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I was home schooled through my freshman year of high school. I have no intention of home schooling my children, but I’m always fascinated to listen to other adu

by jtr1 3y ago

I was home schooled through my freshman year of high school. I have no intention of home schooling my children, but I’m always fascinated to listen to other adults in the process of talking themselves into it, because it gives me small a window into the headspace my parents and their peers were in when they made this consequential decision for their children. Some close friends are headed down this path, and while their reasoning is decidedly more secular, there are lingering echoes of the old Puritan impulse to flee from a fallen world. If you’re considering home schooling yourself, I would just encourage you to consider that, like any product with a passionate fan base, there is a powerful echo chamber built up to reinforce your decision, so don’t expect to get a full accounting of the pros and cons from people on the inside. I’d also suggest to folks who have never been homeschooled themselves to spend some time reading through the experiences of adults who were homeschooled. Your kids deserve for you to make as clear eyed of a decision as you can about this.

jaggederest 3y ago
Can you elaborate? I'm interested in what your experience has been like.
voisin 3y ago
> like any product with a passionate fan base, there is a powerful echo chamber built up to reinforce your decision, so don’t expect to get a full accounting of the pros and cons from people on the inside. This is no more true than for people who send their kids to regular school. All of society is streamlined to do this. As soon as you attempt to home school, the vast majority of people will tell you it is akin to child abuse and you might be lucky enough to know a few other homeschooling parents who tell you otherwise but their voices will pale in comparison to the cacophony from the other side. Make no mistake that it is a massive leap of faith - not some easy decision made in an echo chamber.
- jtr1 3y ago
  My point is that there’s a selection bias among homeschool families. If you are talking them, you are talking to people who are very far along a path of commitment escalation who have a host of psychological incentives to validate their own decisions. I’m sure you’ve encountered many detractors. Your fortitude in tuning them out is a poor measure of the rigor of your decision-making. I will also say, in my experience with homeschool families, the lifestyle attracts a disproportionate number of narcissists, as it offers a high degree of control over a captive audience to people with an inflated sense of their own abilities. I’m not saying this is the case for you, and I’ve also certainly known many families who were motivated by special circumstances, individual needs, or just a desire for more freedom for kids who didn’t fit well into the public school system. I would assert that the former is the modal case, and that parents looking to homeschool should critically examine their motivations and abilities. Unfortunately, the people who most need that reflection are usually the least inclined towards it.

by jtr1 3y ago

jaggederest 3y ago

Can you elaborate? I'm interested in what your experience has been like.

voisin 3y ago

> like any product with a passionate fan base, there is a powerful echo chamber built up to reinforce your decision, so don’t expect to get a full accounting of the pros and cons from people on the inside. This is no more true than for people who send their kids to regular school. All of society is streamlined to do this. As soon as you attempt to home school, the vast majority of people will tell you it is akin to child abuse and you might be lucky enough to know a few other homeschooling parents who tell you otherwise but their voices will pale in comparison to the cacophony from the other side. Make no mistake that it is a massive leap of faith - not some easy decision made in an echo chamber.

jtr1 3y ago
My point is that there’s a selection bias among homeschool families. If you are talking them, you are talking to people who are very far along a path of commitment escalation who have a host of psychological incentives to validate their own decisions. I’m sure you’ve encountered many detractors. Your fortitude in tuning them out is a poor measure of the rigor of your decision-making. I will also say, in my experience with homeschool families, the lifestyle attracts a disproportionate number of narcissists, as it offers a high degree of control over a captive audience to people with an inflated sense of their own abilities. I’m not saying this is the case for you, and I’ve also certainly known many families who were motivated by special circumstances, individual needs, or just a desire for more freedom for kids who didn’t fit well into the public school system. I would assert that the former is the modal case, and that parents looking to homeschool should critically examine their motivations and abilities. Unfortunately, the people who most need that reflection are usually the least inclined towards it.