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This was my reaction too. School provides myriad things other than simply vocational training—that's a very significant sacrifice. It could well be that this wa

This was my reaction too. School provides myriad things other than simply vocational training—that's a very significant sacrifice. It could well be that this was known, discussed, and the verdict came in that the sacrifice was worthwhile, but I hope any parents considering a similar path would consider the whole meal instead of merely one dish. Another point: You can denigrate the liberal arts all you like ("wasting her time [...] taking yet another history class") and reject the argument that familiarity with them produces more well-rounded individuals, but a big portion of working in any knowledge-based profession will involve writing. I hope this young lady will also be able to have and take advantage of opportunities to become a better writer, because most of those opportunities before turning 18 happen in school.

Vendan 12y ago
Really wish I knew why everyone automatically assumes that homeschooling is useless...
- rev_bird 12y ago
  I'll give it a shot: I wouldn't say useless at all, but the main reason I won't be homeschooling my children is that I don't think I'm smart enough to do a better job than an entire school full of educators. I'm sure various arguments can be made for whether or not that's true of different people (and teachers), but I grew up in a pretty mediocre school system and still had very smart teachers teaching cool classes that were so, so good because of their very specialized knowledge. I can see how K-8 might be much easier to replace with homeschooling, but I have a hard time with secondary school. If my mom had taught me high school chemistry, for example, she could have gone through the book and lessons with me with minimum difficulty. But I had a chemistry teacher who'd left being a college professor/researcher so he could be back with younger students, and he was amazingly smart and fun to learn from. I'd have missed that completely. The author of the article comes from another angle entirely: It's a situation where the high school teachers' specialized knowledge isn't nearly good enough. I get that too. If I was a quantum physicist, I'd bet dollars to donuts I could cook up a better physics student than your average college-prep science class -- but that doesn't mean I'd be better at everything else that happens in high school, too.
  - Vendan 12y ago
    Well, the other side is that home schoolers do have to pass the same kind of tests and prove that they learned chemistry, history, math, blah. And in my experience, I approached history, math, and english with the attitude of "Ugh, this stupid subject, do the bare minimum to get out of here", so an amazing teacher wouldn't have really changed how much I learned.
    - psylence519 12y ago
      Truly amazing teachers can break through that. I never had any in high school but I certainly had a couple in college.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- chrismcb 12y ago
  Maybe because of the author's attitude: " All of a sudden I was frustrated that she was stuck wasting her time in high school taking yet another history class, when she could be doing what she wanted to do with her life and spending all day learning skills that will help her in her chosen career." This is the worst reason to take someone out if school, and enough to make me think her homeschooling will be skewed. Learning history and other arts and sciences is not a waste. She doesn't need to learn a career at 16. She just needs to learn

Vendan 12y ago

Really wish I knew why everyone automatically assumes that homeschooling is useless...

rev_bird 12y ago
I'll give it a shot: I wouldn't say useless at all, but the main reason I won't be homeschooling my children is that I don't think I'm smart enough to do a better job than an entire school full of educators. I'm sure various arguments can be made for whether or not that's true of different people (and teachers), but I grew up in a pretty mediocre school system and still had very smart teachers teaching cool classes that were so, so good because of their very specialized knowledge. I can see how K-8 might be much easier to replace with homeschooling, but I have a hard time with secondary school. If my mom had taught me high school chemistry, for example, she could have gone through the book and lessons with me with minimum difficulty. But I had a chemistry teacher who'd left being a college professor/researcher so he could be back with younger students, and he was amazingly smart and fun to learn from. I'd have missed that completely. The author of the article comes from another angle entirely: It's a situation where the high school teachers' specialized knowledge isn't nearly good enough. I get that too. If I was a quantum physicist, I'd bet dollars to donuts I could cook up a better physics student than your average college-prep science class -- but that doesn't mean I'd be better at everything else that happens in high school, too.
- Vendan 12y ago
  Well, the other side is that home schoolers do have to pass the same kind of tests and prove that they learned chemistry, history, math, blah. And in my experience, I approached history, math, and english with the attitude of "Ugh, this stupid subject, do the bare minimum to get out of here", so an amazing teacher wouldn't have really changed how much I learned.
  - psylence519 12y ago
    Truly amazing teachers can break through that. I never had any in high school but I certainly had a couple in college.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
chrismcb 12y ago
Maybe because of the author's attitude: " All of a sudden I was frustrated that she was stuck wasting her time in high school taking yet another history class, when she could be doing what she wanted to do with her life and spending all day learning skills that will help her in her chosen career." This is the worst reason to take someone out if school, and enough to make me think her homeschooling will be skewed. Learning history and other arts and sciences is not a waste. She doesn't need to learn a career at 16. She just needs to learn