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> There seems to be a popular conception of home schooling parents as crazy religious zealots or something, which I think has little basis in reality. Knowing

> There seems to be a popular conception of home schooling parents as crazy religious zealots or something, which I think has little basis in reality. Knowing nothing about you other than that you read and comment on this site I would assume that 1) you are above societal average intellectually and financially and 2) you associate with people who are similarly successful. Given that you mostly know people roughly as successful as you, it shouldn't be a surprise that people you know who are home schooled are doing about as well as you are. To directly address your point, I think of the home schooling population as fairly bimodal; there are many parents who choose homeschooling for religious reasons, and there are some (especially with gifted children) who homeschool because the standard curricula move to slow. Which is to say, crazy religious zealots are a large fraction of the homeschoolers, but not representative of the homeschooled people you and I meet. Incidentally, I was briefly homeschooled with no impact on my academic career.

jessaustin 11y ago
...you associate with people who are similarly successful. This argument is nearly uncounterable (that's not a good thing): is anyone going to respond "no I hang out with dumbass bible-thumpers all the time"? Since we're comparing anecdotes, some homeschoolers I know might comprise another "mode": those whose local public schools are so horrible and dangerous that they cannot subject their children, whom they love, to such an environment.
- thesteamboat 11y ago
  > This argument is nearly uncounterable [...] I'm not sure I understand your objection here. Most people spend their time interacting with people who are similar to them. If anything, this is an argument that anecdotal evidence is quite limited in general. But that doesn't seem controversial at all!

jessaustin 11y ago

...you associate with people who are similarly successful. This argument is nearly uncounterable (that's not a good thing): is anyone going to respond "no I hang out with dumbass bible-thumpers all the time"? Since we're comparing anecdotes, some homeschoolers I know might comprise another "mode": those whose local public schools are so horrible and dangerous that they cannot subject their children, whom they love, to such an environment.

thesteamboat 11y ago
> This argument is nearly uncounterable [...] I'm not sure I understand your objection here. Most people spend their time interacting with people who are similar to them. If anything, this is an argument that anecdotal evidence is quite limited in general. But that doesn't seem controversial at all!