Report: Homeschooling more widespread

Report: Homeschooling more widespread

www.usatoday.com

Parents who homeschool their children are increasingly white, wealthy and well-educated — and their numbers have nearly doubled in less than a decade, according to findings out today from the federal government.

What else has nearly doubled? The percentage of girls who homeschool. They now outnumber male homeschoolers by a wide — and growing — margin.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I wonder why....?

Is it because our public schools are increasingly failing our students?
Because searching the internet for 2 to 5 hours can educated a child more than a teacher can?
Because going to school is becoming increasingly more dangerous?
Because our educational system is broken?

There are so many reasons why... I can tell you though that I will be home schooling my children. My time in school taught me nothing but lies and false hopes. After leaving school I came to the internet and have learned so much more than I ever did in the public educational system.

One huge problem I have with schools is they do not teach real world math. Oh yes they teach calculus and algebra! Let me tell you, after school you never use a stitch of it unless your job requires it.
Let a school teach a child how to balance a check book, manage their debt, invest wisely or even basic accounting skills!

www.usatoday.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I was home schooled throughout my life, and even went to a 'homeschooling high school'... basically, this involved going to classes once a week with about 400 other home schooled students... getting an assignment, doing it that week, and turning it in when going to class.. rinse and repeat.

I still made friends from various schools, including the home schooling high school... and it has not hindered me in any way.

Of course, there are some loonies out there...but they are more prevalent in public schooling, in my opinion.
I don't regret any of it!

Just gotta be determined, and have the ability to use time wisely.

I met quite a few homeschooled people and you know what

not only are they more intelligent than schooled people but they actually have more interest as well in learning.

what's that all about?

I think that schools and homeschools should meet in the middle
no more schools, some homeschools are okay

but we should have something in the middle where communities and parents are the principals of the schools.
I'm sure it would prove to be very efficient.

Yeah, but these also tend to be the people who whine like liberal girls when they stub their toes, and demand that a "warning: step" sign is put up, because the world is such a dangerous place.

Get some social skills, grow a pair, and stop trying to make the world the molly-coddled fluff-fest you grew up in. Some of us like competition!

[edit on 5/28/2009 by greeneyedleo]

Originally posted by The Last Man on Earth
Yeah, but these also tend to be the people who whine like liberal girls when they stub their toes, and demand that a "warning: step" sign is put up, because the world is such a dangerous place.

Get some social skills, grow a pair, and stop trying to make the world the molly-coddled fluff-fest you grew up in. Some of us like competition!

How rude of a statement is that? Quite.
Competition, you say? Home schooling can be much like college, depending on how you do it. When I went through it, the curriculum was harder than that of public schooling, and it was up to me to get it finished...no help involved.

Some of us have 'grown a pair', so how about you cut the generalization, will ya?

Originally posted by bvproductions
How rude of a statement is that? Quite.
Competition, you say? Home schooling can be much like college, depending on how you do it. When I went through it, the curriculum was harder than that of public schooling, and it was up to me to get it finished...no help involved.

Some of us have 'grown a pair', so how about you cut the generalization, will ya?

Well, since it was a generalisation, you don't have to take it personally.

And no, homeschooling is nothing like college, and I was not talking academically. There are far sterner life lessons to be learned outside of the classroom, but still within the bounds of the school.

I think it is because our public schools set their standards so low! Most homeschooled kids graduate before they are 16, and they still do better in college, because they are actually prepared.

Flunking out of home school is not an option! LOL!

I want my kids to go to public school the way I did. I want them to learn the social skills necessary, and I want them to be able to deal with teachers that have a limited scope of knowledge and get really p*ssed when they are asked an intelligent question that they can't answer.

At the same time, I will be schooling my kids at home the way my mom and dad did for me. In elementary school I had all the years required reading done the first month. In Highschool I was able to play 3 sports, math league, choir, and work at Mcdonald's, while my peers were struggling to do keep up with "homework" and pass. I put homework in quotes, because I very seldomly had any work to do at home.

The only drawback to this type of education is that freetime during class can get a good kid in trouble. I was often walking around helping other kids and getting into trouble. I was also pretty good at questioning my teachers into a corner until they contradicted themselves and I ended up in the office.

Homeschool is a great option, and I am glad it exists, but children need social interaction, so hopefully all these homeschooled kids are in organized sports, martial arts, chess clubs, or whatever gets them out of the house.

I homeschool my three children, ages 7, 12, and 15. I really get a kick out of watching them learn new things and having long discussions with them. I would miss out on that if they spent their days in public schools. The main reason I homeschool is that public schools don't teach kids to think for themselves. So much of what they teach just isn't relevent to the students, the kids don't care, but they jump through the hoops to please their teachers. The homeschooling parent can tailor the educational program to the interests of the child. The child can learn at his/her own pace rather than be forced into a schedule determined by some anonymous educational "expert". Furthermore, compared with the public-schooled children I observe, my kids are way more responsible and well-behaved. I don't know if that has anything to do with homeschooling or not, but I've received a number of compliments concerning my children from total strangers.

There are disadvantages as well. I don't think homeschooling is for everyone. As ModernAcademia mentioned, there needs to be more options such as public schools where parents have more say, learning co-ops, internet-based schools, and so on. One-size-fits-all education doesn't work.

I think the main reason why home schooling is done more often by the wealthy is due to the dedicated amount of time it takes. The parent overseeing the home schooling would have difficulty doing both that and working a full time job. A poorer family would require both parents to work or would contain just a single parent working leaving no one to administer the home schooling.

Also I think the parent being so highly involved is another reason home schooled kids do so exceptionally well. An involved parent would also help a public school student's grades as well. I find it difficult to blame public schools for all the poor grades as they have students who don't wish to be there or learn and some of the parent's treat it as day care and couldn't care less how their kids are doing on their grades. In my opinion throwing additional money at the public education system isn't going to solve these issues. Private schools give a much better education and in a lot of cases charge a lot less than the taxes needed to support a public school. I am 100% in favor of school vouchers!

I attended a private school from 6th grade up and am very thankful for the education I received. I hope to send my two kids to a private school as well but that is still a long off since they are 2yrs old and 4 months old.

I don't doubt it at all. I send my child to "regular" school because I do think that there are valuable social lessons to be learned there, as well as some sub par educational aspects. I, however, do supplemental schooling with her, where there is a "home" school aspect after traditional school. I don't know about other schools, but this one is atrocious. Last year (3rd grade) I realized that they were far behind from what even I remember doing at her age, so I began to teach her those things myself and when they do finally get around it years later in her school she'll already have leg up. Just as an example, she is finishing the 4th grade this year, they barely touched on multiplication and didn't start division at all. I know when I was in 3rd grade we had mastered division, this was part of what tipped me off to disfunction. The funny thing is the school gets all sorts of awards from the state about how wonderful it is I pray that the majority of other parents are doing this as well, otherwise this country will be in a big cow pie very shortly.

reply to post by jjkenobi


I agree with this,home schooling is a luxury most people simply cant afford.Sadly the public school system is a mess,i think children learn far more in an environment such as a the public school system when it comes to things other than education.But i also think the education the child receives and acknowledgment of the individual is sub par.Plus there are a heck of alot of crazies that home school children for indoctrination reasons and not because they believe it is beneficial for them,except to indoctrinate them with ridiculous ideas.

Originally posted by The Last Man on Earth
Yeah, but these also tend to be the people who whine like liberal girls when they stub their toes, and demand that a "warning: step" sign is put up, because the world is such a dangerous place.

Get some social skills, grow a pair, and stop trying to make the world the molly-coddled fluff-fest you grew up in. Some of us like competition!

This was turning into a good, informative thread until you came in and wiped your feet on it. Yours is one of the more ignorant posts as of late, and indicates your obvious lack of knowledge on the subject. What does "competition" have to do with anything? Who are you telling to grow a pair? The people who have the fortitude and dedication to take the education of their children into their own hands?

"Molly-coddled fluff-fest"? Are you implying that home schooled children are timid, sissified pansies? Is that because they spend more time learning, and devote much less of their cognitive capacity trying to be "cool"? Or is it because they get a real life education rather than spend 190+ days a year memorizing arbitrary facts like how many states are east of the Mississippi?

reply to post by Unit541


Here here Unit541! An awesome response.

I agree that with home schooling the parents are much more involved in their children's lives. The mere fact they are teaching the child themselves allows them to see how smart their children are and allows the child to see that their parent isnt just some authority figure in their lives. Giving both parties more depth to their relationship and a deeper understanding of each other.

reply to post by Tentickles


I homeschool my kids for various reasons. Something unique to homeschooling or small group schooling, is the ability to teach to a child and meet their needs at all levels. My daughter, for instance, is advanced. She just turned 6 this month and she was finished with first grade by December. She reads at a 4th grade level, and is at a solid 2nd grade level, or higher, with regards to everything else. My son, on the other hand, turns 9 next month. He is capable of junior high science and history, and is also an advanced reader, but his writing abilities (putting his thoughts onto paper) are pretty bad. He wears glasses and he's been through eye therapy. While he can easily orally answer a reading comprehension question or can orally tell me a coherent story, he has great difficulty getting his thoughts through his hand and onto paper. I know that this is his struggle and I walk a fine line with it. If he were in a regular public school classroom, I have no doubt that he would be treated as defective because of this delay and he would be very frustrated and would hate school.

I know all sorts of homeschoolers. Some stick to a purchased curriculum and do not veer from it. Others are naturally gifted teachers that are able and confidently create their own curriculum. I create all of my own curriculum, with the exception of math - when it comes to math, I figure, why reinvent the wheel. It's not that I can't do math though, which is a common criticism of homeschooling (along with science). I've been through and passed engineering calculus and my degree is in environmental science, so I have a well rounded background in geology, chemistry and biology.

[edit on 28-5-2009 by Ron Paul Girl]

I'm not acquainted with any rich people but I am acquainted with several home-schooled people. I don't like how this article makes it look like it's a practice for the elites to further separate them from the rest of the "slobs" out there. The largely stupid population will no doubt buy into this interpretation and the politicians will use the rage of the masses to restrict home-schooling until it's simply not feasible in the name of "equality."

Hmm... perhaps current restrictions on homeschooling are contributing to the growth of one economic class over another being able to practice? Filing those forms, paying those fees and getting those government mandated credentials certain states require cant be cheap after all.

The quality of public education will continue its offensive and essentially evil collapse while routes of escape such as private schooling and home schooling are cut off by royal decree at an ever increasing rate to ensure a low-level moron-grade education for all the tax-paying masses.

This, not coincidentally, is what's planned for healthcare. Those who seek out additional or premium care above the mandated government care will be taxed for their hubris. How dare anyone want anything better than what lord government deems necessary. The audacity.

I can give you a great example of why more people are turning toward homeschooling - the Dallas Independent School District. Here's what they pulled just in the last year:

* Came up with a $64 million shortfall in their budget because of failure to adequately budget their books (www.dallasnews.com...)

* Then they decided to lay off a whole bunch of teachers to try and make up for the shortfall. 375 teachers were cut. (cbs11tv.com...)

* Oh but wait! It gets better! Less than a month after the layoffs, DISD said "Oops we laid off too many teachers" and then posted 57 vacant job positions. Here's a further punch in the gut - the laid off teachers DID NOT get first pick of the vacancies! (www.dallasnews.com...)

* Hold on, this gets better yet! The superintendent over DISD, Raul Hinojosa, got to keep his $400,000/year job in all of this!!! The school board refused to entertain the idea of dismissing him over this fiasco! So the public in Dallas got REALLY mad and there was talk of ousting the entire school board (dallasisdblog.dallasnews.com...)

* BUT! Guess what the school board did next??? The board, with one exception, voted to cancel the upcoming school board elections and extend the incumbents' tenure from 3 years to 4 years! Unbelievable! (www.dallasnews.com...)

Only one school board member dissented on the grounds that it was wrong.

The question in all of this - what has happened to the kids? How can any of this in-fighting be any good for the kids that attend DISD schools? It's not. Many parents have moved to suburban areas where the schools are better or have decided to home-school their kids. I wonder, if this kind of blatant abuse happened here in Dallas, I wonder where else it is happening?

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


I dont think this article would give anyone that opinion.Its just a simple fact that not everyone can stay at home and teach their children when it is between that and buying food,paying bills etc I would say a large majority of people simply don't have the funds to homeschool,therefore public school plays an intrinsic role in childrens lives.Hence the public school system should really be torn down and started from the bottom up imo.

Originally posted by Solomons
reply to post by thisguyrighthere

 

I dont think this article would give anyone that opinion.Its just a simple fact that not everyone can stay at home and teach their children when it is between that and buying food,paying bills etc I would say a large majority of people simply don't have the funds to homeschool,therefore public school plays an intrinsic role in childrens lives.Hence the public school system should really be torn down and started from the bottom up imo.

And you can blame the government for the reason why people can't afford to only have one bread winner in the house. Thank you inflation. Thank you Congress for spending us into oblivion. Will we not wake up before bread is $50/loaf?

As for my household, we're not rich. My husband is a union worker and I stay home. We have a modest house and we make sacrifices that some people aren't willing to make - no cable TV, no cell phone bill, no car payment, etc.