Homeschooling

[Leebo]

I noticed there are a lot of people on this forum who either homeschool their kids, were homeschooled, or advocate homeschooling.

I was thinking about it and realized I don't think I've ever talked to someone who was homeschooled.

What reasons did you have for choosing it?

[zenurez]

That's a great question. There are really as many types of homeschoolers as there are home school families. I'm sure you will get a variety of responses.

My mother did a lot of early childhood education with me and as a result I was way above grade level at the age I was supposed to enter school. Rather than have me be bored, the principal of the school suggested that she continue to teach me at home. However this was also during the early 1980's when social services were taking kids away from their parents because they weren't sending them to school. Fortunately, my mom had both a law degree and a teacher certificate which allowed me to be taught at home in peace. Still, homeschooling didn't become publicly accepted in Colorado as a positive option until I was around age 12. Subsequently, I didn't have a lot of homeschool friends until around that age.

However, even before having homeschool friends, my days after completing my schoolwork were full of (social) activities including lots of extracurricular ones such as swimming (two days per week), dancing (two days per week), gymnastics (three days per week), violin, piano, plays, children's chorale (all at least 1 day per week) and lots of volunteering; all of which happened pretty much year round.

By the time I was 14 I had completed all of Saxon Math and was learning things like college level physics. I really enjoyed math, but it was very hard to cross over to high school (too easy) or college level courses (far away) as a 14 year old during this time. Today there are so many established bridges for homeschoolers to take. They can even participate in select high school courses while completing the majority of their studies at home. Alternatively, high schools offer a lot more courses that can earn college level credit as well.

One of the best things about being homeschooled is the amount of time I got to spend with my family. Most kids get to see mom and dad for 30 minutes before school and maybe a few hours after school before bedtime. It makes it hard to have a significant influence as a parent.

I don't have kids, if I did I would love to homeschool them. I've been teaching kids for the past 18 years and I would enjoy nothing better than to watch my own kids light up as they "get it".

[Leebo]

Yeah, I'll be honest, the general impression that I always got from homeschooling when I was growing up was that such families were "weird" in a vague sense, or religious and attempting to shield their kids from exposure to scientific thinking.

I'm not saying that's an accurate description of a homeschooling family, but that's the kinds of insinuations I always heard when I was growing up. When I came here to talk about exams for credit, it made me think about that.

[sanantone]

I watched a documentary on Netflix called Jesus Camp. IIRC, the narrator said that 75% of homeschooled children in the U.S. are evangelical Christians.

[zenurez]

I have known many Christians but also non Christians as well as Catholics who homeschool. I don't believe most of the Religious homeschoolers I have met would consider themselves evangelical, but I haven't asked. According to the information here, 73% of Americans consider themselves Christian. Christianity in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Seems like homeschoolers are accurately representative of the US population based upon the information you received.

[sanantone]

Also, according to that documentary, evangelicals only make up 25% of the U.S. population. That's close to what the Wikipedia entry says. So, even though evangelical Christians only make up a little over a quarter of the population, they are three-quarters of homeschoolers. The representation is definitely disproportionate. Jesus Camp was quite disturbing. What was going on with those families was borderline child abuse, but I doubt most evangelical Christians are as radical as the families in that movie...at least I hope they aren't.

[cookderosa]

Yeah, I'll be honest, the general impression that I always got from homeschooling when I was growing up was that such families were "weird" in a vague sense, or religious and attempting to shield their kids from exposure to scientific thinking.

I'm not saying that's an accurate description of a homeschooling family, but that's the kinds of insinuations I always heard when I was growing up. When I came here to talk about exams for credit, it made me think about that.

That's probably an accurate interpretation of homeschooling before it started its upward trend. When we started (1994) the college I taught at didn't even use computers or the internet yet lol! The world has changed a lot in 20 years. I didn't know anyone who homeschooled at the time, and if I remember, the majority of books and magazines/newsletters and support groups were absolutely all conservative Christian. That's not to say there were not pockets of others, but you couldn't find or connect with them. My community had 1 group at the time, it consisted of about 35 families. I now live in a community with 20,000 registered homeschool kids. What a homeschool family "looks like" can no longer be clearly defined any more than what I could say a private school family "looks like." From time to time, stats will come out and make their way around the homeschool blogs/sites, and the trend is norming- meaning it's getting closer to matching the distribution of the population.

In my experience you'll see TONS of young families "try" homeschooling- lots of elementary aged. It thins out as you get into highschool, however, with the "pool" growing, I'm sure that you'll see more families of teens. There isn't usually the need for support groups/co-ops at the high school level, so maybe that's part of it. But remember, from the decision to start (if it's kindergarten) until they have graduated a child, is at least 12-13 years. Likely, as with us, their views will evolve and mature....they may even change over time.

Why we started? Purely academic.
Why we continue? Purely social and relational.

Homeschools are not perfect, but they are also not only about academics. (as public schools are clearly not only about academics) Without getting on a slippery slope, I'll say that in general, I'm not a fan of large group situations and the psychology/social psychology issues that result from groupthink and crowd behavior. I don't think they are *doing anything wrong necessarily, and if necessary, it's just the nature of the beast.

Finally, homeschooling is a lot of work. I never, ever, ever, suggest it to people. I always answer questions, but that's a real decision that requires real commitment. The sacrifice is tremendous and LONG.

[Leebo]

Without getting on a slippery slope, I'll say that in general, I'm not a fan of large group situations and the psychology/social psychology issues that result from groupthink and crowd behavior. I don't think they are *doing anything wrong necessarily, and if necessary, it's just the nature of the beast.

I'm not sure exactly what kind of groupthink situations you are referring to, but I would think that in homeschooling the problem of lack of exposure to diversity of thought would be a concern. I'm sure some people make efforts to avoid that, but I think part of the theoretical appeal of homeschooling is that it makes a lack of diversity very easy to establish if that's what someone is looking for.

[cookderosa]

I'm not sure exactly what kind of groupthink situations you are referring to, but I would think that in homeschooling the problem of lack of exposure to diversity of thought would be a concern. I'm sure some people make efforts to avoid that, but I think part of the theoretical appeal of homeschooling is that it makes a lack of diversity very easy to establish if that's what someone is looking for.

Diversity of thought is an illusion. However, we're each entitled to our own opinion and choice for our children's education.

[Leebo]

Diversity of thought is an illusion. However, we're each entitled to our own opinion and choice for our children's education.

Isn't there some irony in disagreeing with someone while suggesting that diversity of thought isn't real? =)