Seriously, this sterotype puts lots of pressure on me. I check my kids before we leave the house to make sure they don't scream "HOMESCHOOL!" ( as if being out and about in the middle of a school day doesn't).
Posts: 1021 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote: And, if you live in a community where the schools are known to just plain suck, the decision would seem to be an easy one. Homeschool or worry every single moment about how little is being learned in school
This is the major reason we are homeschooling. I don't mean that to indict all public schools, but our district has low test scores. I had originally planned homeschool Matthew until 3rd grade, then have him tested for the gifted program. But just a few weeks ago, I met a dad at a homeschool association meeting who had pulled his kids from the schools because they had (in his words) "gutted the program to make sure no kids had their self esteem damaged", and his kids were now bored stiff.
Religion is not the major reason I have seen for homeschooling. The number one reason I have seen is parents who pull their kids becuase they had been diagnosed "ADHD" and they were being pressured to drug their children; or, as we have decided with Olivia, to keep them at home so they won't be labled thus.
Posts: 1021 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:I'd be interested in the stats on success though. Do homeschooled kids do better than their publicly schooled peers in college or in later life (better jobs earlier in their careers? more stable marriages? is there no difference?) Anyone have actual data?
I don't have actual data but I know that when I was investigating homeschooling I was part of an email group for homeschoolers in Alabama, and the group was contacted by a recruiter from UAB. She had been asked by her superiors to contact homeschool associations and see what she could do to attract more homeschool students to the university.
Her comment was that homeschoolers are typically independent, self-disciplined learners who adapt as well or in many cases better than their public or private schooled counterparts to college. They were extremely impressed with the quality of homeschooled students they had been getting so much so they made it one person's job to recruit more of them.
I checked at many of the other local universities, and heard that Birmingham Southern, Samford, and Jacksonville Univeristy were also very eager to accept homeschooled applicants.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote:I'd be interested in the stats on success though. Do homeschooled kids do better than their publicly schooled peers in college or in later life (better jobs earlier in their careers? more stable marriages? is there no difference?) Anyone have actual data?
There's very little data available. It is notoriously difficult to gather any kind of reliable data on homeschooled kids for any number of reasons. The last study I saw was done in '99 and was terrible. I read it in 2001 when my company took a contract to teach more than 600 previously homeschooled kids online. It was considered the industry standard back then.
Out of the approximately 600 previously homeschooled kids I worked with, about 598 of them had big problems. There were huge gaps in their educations, particularly in math and grammar. Certainly, many of them were far above grade level in some subjects, but that made scheduling them a nightmare. We had 9th graders in 12th grade literature and 6th grade math, etc. Many of them were extremely sheltered and naive, particularly those homeschooled for religious reasons. Some had never even met a non-Christian person.
The biggest complaint I got from parents was that it was very difficult to be both a parent and a teacher, especially as their children entered adolescence. It's incredibly unpleasant to try to teach pre-Algebra to a 13-year-old who hates you. Also, it's hard for many parents when/if their children struggle. It's difficult not to be emotional about it and that can really get in the way of teaching.
When I first came to Hatrack, I was an ardent opponent of homeschooling. I was killing myself dealing with unsuccessfully homeschooled kids and their parents and it was so disheartening. I had never encountered a successfully homeschooled person. Since then, I have lightened up somewhat. If most homeschooled children turned out like AJ or Human or Farmgirl's kids or any of the other homeschooled Hatrackers, I would certainly revise my opinion.
As it is, I am still not in favor of it. I believe that a teacher who is certified in a subject is better than a teacher who is not. I believe that homeschooling takes a major committment from the whole family and that many families are not prepared for that.
Good luck with whatever you decide. I'd be happy to recommend textbooks - part of my job was purchasing. Here's a great site for reasonably priced textbooks (they also have teacher editions): www.follett.com.Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
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