That’s entirely possible, but I doubt it. I’m simply a bit more picky about the people i like to call friends is all. The glassy look in the eyes that says “what are you talking about” that many of those high school kids i’ve met get in there eyes when i talk about something that’s more interesting to me tells me right away, why am I wasting my time here. Thing is that the place where I live in really doesn’t have much of a interest in things that I rather like, such as gaming, anime, reading. Man, I can tell you of the looks of cluelessness I get when I mention a question of favorite books or authors. I can honestly say that when a person can look me in the face and say “Oh, I don’t read books” with a straight face, I have to think “I really don’t think I want to associate with this person.” If that’s an effect of homeschooling, I don’t think it’s a particularly negative one.
The question of whether its necessary for the common man to read books is troubling to a great many educated people in the modern world, perhaps in part because books are seen as a time-honoured, old fashioned practice. But really, while serious reading is quite old, it was never exactly popular, and most of the commoners throughout history haven’t been able, much less inclined, to do so. When reading was popular–people seeing Shakespeare plays or reading Dickens, for instance, their encounter with the sublime seems to have happened rather by accident among a sea of less valuable possibilities. And certainly, if you count the vast amounts of rubbish commoners have read throughout history, you must count the variuos things like romance novels people do read in a respectable volume today. Quite simply, the reading of literature has no apparent advantages that it must be cultivated among all classes of society, and many simply have no use for it. If a person must read, he will.
Thanks for all your different viewpoints on homeschooling.
I disagree here. If you find yourself in an environment where people more or less read books, you’ll have the joy of discovering that many of them are boring or haven’t really learnt anything by all these books. [/cut The autospelling is decisively anti-British English /uncut] Many non-readers are better than readers as persons and vice versa. There is not one group that is better than the others. Be it readers, listeners to a particular kind of music, rpg players.
By the way, taking things at face value may come back and bite you in the ass. I speak by experience.
Sil, you gotta know books exist and be familiar with reading first so that you can read and enjoy the damn thing.
When I was in scouting there were a few kids that were home schooled, and the results really didn’t seem that amazing. The parents seemed to want the kids to be home schooled because they had thier own agenda for teaching thier kids rather than an actual desire to teach in a smaller and more comfortable environment. By the time I was out of scouts I was basically able to nail wich kids were the home schooled ones cause they had a lot of the same behaviors, probably because the parents were teaching to an agenda. For example, the home schooled kids seemed to always have trouble with long words, or with words that had a fucked up pronunciation. Genre is still a sore spot with me after hearing it get butchered so often, since they would never read quietly and stumble over the book they were reading. They also all were very clingy to thier parents. On longer trips they would always start freaking out around the 3 day mark. While this isn’t uncommon it always seemed to persist longer than with other kids, in almost every sense that you can read in to it. They would get homesick multiple times on a trip, on multiple trips in the same year, and at later ages. There were even a couple kids that wouldn’t go on a trip if thier parents didn’t go too.
All in all I think it really comes down to the parents/teacher being genuinely intrested in thier kids education rather than it being an easy out to not send your kids to school. It really seemed like the homeschooled kids that I knew had parents that wanted to keep them out of public schooling because they were more intrested in keeping the kid brainwashed and clingy than teaching. It’s a good thing for some people especially with the testimonals here, but I’m glad I was never home schooled, and would only use home scholing as a last resort honestly.
Frame hit the nail right on the head. And so is RPT. Oh how I enjoy that thrill.
One of my cousins was homeschooled for several years (he’s almost 14 now), and his parents did it because of the ‘bad influences’ coming from public schools. Also, the pastor’s kids were homeschooled, so why don’t we just do what the other church people do? 
Really though, that’s not nice of me because his mom is my first cousin and I love her to death, but I questioned her judgment in the matter. They wanted to have a more Christian influence in his daily education than existed in public schools. His mom was a teacher before she decided to stay at home, so I’m not concerned about her actual credentials; I was concerned about the lack of structure in their days and him not being challenged appropriately as well as him spending too much of his time screwing around with games and TV and not with school stuff. He was pretty well socialized with recreational leagues and with friends from church, so he transitioned well when he went back to public school for part of middle school. My cousin decided that homeschooling him while trying to care for a toddler and an infant was just too much alone, and they wanted him to attend public high school. From what I understand the jury’s still out on homeschooling their other kids.
Now, after all that, my question was this - if you want a more religious influence on your child’s education, why not send them to parochial schools? You’re spending money anyway for educational materials at home… (I also don’t know about the price differences) I feel that my cousin’s family was able to afford this option, but I also feel that they went with the homeschooling to keep up with the Joneses. :\ My point in quoting Frame was the reinforcement of the parental agenda in homeschooling. They wanted to keep him ‘innocent’ as long as they could, and I have a feeling that they may do they same with his younger siblings.
My own opinion on homeschooling? I think it’s fine if it’s executed properly and if the student’s best interests are kept at heart. There should be no parental agenda other than finding the best way of meeting their child’s needs. By executed properly, I mean this to include able educators, appropriate challenges, daily structure (including the parent/child and student/teacher separation), and extracurricular activities and peer socialization.
heh…I was the exact opposite. I went to a Christian school and then resorted to homeschooling mainly because of the biased influences there. It’s a wonder I got out with my brain intact. >.>
If I were to have my future child(ren) homeschooled, it would be with a competent tutor rather than my wife, even if she were a fully capable educator herself. I think there’s a necessity in homeschooling, if one wants a truly appropriate and good education, to have a parental distance so that there are no cases of playing video games instead of learning. That said, my kids would be more likely to go to a private (not parochial) school than be home schooled.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer :3
On a tangent why are there a thousand “OMG h1gh sch00lz h311 1m n3w D4nt3 k thx” U.S. movies? Popularity seems to be a recurring theme there. And I’m not talking about the ones (if they do exist) that cover the actual school problems.
Then again that reminds me of this jap movie of Suzuki (not the b movie guy) where after a lot of abuse -gangs and yakuza involved- plenty of people die in a high school . The director said the movie was based on his own high school. I’m rambling now and have lost sight of the point I wanted to make- then again this is just another rigmarole 
What the hell are you talking about
He means why are there so many movies like <a href = “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferris_Buellers_Day_Off”>Ferris Bueller’s Day Off</a>, <a href = “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_Girls”>Mean Girls</a>, <a href = “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Been_Kissed”>Never Been Kissed</a>, <a href =“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixteen_Candles”>Sixteen Candles</a>, <a href =“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Breakfast_Club”>The Breakfast Club</a>, and so on…
The Breakfast Club is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. End statement.
Whenever I think of sixteen candles, I think of the shower scene. Isn’t there a shower scene in there?
Why is there such a pervasive culture of ignorance in the world? I don’t know if that question has anything to do with home schooling.
Exactly what Vorpy said.
dang ignortant people
Now say that in a Boomhauer voice.
It really depends on the kid and the local schools.
I was fortunate enough to fall within the jurisdiction of the “rich” high school (my family was still very much middle class). As such, we had a kickass media program with pro-grade cameras, green screens, editing equipment, etc. I also had the opportunity to work on the school paper with a great group of people. And there were some great teachers at the school.
Had I been home schooled – I thought I seriously entertained during my freshman year – I never would’ve had those opportunities. I knew one home schooled person growing up, and she was a creepy shut-in goth who had her share of problems…a walking stereotype.
While I still hold to my statement that homeschooling has its flaws, people that go to school all their lives are just as likely to turn gothic, emo, or druggy. My school sure has its shares…
I briefly scanned the thread, and as an education major anyway I thought I’d comment.
I don’t think homeschooling is a good idea. But then again, even bad ideas work out for the right people, so if it works, it works.
But overall, what with todays rampant ADD and ADHDs and manic depressive kids maybe homeschooling is a good answer. But then again, how do we integrate these kids into society when the only people they’ll listen to is their parents? Part of the problem with homeschooling is that while it does build personal accountability and responsibility, I would think that sometimes homeschooled kids that were put back into the public education system might have a problem with the authority of the head of the classroom. But then again, I’m only a sophmore.