Thread: Homeschooling...

I tend to think your grades would be better without that distraction. Except maybe in Sexual Education class.

Originally Posted by Hercuflea

You dont go to school to learn how to get laid, though.

What we are talking about goes way beyond that. People need to know how to interact at work and in other groups. People who never learn how to do that can't even go shopping without feeling like total freaks. That is terrible for self-esteem and therefore gets in the way of happiness.

I was homeschooled until 7th grade when my mom, my brother, and I were both fed up with being around each other too much. My parents chose this to indoctrinate us with their religious beliefs. It worked for my sister (8 years older than me)... she's now a missionairy in Kenya. My brother is a regular pothead, and I refuse to go to church even though my dad is a preacher with degrees in several Biblical studies---my refusal doesn't have so much to do with their beliefs, but they're way of going about them and the fact that people in need of help can be found on every street, yet there's a church on every corner.

When I went to public schools I could read, write, and spell better than anyone in my grade (only 30 something of us) but I had no idea in hell what an exponent was! Instead of learning math, science, etc my mom focused on teaching English with the help of the Bible. I could recite tons of verses and had read the entire Bible, but I knew nothing of the real world. In 9th grade I started using drugs as a result of being an outcast and the pressures of school (completely my own fault in retrospect, but I'm just saying). Being the guy who always knew where the party was, who and where to get the best pot and alcohol sure did help with making friends!

I can't say learning from my parents directly, having freedom from the rigid routine of school, and learning how to grow a garden aren't beneficial to me now, I just don't think an ENTIRE education (primary through highschool) at home is a viable option.

I would probably homeschool my kids from 1st through 8th grades but no more.

Originally Posted by Universal Mind

What we are talking about goes way beyond that. People need to know how to interact at work and in other groups. People who never learn how to do that can't even go shopping without feeling like total freaks. That is terrible for self-esteem and therefore gets in the way of happiness.

It's true I feel like everyone is staring at me but I look am normal, I dress normal, I am not ugly. I don't make myself stand out either, yet I feel like I am a complete idiot. I came to conclusions because I had multiple cute/hot girls like me, yet I still cannot grasp it.

I think that homeschooling's benefits apply differently to different people. A self-driven individual in a homeschooled environment will probably learn more than anyone else in an established educational system because they know what they want to learn, and will excel at it. A lazy kid, though, would just do the minimum and become one of the self-indulgent slime running off of welfare payments because they,... well,... don't want to do anything with their lives.

I'll use three kids I know for examples. Each of them has been through a public primary school, but enrolled in a new phenomenon known as "online schooling" in their middle school years, then came back in high school.

One guy, lets call him C, was a lazy fatass whose sole purpose in life seems to be to antagonize other people. C hated it because he found it boring, and too easy. He enrolled because his assholish personality meant that nobody he ever met liked him. To be honest, I hope that he jumps out in front of a bus one day. Nobody will come to his funeral.

Another, J, enrolled because he had been falling a little bit behind in his studies, and he wanted a more flexible schedule. He's a very sociable kind of guy, and I bet that nobody who has ever met him dislikes him. He came back because he missed all of his friends from school, and didn't feel challenged enough by the program.

The third, K, I don't know quite as well as the other two, but I can tell you what little I have gleaned from first impressions and from the opinions of others. He seems somewhat introverted, but is quite motivated and is probably one of the most selfless guys I've ever met. He would take a bullet for a complete stranger at a moment's notice. He's very intelligent; he competes with me for valedictorian. He's probably the one who has most benefited intellectually from homeschooling, though I don't know him well enough to say much else.

I would have self-destructed by now if I had been homeschooled. I'm more introverted than a Buddhist monk, and if I was any more isolated from other people, I would never have developed socially at all. My home environment isn't too great either. My brother is a mental sadist: somehow, he takes pleasure from the mental and emotional torture of his inferiors, including myself. School was my escape from him.

Public primary school isn't the best option either. Mine was boring as hell, because the class could only go as fast as the slowest learner (and, due to some socio-geographical disturbance ("being on the wrong side of the tracks," both literally and figuratively), we had just as many "special ed" classrooms as we did "regular classes" there).

Thank god for my school's middle school gifted program (which, sadly, they're dismantling.) It showed me that there was an upper crust to society, and that there were actually teachers in the world who cared. The main problem with public schooling nowadays is that there is little provision for gifted students in the curriculum. "No Child Left Behind" is a joke: in order to not leave stragglers behind, the whole herd has to stand still.


tl;dr: Homeschooling is best for the self-driven. To fix today's system, we need more and better gifted programs.

Originally Posted by Universal Mind

What we are talking about goes way beyond that. People need to know how to interact at work and in other groups. People who never learn how to do that can't even go shopping without feeling like total freaks. That is terrible for self-esteem and therefore gets in the way of happiness.

I think you might be assuming just a bit too much here. I've had about as little of a social life as they come, within normal bounds, and I have no trouble going shopping or the like. I do often hesitate to ask for help from a store employee, but that's just my nature; I don't like to bother someone if I can find whatever I'm looking for on my own. If time is a concern, I'll ask for assistance.

The only time I feel uncomfortable is talking to groups of people my own age. Older people I do fine with, or single people my age, but groups of teenagers get me. I can never think of anything to say, and always feel like the odd one out.

I'm not entirely sure that, in my case, this would be very different if I had gone to public school.

This might be a nature v. nurture type of debate. There are plenty of socially awkward people who do go to public school, after all.

I guess from observations thus far, we can say that public school, in many situations, can definitely help people improve their social skills.

Originally Posted by Mes Tarrant

This might be a nature v. nurture type of debate. There are plenty of socially awkward people who do go to public school, after all.

I guess from observations thus far, we can say that public school, in many situations, can definitely help people improve their social skills.

It can also hurt their social skills. Some of the people who do attend public school and are still socially awkward are that way because they've had tramatic social experiences early on in life. Someone who was homeschooled through their early years may be less likely to have a fear of social situations, even if they don't have as much experience with them.

There's nothing wrong with private school either.

Mes Tarrant and X, you're definitely on to something there. My whole learning experience was a nightmare. When I was 7 years old my Math teacher called me stupid. Even my mom would call me stupid when it came to math and numbers (like timelines or history). They thought I was lazy or faking because they couldn't understand how I could possibly understand a problem perfectly one minute, then completely forget everything about it and have to return to the basics.
I absolutely LOATHED school and it started when I was young.

Originally Posted by Xaqaria

It can also hurt their social skills. Some of the people who do attend public school and are still socially awkward are that way because they've had tramatic social experiences early on in life. Someone who was homeschooled through their early years may be less likely to have a fear of social situations, even if they don't have as much experience with them.

I was just going to make this exact point. I believe that is what happened to me. By nature I have always been the way MoS is, based on his description. Going to school was sometimes traumatic for this reason. My bad experiences in school are actually what caused me to end up doing home schooling.

Having said that, the isolation meant that I was worse when I eventually returned to school. So it's like I said at the beginning; home schooling does tend to cause people to become more introverted, but it's only one small part of the equation. As long as there's something to balance it out, there's no problem.

So how should people learn, at home, at school, by themselves, maybe in small groups? What if everyone was homeschooled? Then would all the children come out to play after a certain time? Of course I'm just throwing out some random thoughts.