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Homeschooling is interesting, because it has the potential to be a lot better for children than public school, but it can also be a lot worse. It is a topic clo

Homeschooling is interesting, because it has the potential to be a lot better for children than public school, but it can also be a lot worse. It is a topic close to my heart because I was partly homeschooled, and I have seen firsthand some of the sad deficiencies that can dog homeschooled kids: 1. Lazy teaching – parents being unwilling to devote 4-6 hours each day to education. Homeschooling is a commitment that should be treated with the same gravitas as a full-time working position, but many parents have trouble maintaining this mentality over many years of education. This leads to kids that, although they might be bright, just haven't been taught much, which makes them seem dull. 2. Inherited ignorance – if the parents don’t know or care much about history, unbiased politics, mathematics, literature, etc. then the kids won’t either. Obviously, the parent can make a commitment to learn the field at least to a high school level so they can educate their kids, but often this commitment falls through. Because of that, homeschooled kids can lack a multidimensional perspective of the world. 3. Neuroticism – some parents have a tendency to like to make decisions for their children. This can be very dangerous for homeschooled kids, because they don’t learn how to think for themselves or make mistakes. 4. Social gracelessness – a lot of homeschooled kids have very little interaction with their peers. School can provide social acclimatization that parents often don’t know how to give their kids. Especially if the kid is naturally shy, since parents rarely want to put their kids in a social situation where they are uncomfortable. Unfortunately, this can just exacerbate the issue, to the extent that the kids have nervous breakdowns when they finally do have to engage their peers (yes, I've seen this happen). This is just the tip of the iceberg. I don't want to say that it's impossible for one person (usually, it's just one parent that is home during the day) to provide a well-rounded education to their kids, just that it's hard -- very, very hard. You need to help your kids make friends, and you need to let them be independent. You need to be a committed and capable educator, and you need to give them a dynamic education with diverse experience, not just doing workbooks in the house. Some people are good at this -- they are natural teachers. Other people find it much, much harder.

B-Con 12y ago
What you're describing is "homeschooling" used as code for "no schooling". Both I and many of my friends were homeschooled. In the circles I was in, most homeschool parents were ambitious and committed to their kid's educations. It is indeed a full job for the parent.
- n_to_the_flower 12y ago
  There's more variance in homeschooling, but it can be more effective than either private or public schooling if it's managed effectively. The major benefit is approaching teaching without as much spoon-feeding (better critical thinking/doing skills) and zapping curioisity with pointless memorization.
  - beauzero 12y ago
    There are also programs that let a child (depending upon state) do the curriculum from home. K12.com has a partnership with the state of Georgia. You have online learning, participation in standardized testing, etc. all provided free by the state. We have found this to be a viable alternative for one of our daughters who felt she was being held back in her current middle school. Apparently she was. Not only has she made up the "conversion time"...basically redoing the 2 months worth of online work that she missed while she was in her local middle school at the beginning of the year...she has also improved dramatically. The thing I think that I am most excited about is that she is learning how to teach herself. Her study habits, although good previously, are what I would say I had in my third year of college. If you have a child that is extremely motivated this might be an option for your family. It filled a need for us.
- blfr 12y ago
  There is a tiny (n=12 for unschooled kids) study[1] I saw linked on SSC[2] that apparently shows children educated in "unstructured homeschool" are only one grade behind their peers. So even serious shirking of responsibility doesn't have catastrophic effects. [1] http://www.researchgate.net/publication/232544669_The_impact_of_schooling_on_academic_achievement_Evidence_from_homeschooled_and_traditionally_schooled_students/file/9c9605228ea23bc4bc.pdf http://www.researchgate.net/publication/232544669_The_impact... [2] http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/23/ssc-gives-a-graduation-speech/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/23/ssc-gives-a-graduation-...
codingdave 12y ago
I think most home schoolers that I talk to know all these dangers, and have developed ways around it. For one thing, a single homeschooling parent is rare in my area. There are tons of coops and other groups who get together on a regular basis. Each parent reaches what they know, there are social gatherings, and the parent can support each other while the kids learn. Also, much more curriculum is available online these days, including online schools so you can have a teacher helping your child through their work, even while home schooled. The online coursework also reduces how much you need to be the teacher... but does not completely replace it. We have our kids that home school do the bulk of their work online, and then I review their progress and their areas of struggle, and help them specifically with problem areas, then they go read and write for a while,m and spend the afternoon with less structured time to follow their own interests. It isn't perfect, and you do need to make sure your children are getting a good education. But that is also true of sending your kids to a school. As a parent, we are responsible for the education, no matter where they actually sit during the day.
- cwbrandsma 12y ago
  Same here, we have a dozen coops, and homeschool groups everywhere. Plus we are in a techi area, so occasionally my wife comes back from an outing, telling me about this new family she just met...turns out I know the dad as he is a programmer in the area. As for single parent homeschooling...I can't even imagine. Homeschooling is my wife's job, that is what we call it. Anything less is a disservice to the kids.
iak8god 12y ago
> 2. Inherited ignorance – if the parents don’t know or care much about history, unbiased politics, mathematics, literature, etc. then the kids won’t either It's even worse when parents care very much about giving their children wrong information about topics. Many people I know were homeschooled by conservative Christians who specifically wanted their children to believe things that are not actually true: that the Earth is 6,000 years old, that condoms are not effective at preventing pregnancy and tranmissions of STIs, that America's founding fathers intended the place to be a Christian theocracy, that the Bible gives a complete and accurate account of ancient history, and so on.
- tomohawk 12y ago
  This statement really comes across as bigoted, and really just gives ammunition to people looking for excuses to withdraw from society. It takes all kinds to make up a society. You might think that an 18% pregnancy rate (check wikipedia) for typical condom use is 'effective', but others may not. You may not like what the Bible has to say, but others probably have a different view. I don't see many Lutherans or Baptists running around blowing up planes or burning down villages, but I do see alot of them involved in the community in helpful ways, so I'm not too worried that they may be passing their beliefs down to their children.
  - civilian 12y ago
    iak8god isn't bigoted. Hardcore Christians do an incredible disservice to their children when the homeschool. My friend grew up in a Christian household and, while he wasn't homeschooled, he was told that "science is bullshit propaganda and we don't care if you don't do well in public school science". At this point he's an atheist and he's pissed at his parents for it. Yeah, they might be decent and kind people. But being kind and decent is not a replacement for being effective. > I don't see many Lutherans or Baptists running around blowing up planes or burning down villages, Lutherans do get a mostly free pass, but you should listen to this: http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-48-prophets-of-doom/ http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-48-prophet... I suspect that there's a correlation between the amount of secular education given to (or forced upon) a religious population and how peaceful they are.
zaphar 12y ago
I was homeschooled from 2nd grade up all the way through high school. I've seen kids destroyed by home schooling and I've seen kids saved by home schooling. You are absolutely correct that the potential is there but not always realized. Homeschooling shines when the parents play to it's strengths. * Individually tailored education at the elementary level provides a huge boost to many kids. * An environment that stresses and promotes self directed learning at the high school level also does wonders for a teenagers future. Done right home schooling encourages, rather than discourages, thinking for themselves through debate and conversation with adults. * Lack of social grace while it exists for some kids is far from the norm. So far from the norm that I consider it a myth. It gets trotted out in almost every discussion I encounter around home schooling. And yet for the overwhelming majority of Home Schooled kids it couldn't be farther from the truth. In fact I think that in many ways Social Skills can be one of the biggest advantages a Home Schooled child can have. Most kids learn to socialize from their friends. Those friends have no more idea than they do though. When they get their first job and/or attend college they have to learn all over again how to interact with adults. A home schooled child tends to learn to socialize from other adults. The number 1 thing most people noticed about me and other Home Schooled people I've known was how well we could hold a conversation with an adult. I've seen kids end up far too sheltered and harmed as a result but this is much less of a danger than most people think in my experience. The #1 thing to keep consider though if you are thinking about homeschooling is the time commitment. You will probably need one parent to commit to it full time because it's a lot of work.
- aidenn0 12y ago
  I went to a magnet high-school, and there were enough homeschooled kids who first went to public school there in 9th grade (or first since early elementary anyway) that I could make some observations: For a few weeks, there was a definite gap in social grace as the homeschooled kids adjusted to cultural norms. After that, a significant fraction were fitting in just fine. It is true that a larger fraction of the homeschooled kids were awkard than the non-homeschooled kids after this adjustment period, but there is significant selection bias here; I know for a fact that a few of those kids were pulled from early elementary school because they were awkward and getting bullied, so the cause/effect is potentially reversed there.
legohead 12y ago
I've tried to keep an open mind about homeschooling, but every child or adult I've come across that was homeschooled is just, weird... I'm disappointed the article didn't go over how/if the kids get the much needed social interaction. Kids need conflict, and a lot of it, in order to fit in well with society (and especially the workplace).
- mercer 12y ago
  I'd love to see a proper study on this, but my experience with almost all of these homeschooled individuals (including myself) is that we are definitely 'weird', but in spite of that, or I suspect because of that, we somehow all do very well in our own unique ways. Many of us are freelancers, consultants, or creative workers, where fitting in is not so important, and being a bit odd is sometimes even celebrated. We often find similarly-weird partners and friends. Weirdness, in my opinion, is a very good trait, provided you can be 'normal' enough when you have to be. Most homeschooled kids I know spent part of their lives in the normal system, or had extra-curricular activities in more normal social settings, though. Furthermore, I know many more people who were seriously damaged because of the social interactions in school. And when you think about it, that kind of makes sense. It seems (relatively) more healthy to me for a kid to spend most of his time with a mix of adults and other kids, often within a strong community-setting, rather than stuck in a classroom with only other kids of their age and an often slightly disinterested teacher (or one going through the motions).
  - SiVal 12y ago
    When I hear some people talk about homeschooled kids being "weird", I have to wonder how weird they themselves would seem to others if transported to some other time or place where the local conformists had conformed to a different set of cultural assumptions than those they had conformed to. What if the local culture had expectations that they found objectionable? I have to wonder whether they would decide to re-conform to whatever happened to be the local fashion in thought and behavior, go along and get along, or whether they would choose a different path and be thought "weird". If they were willing to deviate from unfortunate social norms and risk being different, why not do it here and now? It matters because I don't take for granted that the current culture in many public schools is the right one to conform to. It would be quite a coincidence if the local culture of the moment just happened to represent the best a human being could be.
1123581321 12y ago
It's not 'just the tip of the iceberg' as you've described about all of the potential problems. Social gracelessness is just natural introversion, which is wonderful. The biases of the parents certainly do affect their children, though. In place of lazy teaching I would say that homeschooled children do not gain early experience coping with difficult systems. This is a strength and a weakness depending on where life takes them. I agree with other commenters that we are nearly living in a golden age of being able to self-direct traditional education as well as educational experiences. It's interesting to compare the current generation of homeschoolers with those 20-30 years ago, when it started to become more popular. At the time, the concern was that a rigorous education could not be obtained in a public school as they were pursuing non-traditional education. Now, public schools are obsessed with academic rigor (to the degree they've embraced Common Core), and the advantage of homeschooling is the flexibility and non-traditional approach.
toolz 12y ago
I just wanted to respond to point number 1. I was home schooled in third grade and in sixth grade. Both years I would spend no more than three hours a school day learning stuff. Upon enrolling for a private school in the fourth grade I went from being recognized as an average student in the 2nd grade to scoring head and shoulders better than anyone else taking the standardized test going into 4th grade. Needless to say they didn't require me to participate in the end of 5th grade years testing to enroll in the 6th grade. So, at least in my experience, when you're devoting one on one time with a child, it takes far less time to teach them as you can craft the teaching style to fit their needs.
prostoalex 12y ago
I think the Common Core standards are supposed to take care of (1) and (2). You have a common set of knowledge against which you're tested, the paths to acquiring that knowledge (public school, private school, parents, hired tutors, YouTube videos) are really up to you. On (4) there's not hard quantifiable data to suggest homeschooled kids lack social interaction, as amount of quality of social interaction at public school is questionable (and could comprise of bullying another kid). There are home-schooled socialites and public school hermits and weirdos on both ends of the spectrum. Schooling is only part of social interaction for kids; sport leagues, scout organizations, local clubs can fill that purpose as well.

B-Con 12y ago

What you're describing is "homeschooling" used as code for "no schooling". Both I and many of my friends were homeschooled. In the circles I was in, most homeschool parents were ambitious and committed to their kid's educations. It is indeed a full job for the parent.

n_to_the_flower 12y ago
There's more variance in homeschooling, but it can be more effective than either private or public schooling if it's managed effectively. The major benefit is approaching teaching without as much spoon-feeding (better critical thinking/doing skills) and zapping curioisity with pointless memorization.
- beauzero 12y ago
  There are also programs that let a child (depending upon state) do the curriculum from home. K12.com has a partnership with the state of Georgia. You have online learning, participation in standardized testing, etc. all provided free by the state. We have found this to be a viable alternative for one of our daughters who felt she was being held back in her current middle school. Apparently she was. Not only has she made up the "conversion time"...basically redoing the 2 months worth of online work that she missed while she was in her local middle school at the beginning of the year...she has also improved dramatically. The thing I think that I am most excited about is that she is learning how to teach herself. Her study habits, although good previously, are what I would say I had in my third year of college. If you have a child that is extremely motivated this might be an option for your family. It filled a need for us.
blfr 12y ago
There is a tiny (n=12 for unschooled kids) study[1] I saw linked on SSC[2] that apparently shows children educated in "unstructured homeschool" are only one grade behind their peers. So even serious shirking of responsibility doesn't have catastrophic effects. [1] http://www.researchgate.net/publication/232544669_The_impact_of_schooling_on_academic_achievement_Evidence_from_homeschooled_and_traditionally_schooled_students/file/9c9605228ea23bc4bc.pdf http://www.researchgate.net/publication/232544669_The_impact... [2] http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/23/ssc-gives-a-graduation-speech/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/23/ssc-gives-a-graduation-...

codingdave 12y ago

I think most home schoolers that I talk to know all these dangers, and have developed ways around it. For one thing, a single homeschooling parent is rare in my area. There are tons of coops and other groups who get together on a regular basis. Each parent reaches what they know, there are social gatherings, and the parent can support each other while the kids learn. Also, much more curriculum is available online these days, including online schools so you can have a teacher helping your child through their work, even while home schooled. The online coursework also reduces how much you need to be the teacher... but does not completely replace it. We have our kids that home school do the bulk of their work online, and then I review their progress and their areas of struggle, and help them specifically with problem areas, then they go read and write for a while,m and spend the afternoon with less structured time to follow their own interests. It isn't perfect, and you do need to make sure your children are getting a good education. But that is also true of sending your kids to a school. As a parent, we are responsible for the education, no matter where they actually sit during the day.

cwbrandsma 12y ago
Same here, we have a dozen coops, and homeschool groups everywhere. Plus we are in a techi area, so occasionally my wife comes back from an outing, telling me about this new family she just met...turns out I know the dad as he is a programmer in the area. As for single parent homeschooling...I can't even imagine. Homeschooling is my wife's job, that is what we call it. Anything less is a disservice to the kids.

iak8god 12y ago

> 2. Inherited ignorance – if the parents don’t know or care much about history, unbiased politics, mathematics, literature, etc. then the kids won’t either It's even worse when parents care very much about giving their children wrong information about topics. Many people I know were homeschooled by conservative Christians who specifically wanted their children to believe things that are not actually true: that the Earth is 6,000 years old, that condoms are not effective at preventing pregnancy and tranmissions of STIs, that America's founding fathers intended the place to be a Christian theocracy, that the Bible gives a complete and accurate account of ancient history, and so on.

tomohawk 12y ago
This statement really comes across as bigoted, and really just gives ammunition to people looking for excuses to withdraw from society. It takes all kinds to make up a society. You might think that an 18% pregnancy rate (check wikipedia) for typical condom use is 'effective', but others may not. You may not like what the Bible has to say, but others probably have a different view. I don't see many Lutherans or Baptists running around blowing up planes or burning down villages, but I do see alot of them involved in the community in helpful ways, so I'm not too worried that they may be passing their beliefs down to their children.
- civilian 12y ago
  iak8god isn't bigoted. Hardcore Christians do an incredible disservice to their children when the homeschool. My friend grew up in a Christian household and, while he wasn't homeschooled, he was told that "science is bullshit propaganda and we don't care if you don't do well in public school science". At this point he's an atheist and he's pissed at his parents for it. Yeah, they might be decent and kind people. But being kind and decent is not a replacement for being effective. > I don't see many Lutherans or Baptists running around blowing up planes or burning down villages, Lutherans do get a mostly free pass, but you should listen to this: http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-48-prophets-of-doom/ http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-48-prophet... I suspect that there's a correlation between the amount of secular education given to (or forced upon) a religious population and how peaceful they are.

zaphar 12y ago

I was homeschooled from 2nd grade up all the way through high school. I've seen kids destroyed by home schooling and I've seen kids saved by home schooling. You are absolutely correct that the potential is there but not always realized. Homeschooling shines when the parents play to it's strengths. * Individually tailored education at the elementary level provides a huge boost to many kids. * An environment that stresses and promotes self directed learning at the high school level also does wonders for a teenagers future. Done right home schooling encourages, rather than discourages, thinking for themselves through debate and conversation with adults. * Lack of social grace while it exists for some kids is far from the norm. So far from the norm that I consider it a myth. It gets trotted out in almost every discussion I encounter around home schooling. And yet for the overwhelming majority of Home Schooled kids it couldn't be farther from the truth. In fact I think that in many ways Social Skills can be one of the biggest advantages a Home Schooled child can have. Most kids learn to socialize from their friends. Those friends have no more idea than they do though. When they get their first job and/or attend college they have to learn all over again how to interact with adults. A home schooled child tends to learn to socialize from other adults. The number 1 thing most people noticed about me and other Home Schooled people I've known was how well we could hold a conversation with an adult. I've seen kids end up far too sheltered and harmed as a result but this is much less of a danger than most people think in my experience. The #1 thing to keep consider though if you are thinking about homeschooling is the time commitment. You will probably need one parent to commit to it full time because it's a lot of work.

aidenn0 12y ago
I went to a magnet high-school, and there were enough homeschooled kids who first went to public school there in 9th grade (or first since early elementary anyway) that I could make some observations: For a few weeks, there was a definite gap in social grace as the homeschooled kids adjusted to cultural norms. After that, a significant fraction were fitting in just fine. It is true that a larger fraction of the homeschooled kids were awkard than the non-homeschooled kids after this adjustment period, but there is significant selection bias here; I know for a fact that a few of those kids were pulled from early elementary school because they were awkward and getting bullied, so the cause/effect is potentially reversed there.

legohead 12y ago

I've tried to keep an open mind about homeschooling, but every child or adult I've come across that was homeschooled is just, weird... I'm disappointed the article didn't go over how/if the kids get the much needed social interaction. Kids need conflict, and a lot of it, in order to fit in well with society (and especially the workplace).

mercer 12y ago
I'd love to see a proper study on this, but my experience with almost all of these homeschooled individuals (including myself) is that we are definitely 'weird', but in spite of that, or I suspect because of that, we somehow all do very well in our own unique ways. Many of us are freelancers, consultants, or creative workers, where fitting in is not so important, and being a bit odd is sometimes even celebrated. We often find similarly-weird partners and friends. Weirdness, in my opinion, is a very good trait, provided you can be 'normal' enough when you have to be. Most homeschooled kids I know spent part of their lives in the normal system, or had extra-curricular activities in more normal social settings, though. Furthermore, I know many more people who were seriously damaged because of the social interactions in school. And when you think about it, that kind of makes sense. It seems (relatively) more healthy to me for a kid to spend most of his time with a mix of adults and other kids, often within a strong community-setting, rather than stuck in a classroom with only other kids of their age and an often slightly disinterested teacher (or one going through the motions).
- SiVal 12y ago
  When I hear some people talk about homeschooled kids being "weird", I have to wonder how weird they themselves would seem to others if transported to some other time or place where the local conformists had conformed to a different set of cultural assumptions than those they had conformed to. What if the local culture had expectations that they found objectionable? I have to wonder whether they would decide to re-conform to whatever happened to be the local fashion in thought and behavior, go along and get along, or whether they would choose a different path and be thought "weird". If they were willing to deviate from unfortunate social norms and risk being different, why not do it here and now? It matters because I don't take for granted that the current culture in many public schools is the right one to conform to. It would be quite a coincidence if the local culture of the moment just happened to represent the best a human being could be.

1123581321 12y ago

It's not 'just the tip of the iceberg' as you've described about all of the potential problems. Social gracelessness is just natural introversion, which is wonderful. The biases of the parents certainly do affect their children, though. In place of lazy teaching I would say that homeschooled children do not gain early experience coping with difficult systems. This is a strength and a weakness depending on where life takes them. I agree with other commenters that we are nearly living in a golden age of being able to self-direct traditional education as well as educational experiences. It's interesting to compare the current generation of homeschoolers with those 20-30 years ago, when it started to become more popular. At the time, the concern was that a rigorous education could not be obtained in a public school as they were pursuing non-traditional education. Now, public schools are obsessed with academic rigor (to the degree they've embraced Common Core), and the advantage of homeschooling is the flexibility and non-traditional approach.

toolz 12y ago

I just wanted to respond to point number 1. I was home schooled in third grade and in sixth grade. Both years I would spend no more than three hours a school day learning stuff. Upon enrolling for a private school in the fourth grade I went from being recognized as an average student in the 2nd grade to scoring head and shoulders better than anyone else taking the standardized test going into 4th grade. Needless to say they didn't require me to participate in the end of 5th grade years testing to enroll in the 6th grade. So, at least in my experience, when you're devoting one on one time with a child, it takes far less time to teach them as you can craft the teaching style to fit their needs.

prostoalex 12y ago

I think the Common Core standards are supposed to take care of (1) and (2). You have a common set of knowledge against which you're tested, the paths to acquiring that knowledge (public school, private school, parents, hired tutors, YouTube videos) are really up to you. On (4) there's not hard quantifiable data to suggest homeschooled kids lack social interaction, as amount of quality of social interaction at public school is questionable (and could comprise of bullying another kid). There are home-schooled socialites and public school hermits and weirdos on both ends of the spectrum. Schooling is only part of social interaction for kids; sport leagues, scout organizations, local clubs can fill that purpose as well.