value of interacting with different people and viewpoints. And on and on. I'm glad your familiy has found success. I've seen it work and work amazingly for some. But I've also seen it fail badly. Schools, especially public schools, have their problems, no doubt, but if I had to place bets on which society would end up in a better place in two generations, one where everyone is homeschooled vs one where everyone goes to public school, it's no contest. Teaching done by professionals is going to win hands down.

msmenardi 4y ago
Homeschooled kids aren't taught by just their parent(s). They also learn from the subject matter experts who teach specific skills - I personally was enrolled in piano, martial arts, and swimming lessons, but there's plenty of classes that teach important skills that shore up the weaknesses in the parent's teaching toolkits. Aside from that, homeschooled kids learn from the world around them. They learn from their own experiences, and they develop their own discipline. They learn how to self-motivate, and how to explore the world around them. It was an eye-opening experience when I went to high school for a few years. I learned so little and wasted so much time, though I tried my hardest by asking questions, contributing to the class, and respecting my teachers. There's just so little that can be done when a single teacher is forced to administer 40+ children. Meanwhile, before high school I'd sit down and read a textbook for 4 hours (without being told to, just because I was interested). I'd go on long walks and sketch plants that I saw. Some days I'd do quite a lot, and other days I'd be done by noon. Even now I find myself approaching problems in a fundamentally different manner than my peers and I can't help but believe that it's because I grew unimpeded by the early academic process.
- clavalle 4y ago
  That's great. I knew a woman who successfully went to a top university at 16 after being homeschooled who graduated summa cum laude and got a full ride scholarship to a very good law school. She was intrensically motivated and geared toward learning. She's done very well for herself. Her little brother tried to do as little as possible, failed out of community college, and was put in place at his father's company where he proceeded to run the best people off. His father conveniently decided to retire and sell the business to a competetor before that went on too long and the last I heard his son was still living at home trying to get his twitch streams to take off. He's not a dumb person. He probably would have done better with more structure.

msmenardi 4y ago

Homeschooled kids aren't taught by just their parent(s). They also learn from the subject matter experts who teach specific skills - I personally was enrolled in piano, martial arts, and swimming lessons, but there's plenty of classes that teach important skills that shore up the weaknesses in the parent's teaching toolkits. Aside from that, homeschooled kids learn from the world around them. They learn from their own experiences, and they develop their own discipline. They learn how to self-motivate, and how to explore the world around them. It was an eye-opening experience when I went to high school for a few years. I learned so little and wasted so much time, though I tried my hardest by asking questions, contributing to the class, and respecting my teachers. There's just so little that can be done when a single teacher is forced to administer 40+ children. Meanwhile, before high school I'd sit down and read a textbook for 4 hours (without being told to, just because I was interested). I'd go on long walks and sketch plants that I saw. Some days I'd do quite a lot, and other days I'd be done by noon. Even now I find myself approaching problems in a fundamentally different manner than my peers and I can't help but believe that it's because I grew unimpeded by the early academic process.

clavalle 4y ago
That's great. I knew a woman who successfully went to a top university at 16 after being homeschooled who graduated summa cum laude and got a full ride scholarship to a very good law school. She was intrensically motivated and geared toward learning. She's done very well for herself. Her little brother tried to do as little as possible, failed out of community college, and was put in place at his father's company where he proceeded to run the best people off. His father conveniently decided to retire and sell the business to a competetor before that went on too long and the last I heard his son was still living at home trying to get his twitch streams to take off. He's not a dumb person. He probably would have done better with more structure.