Advice for 16 year old homeschooler

Discussion in 'High School Education via Distance Learning' started by B.N., Sep 20, 2005.

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  1. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    YOU NEED TO STOP PUTTING WORDS IN MY MOUTH. I never said that MOST kids are not being properly homeschooled. SHOW ME WHERE I SAID THAT. You all just need to calm down. I'm happy to say that most kids who are homeschooled are well educated. Some are probably better educated than they would be in their home school districts. But please admit that's not true for 100% of all homeschooled kids. Are you really trying to tell me that 100% of all homeschooled kids are equally or better educated than they would be in a public school? Really? That's what you're trying to say? 100%? Get real.
     
  2. Shawn Ambrose

    Shawn Ambrose New Member

    Here's your quote:

    "We all know that there are smart, dedicated parents who will teach their children well but my friends in the education field tell me that most kids who are being homeschooled are not really being schooled at all."

    If this were true, then the data would show that public schooled children would outperform homeschooled children in the aggregate. However, data shows the opposite; homeschooled children outperform public schooled children.

    Are there exceptions to this? Of course. But in general, a homeschooled child is more likely to graduate from high school, have a higher GPA, score higher on standardized tests, and have strong social skills.
     
  3. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    Does this data compare students who live in the same school district (or who would have been required to attend the same public school)?

    How is student performance measured?

    Just curious.
     
  4. Shawn Ambrose

    Shawn Ambrose New Member

    From my understanding, the data I've seen makes national comparisons, no district by district comparisons.

    Shawn
     
  5. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    OKOK. I shouldn't have said "most." Maybe "many" would have been a better choice.
     
  6. Shawn Ambrose

    Shawn Ambrose New Member

    No problem.

    Shawn
     
  7. Anthony Pina

    Anthony Pina Active Member

    Oh, I understood your comment perfectly. I just pointed out that your friends in education were misinformed and that the best data available did not support their opinions. No one would claim that 100% of home educated children do better in all measures than 100% of public school educated children--that would be silly. There are, sadly, some neglected home schooled children and some neglected public schooled children (particularly male children). But there is no reason to believe that this neglect occurs with more frequency when children are educated at home.

    As a former public school teacher and a long-time trainer of public school teachers, my colleagues and I saw the lack of parental involvement in our schools as one of the biggest challenges that we tried to address. There is no more involved parent in a child's education than a home schooling parent.
     
  8. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    I'm sure there are a majority of homeschool parents who do a fabulous job with their kids. Few other circumstances offer the opportunity for the personal attention that a dedicated parent would be able to give. HOWEVER, my only experience with a homeschooled child involves a friend of my daughter who's parents did very little to foster her social development or her education. They keep her out of public school but required almost nothing of her and she turned out to be "unschooled" rather than homeschooled. I'm not sure how they were able to escape the attention of the authorities, but the poor girl has suffered for it.
     
  9. ebbwvale

    ebbwvale Member

    I don't have any stats to throw into the mix. I don't really know how homeschoolers compare academically with others but education is not all about academia. There is an issue of building a good citizen right?

    On the last issue, I have spent many years (actually decades) in law enforcement and I cannot remember locking up a "homeschooled" person for any serious crime. I can remember locking up all sorts people with different educational backgrounds (mostly "noschooled"),but no 'homeschooled". It may be that they are a rarity here, I don't know.

    What do the US prison stats say on the matter? Perhaps the "test of the pudding is in the eating". If they don't count proportionately in US prison stats, they are either smarter than the rest or better socialised perhaps? What is the ratio of "homeschooled: in gang membership? I suspect there is no issue with socialisation and it may in fact be better.

    In respect of advice for this young person, get a job for a couple of years. It does a few things:
    1. It lets you experience the world so you may be more likely to know what you want to do;
    2. It allows you to save some money so you can do what you want to do;

    3. It allows you to enjoy your young life with some freedom before assuming the mantle of responsibility that comes with a commitment to learning. A big issue for young people is that they are underprepared for this and either end with low GPA's or dropout before completion. Go and have some fun for a while.
     
  10. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Involved maybe. Competent, not necessarily.

    I think that in many ways private tutoring might be the best way to educate any child but even a well meaning involved parent can't teach trig if they don't know trig.
     
  11. ebbwvale

    ebbwvale Member

    Fair comment about the trig. Unfortunately, there are some school teachers teaching stuff they don't know as well. I suspect educational competency is not the reason why many people "homeschool". Most schoolteachers are highly competent and professional, and some even extremely courageous i.e. Sandy Hope. It may be more about social issues associated with large school environments and value systems.

    A lot of people here simply have lost trust in the educational system. There appears to be an almost daily dose of media that supports this perception. Perhaps they can buy in expertise through a small group in areas such as trig. where they cannot do the teaching ?
     
  12. Hille

    Hille Active Member

    Good Morning, My daughter graduated from TESC at 21. There was never a question because the number of credits she had. If this school holds interest for your cousin I would suggest taking the FEMA credits and the USFA and jumping in. Just a thought. Hille
     
  13. Shawn Ambrose

    Shawn Ambrose New Member

    But that well meaning involved parent can enroll a child in a community college to learn Trig, use ALEKS to learn Trig, use Thinkwell Trigonometry, etc.

    The well meaning involved parent will find the resources.
     
  14. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    That's not what unschooling is.

    Unschooling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
     
  15. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    I'm going to take exception with the word "many" and here's why. (and this isn't picking on Kizmet, but this type of argument from people "in education" comes up from time to time).
    How does a person "in education" come into contact with homeshooled children? Simple, the family as stopped homeschooling and is sending their kids to school. So, in essence, teachers are interacting with homeschool failures. Now, I'm not judging-and people might get uncomfortable with the word failure, but if homeschool is working for a family, they are not in group schools. If a kid is put into a group school, there are reasons for it. It's possible, that 100% of these kids are in/were in trouble for whatever reason.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 7, 2013
  16. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    I was going to let it go, but since you brought it up I take exception to "many" because it still suggests that homeschooling being done poorly is common rather than exceptional. "Some" or "a few" would be better aligned with the evidence.
     
  17. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Good point by you.
     
  18. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I understand your point, and it's a good one. However, it happens in the opposite direction as well. My sources were saying this: kids with behavior problems are being disciplined by the school and so the parents pull the kids and "homeschool" them. The teachers know the kids because they taught the kids. In these little towns where I live there are no secrets. Everyone knows that Jimmy is not really being homeschooled because he's out running wild every day and never graduates. The parents do a half-assed job and the kid is never well served. This is not a condemnation of homeschooling, it's just an acknowledgement of a system failure. Another example: there are lot's of people who legitimately qualify for disability income. I'm glad it's there for them. But we also know that there is a lot of abuse of that system. Pointing out the abuse is not the same as saying that no one deserves disability income. We need to acknowledge that while the homeschooling system is great for some, it is abused by others.
     
  19. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I know what you're saying. If I said "thousands" then you might say "over what geographical area." Regardless of my answer, I would say that "thousands" is "many." If, on the other hand, I said "a small but significant percentage" would that suit you better? My point is simply this. If, on a national basis 1000 kids slip through the cracks because they are allegedly being homeschooled then this constitutes "many," even if it's a small percentage. So much for "no child left behind."
     
  20. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Yes.

    That's fair. Although the reasonable comparison is against public schools with their varying quality, rather than some hypothetical situation where no child really is left behind.
     

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