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I think I have basically the same opinion. It's not so much that I believe homeschooling is amazing in-itself, but rather that the public education system has s

I think I have basically the same opinion. It's not so much that I believe homeschooling is amazing in-itself, but rather that the public education system has so clearly deteriorated that it seems borderline criminal to subject your kids to it. The question for me, personally, is private school vs. homeschooling. If you can avoid many of the downsides of public education via choosing the right private school (and being able to afford it), I do wonder if that would be superior to most homeschooling setups.

wizerdrobe 3y ago
We didn’t go full home-school, but my wife and I intentionally left our city to go raise our kids out in a rural area so they could grow up in and around nature and with a nice, small school district that smokes anything we had back in the city. Better test scores, smaller classes, minimal major discipline issues. Prior to moving, our only “good” option for realistic schooling was putting our children in a local Catholic school with high fees. Given our state is in the midst of legal battles with activist groups fighting to overturn a recent school-choice voucher program, seemed moving was the safe choice. For the life of me, I can’t understand why anyone but a public-sector teacher being finally held to account would fight against giving parents options to place their kids in a school they see fit.
- boojums 3y ago
  I like collecting examples that confirm/deny my biases. Would you mind sharing the demographic differences between the two schools?
- nemo44x 3y ago
  > For the life of me, I can’t understand why anyone but a public-sector teacher being finally held to account would fight against giving parents options to place their kids in a school they see fit. Because they want to indoctrinate your kids. A lot of teachers get into the profession because of a compelling social justice urge, much like a missionary from the church. When they are outside the public school system they are harder to reach. Additionally, the more kids in the system equates to more political power for the teachers unions since they get to expand.
- derivagral 3y ago
  After going through something like this[0], it seems similar to what we do in tech. Try the fancy new thing! Don't worry that the creators aren't particularly qualified and mostly want to sell you stuff. Hard to disentangle good change from bad; some of the initiative is good, but negative feedback seems to have been translated to "ignore those haters, they have no valid points." https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/ https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/
standardUser 3y ago
I don't understand this talk about "the public education system". Every school and school district is going to be different. Some are great and others are not. I understand if you live in an area with middling-to-poor schools, but lots of people live near great public schools.
- keiferski 3y ago
  I’m sure there are good public schools, but my experience and the experience of everyone I’ve ever known has not been positive. Combined with policies like California’s [1], I don’t think it’s unreasonable to just be skeptical of most American public education. 1. https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/california-needs-real-math-education https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/california-needs-real-math-edu...
- rcpt 3y ago
  Ridiculous amounts of standardized testing and curriculums designed to optimize for that was the main thing we hated. Seems to be a thing everywhere. When I was a kid teachers had a bit more freedom to decide what to teach but now you teach to the test or lose your funding.
  - jewayne 3y ago
    Teachers absolutely should teach to the test. And individual teachers really shouldn't be in the business of deciding what to teach, either. Why is there an assumption that what is on the test is inherently worthless but every individual teacher is qualified to design an entire curriculum?
    - standardUser 3y ago
      The educators that stood out in my life were the ones who were passionate and interesting and added their own experiences and perspectives. We have somewhere between 40-60 teachers over the course of a typical public education. I'd hope at least a good cross-section of those bring something to the table other than rote explanations of test questions.
    - 3y ago

wizerdrobe 3y ago

We didn’t go full home-school, but my wife and I intentionally left our city to go raise our kids out in a rural area so they could grow up in and around nature and with a nice, small school district that smokes anything we had back in the city. Better test scores, smaller classes, minimal major discipline issues. Prior to moving, our only “good” option for realistic schooling was putting our children in a local Catholic school with high fees. Given our state is in the midst of legal battles with activist groups fighting to overturn a recent school-choice voucher program, seemed moving was the safe choice. For the life of me, I can’t understand why anyone but a public-sector teacher being finally held to account would fight against giving parents options to place their kids in a school they see fit.

boojums 3y ago
I like collecting examples that confirm/deny my biases. Would you mind sharing the demographic differences between the two schools?
nemo44x 3y ago
> For the life of me, I can’t understand why anyone but a public-sector teacher being finally held to account would fight against giving parents options to place their kids in a school they see fit. Because they want to indoctrinate your kids. A lot of teachers get into the profession because of a compelling social justice urge, much like a missionary from the church. When they are outside the public school system they are harder to reach. Additionally, the more kids in the system equates to more political power for the teachers unions since they get to expand.
derivagral 3y ago
After going through something like this[0], it seems similar to what we do in tech. Try the fancy new thing! Don't worry that the creators aren't particularly qualified and mostly want to sell you stuff. Hard to disentangle good change from bad; some of the initiative is good, but negative feedback seems to have been translated to "ignore those haters, they have no valid points." https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/ https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/

standardUser 3y ago

I don't understand this talk about "the public education system". Every school and school district is going to be different. Some are great and others are not. I understand if you live in an area with middling-to-poor schools, but lots of people live near great public schools.

keiferski 3y ago
I’m sure there are good public schools, but my experience and the experience of everyone I’ve ever known has not been positive. Combined with policies like California’s [1], I don’t think it’s unreasonable to just be skeptical of most American public education. 1. https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/california-needs-real-math-education https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/california-needs-real-math-edu...
rcpt 3y ago
Ridiculous amounts of standardized testing and curriculums designed to optimize for that was the main thing we hated. Seems to be a thing everywhere. When I was a kid teachers had a bit more freedom to decide what to teach but now you teach to the test or lose your funding.
- jewayne 3y ago
  Teachers absolutely should teach to the test. And individual teachers really shouldn't be in the business of deciding what to teach, either. Why is there an assumption that what is on the test is inherently worthless but every individual teacher is qualified to design an entire curriculum?
  - standardUser 3y ago
    The educators that stood out in my life were the ones who were passionate and interesting and added their own experiences and perspectives. We have somewhere between 40-60 teachers over the course of a typical public education. I'd hope at least a good cross-section of those bring something to the table other than rote explanations of test questions.
  - 3y ago