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Ideally if you are homeschooling, you will be involved with others homeschooling in your area. There are lots of great organizations around the US that help su

by aedocw 12y ago

Ideally if you are homeschooling, you will be involved with others homeschooling in your area. There are lots of great organizations around the US that help support homeschooling, and the kids have regular get-togethers. In my personal experience, most homeschooled kids have better social skills vs. traditionally schooled kids due to having to interact regularly with a much broader range of peers. They spend more time with kids of different ages, and adults, than kids in school do (as they're generally segregated by grade, and spend nearly all of their time socializing only with kids their own age).

cortesoft 12y ago
My only worry about that is that, while your kid may be interacting with a wider age group than at school, they may not be interacting with a wide demographic group. You won't be interacting with kids from tougher backgrounds, who don't have parents who are as involved as a homeschooled kid's parents would be. While I can imagine that might seem like a good thing, I think it is important for a kid to get a glimpse outside their own 'bubble', to have a better understanding of your broader community. When you are done with school, you ARE going to have to interact with people who weren't raised by very involved, homeschooling parents.
- guard-of-terra 12y ago
  > ARE going to have to interact with people who weren't raised by very involved, homeschooling parents. This is true, but Paul Graham resolved this: Children pick on each other. Adults do not - not because they're grown up but because they have other things to do. So yes, of course you DO want to limit your childrens interaction with "kids from tougher backgrounds" until they learn to say "No", "Go away" and "No, I don't want French Fries with that".
  - Crito 12y ago
    > "Children pick on each other. Adults do not" I am very suspicious of this. For the most part, children are not free to associate with whoever they want. Those decisions are generally made for them by adults. It can therefore be very difficult for a child to remove themself from the company of somebody who picks on them. Adults on the other hand tend to have a great deal of freedom when it comes to determining who they associate with. They will naturally disassociate with people that they don't get along with, minimizing social interaction with people who pick on them. In the few situations where adults are not as free or able to avoid other adults that they do not like (prisons, lower-paying/status work environments, anything retail, lower income neighborhoods, crowded concerts, etc), adults picking on adults seems to be much more common.
    - guard-of-terra 12y ago
      That was actually the point of the essay by Paul Graham, you can perhaps find it on his site.
    - circlefavshape 12y ago
      It's funny that you used the word "few" here. "lower-paying/status work environments, anything retail, lower income neighborhoods" probably covers a very substantial minority of the population
      - Crito 12y ago
        It is a matter of degree. Even your standard adult retail worker will have more power to influence their social environment than their children. While it may not be practical for them to change their job, they do technically have the option. A child cannot even hypothetically change their school; they can only convince adults to change it for them.
theandrewbailey 12y ago
I was homeschooled for about half of my primary and secondary education. Where I grew up in a small town in Ohio (Mount Vernon), the local homeschooling group had dozens of families (50+ kids) from around the county and beyond. I was in a chess club, drama club, and even a beginner programming class. There were other organized activities too, all organized by members of the local group.
Crito 12y ago
During my first few years in university, I was a real asshole. My friends and I had this game called "spot the homeschooled kid", which was more or less exactly what it sounds like. We'd observe other students in class or social settings, and attempt to determine which had been homeschooled before attending university. One of us would make a wager, we'd all bet on it, then one of us would befriend the subject of the bet and determine who was right. There is little doubt that our false-negative rate was very high, but our false-positive rate was also astonishingly low. You play the game long enough and you start to notice some pretty damning "tells". (This said, the damage doesn't seem to be permanent; after about the second year the game became much harder as people acclimatized to university life.) Hell, maybe this anecdote supports your point. We all went to traditional schools and we were serious assholes...
- gress 12y ago
  What 'damage' are you talking about with regard to the homeschooled kids?
  - Crito 12y ago
    Different social skills. The "tells". They can be very strong for people who just got done being homeschooled, but seem to fade after two or three years. One example of such a "tell" is attempting to have a personal discussion with a professor during class. People who were schooled traditionally will have long since realized that should not be done, but somebody fresh out of homeschooling may not have that inhibition. Some (many? most?) people who were homeschooled do not exhibit this.
    - gress 12y ago
      You haven't explained why that is 'damage' - only that there is difference from people who went to school.

by aedocw 12y ago

cortesoft 12y ago

My only worry about that is that, while your kid may be interacting with a wider age group than at school, they may not be interacting with a wide demographic group. You won't be interacting with kids from tougher backgrounds, who don't have parents who are as involved as a homeschooled kid's parents would be. While I can imagine that might seem like a good thing, I think it is important for a kid to get a glimpse outside their own 'bubble', to have a better understanding of your broader community. When you are done with school, you ARE going to have to interact with people who weren't raised by very involved, homeschooling parents.

guard-of-terra 12y ago
> ARE going to have to interact with people who weren't raised by very involved, homeschooling parents. This is true, but Paul Graham resolved this: Children pick on each other. Adults do not - not because they're grown up but because they have other things to do. So yes, of course you DO want to limit your childrens interaction with "kids from tougher backgrounds" until they learn to say "No", "Go away" and "No, I don't want French Fries with that".
- Crito 12y ago
  > "Children pick on each other. Adults do not" I am very suspicious of this. For the most part, children are not free to associate with whoever they want. Those decisions are generally made for them by adults. It can therefore be very difficult for a child to remove themself from the company of somebody who picks on them. Adults on the other hand tend to have a great deal of freedom when it comes to determining who they associate with. They will naturally disassociate with people that they don't get along with, minimizing social interaction with people who pick on them. In the few situations where adults are not as free or able to avoid other adults that they do not like (prisons, lower-paying/status work environments, anything retail, lower income neighborhoods, crowded concerts, etc), adults picking on adults seems to be much more common.
  - guard-of-terra 12y ago
    That was actually the point of the essay by Paul Graham, you can perhaps find it on his site.
  - circlefavshape 12y ago
    It's funny that you used the word "few" here. "lower-paying/status work environments, anything retail, lower income neighborhoods" probably covers a very substantial minority of the population
    - Crito 12y ago
      It is a matter of degree. Even your standard adult retail worker will have more power to influence their social environment than their children. While it may not be practical for them to change their job, they do technically have the option. A child cannot even hypothetically change their school; they can only convince adults to change it for them.

theandrewbailey 12y ago

I was homeschooled for about half of my primary and secondary education. Where I grew up in a small town in Ohio (Mount Vernon), the local homeschooling group had dozens of families (50+ kids) from around the county and beyond. I was in a chess club, drama club, and even a beginner programming class. There were other organized activities too, all organized by members of the local group.

Crito 12y ago

During my first few years in university, I was a real asshole. My friends and I had this game called "spot the homeschooled kid", which was more or less exactly what it sounds like. We'd observe other students in class or social settings, and attempt to determine which had been homeschooled before attending university. One of us would make a wager, we'd all bet on it, then one of us would befriend the subject of the bet and determine who was right. There is little doubt that our false-negative rate was very high, but our false-positive rate was also astonishingly low. You play the game long enough and you start to notice some pretty damning "tells". (This said, the damage doesn't seem to be permanent; after about the second year the game became much harder as people acclimatized to university life.) Hell, maybe this anecdote supports your point. We all went to traditional schools and we were serious assholes...

gress 12y ago
What 'damage' are you talking about with regard to the homeschooled kids?
- Crito 12y ago
  Different social skills. The "tells". They can be very strong for people who just got done being homeschooled, but seem to fade after two or three years. One example of such a "tell" is attempting to have a personal discussion with a professor during class. People who were schooled traditionally will have long since realized that should not be done, but somebody fresh out of homeschooling may not have that inhibition. Some (many? most?) people who were homeschooled do not exhibit this.
  - gress 12y ago
    You haven't explained why that is 'damage' - only that there is difference from people who went to school.