Well, I was homeschooled because the school system would not allow me to go to the school i could walk to without crossing busy streets, they wanted to put me on the city bus as a kindergartener to get to school. My mom didn’t like the idea and it was not illegal to keep me at home for kindergarten, even though they like to make it sound like it is required. She said that if she could teach me to read herself then she would homeschool me for a while. It ended up being 7 years. k-6 and then in 7th grade i started being schooled through an online program, ECOT. It wasnt bad, some of the teachers were very nice and helpful and others were less then fabulous. Their math program was stupid but i was very far ahead in math in 6th grade so it didn’t matter. I would say my mom taught me everything i really need to know, i can tackle about any problem in everyday life. I know a whole lot more about business and the job world or even keeping records and handling a checkbook then most of my friends. The only thing she didn’t cover as well is history, i know everything major that happened and major dates but not a whole lot of the specifics, most kids i know seem to remember less then me, however, and they went to public school. Now, though, i do go to a public school, i am a senior, i have all a’s and a 4.0 gpa. The biggest difference now is that i have a lot more work but i dont remember half of the things i studied. when i was homeschooled i didnt do as much, but i remember pretty much everything that i was taught. I couldnt fail a test and let it slide, my mom was going to make me work out every mistake and get it right. The level of schooling a child will recieve has everything to do with the teacher, but you can teach things you dont understand, you just have to learn it too. my mom did that in some of my math. Then again teachers in the school systems can be amazing teachers as well, but how much can you work with a child who really needs the help when you have twenty kids or more in a class. The choice of homeschooling has to be based on the child and the teacher. admittedly i did miss out on the social environment but i still had friends, it just took me longer to get out of my shell.

Maybe I’d be a good person to answer this since I’m homeschooled:

The main reasons for it are because public schools (and even the private school I attended for awhile) can’t give me as good of an education as I (or any kid) should be getting. I know kids in public/private schools–5th graders who can’t tell time, 3rd graders who can’t read..the list goes on. Since I’m homeschooled, I can learn at my own pace. The other main reason would be because regular school is a waste of time. Why does it take regular schools 8 hrs. to learn all the subjects when it takes me 2 or 3 hrs.? The only reason kids are in school that long is because their parents are at work. And it’s really sad that they go to school longer and homeschooled kids are probably smarter than 99% of them.

People say homeschooled kids aren’t socialized. Bull crap. Some aren’t..obviously. But most of us are very well socialized. Since I’m only schooled for 2 or 3 hrs. a day I have MORE time for friends. People think the only place kids can get friends is at school when in reality there are youth groups, sports, classes, clubs, homeschooling groups, etc.

Just like most of public schooled kids, the people who think homeschooled kids aren’t socialized are simply uneducated.

The “evils” of the public school system is something that would take me awhile to list. I’ll give a few examples, though.

The kids down the street from me are in 4th grade. A few months ago they were outside playing basketball across the street and were trying to decide which high school girls had the best boobs. Wow–I can’t imagine why any parent wouldn’t wanna sign their kid up for public school! Those kids sure are learning important values! They could tell you her bra size but probably wouldn’t be able to count that high.

All the bullying that goes on in schools, all the drugs, sex, violence–yep, our public schools are something to be proud of.

I don’t know anyone who homeschools because they believe schools are ‘evil’, mostly inadequate.

I know very few people who homeschool to brainwash their children into religion.

Personally, I have a migraine from all the dang socialization we’ve done in the past week, I just want a few days at home, no park days, no kitchen creation classes, no ball, no scouts, no 4H, no field trips, no library, no band, no choir. These are my kid’s choices, not mine. they aren’t trapped at home all day.

A family unit is fine, but honestly, after five years in public school, it takes more than the six hours I had them awake at home to undo the seven hours of crap they got at school. Not just the judgemental, immature BS from other kids, but the constant comparisons by grades and behavior, the subconscious criticism by teachers (after all, the point of school is to ‘improve’ and the only way they can do that with 30 kids is by pointing out what’s wrong, not what’s right) If adults had to live with constant performance reviews at work, they’d complain to a boss of the boss. if they were bullied by coworkers, no one would say ‘it’s part of life, builds character’, they’d be told to file a harrassment suit. If a boss was unfairly picking on them, they’d file a grievance, not be told that ‘adult’s know better than you’.

Mostly I’m tired of the weird viewpoints people hold of over one million people based on one family they know or even worse, have heard of but don’t know. Weird judgements based on what they’ve seen in TV, or imagined from thinking that homeschooling is the exact opposite of public schooling.

We choose to homeschool our daughter because she is extremely gifted. Public school would be boring and would kill her love of learning.

We are not religious people so that has nothing to do with it.

I don’t feel that public schools are “evil” just not right for our family. We have friends who’s kids are in public and private schools.

I do not like the fact that schools have the children all day and then make them do more work at home. What have they been doing all day? The kids are going to school for more hours have more homework younger and younger and are falling behind. Obviously something is not working.

Socialization is always a funny argument to me. What are the teachers constantly telling the kids? “Settle down and SOCIALIZE on your own time…this is my time now”

My daughter is in several extra curricular activities as well as classes with kids of all ages. We have park days as well as clubs. She is constantly complimented on being so friendly and outgoing. People often think that she is 2-3 years older than she is because of her vocabulary and her speaking skills.

Most of the homeschoolers that I know homeschool for educational reasons-not for hiding them away or for indoctrinating them in their religious beliefs. At least in this area that is a very small part of the homeschooling community.

I agree that the family unit has a lot to do with how well the kids do in school…but how much better for the child to have one on one attention as well as being able to go at their own pace (whether quicker or slower). I love the fact that because she isn’t within the constraints of 8:30-3:30 day at school she has time to pursue what is of interest to her.

I also wanted to point out the fact that “homeschooling” is not quite an accurate word for most homeschoolers….we are hardly ever at home.

She is either at Spanish class or art class, or piano lessons, or history club, or math and science club, or girl scouts or campfire, or karate or gymnastics or on a field trip or at the library or at the zoo or volunteering at the local history museum as a docent or just playing with her friends but rarely sitting at home.

By the way she is starting 3rd grade curriculum at 5.5 years old. Do you think that she could get this kind of rich education going to public school…or even private school?

Feel free to email me if you have any other questions.

I don’t hear much about the evils of public school system. I work in the public school system. School is not what it was “back in the day” but I would estimate that about half the students in public school thrive in the environment. My son was in the 50 percent that did not thrive academically. He had a wonderful time being social. It always got him in trouble with the teachers.

No, public schools are not evil. They are not efficient and need to be totally updated to meet the needs of students in this century.

Every student is different and every student should have an education that meets his/her specific interests, goals, talents and needs.

Students in school are usually busy listening to teachers and doing their work. There is very little time for chit-chat except at lunch. My son has more time for friends since being home schooled. The modern conveniences of cell phones, Internet and cars has made it possible for us to communicate, share, and get together with other people.

Socialization simply means that we are able to adapt to the social environment around us. Homeschool gives more opportunity for real life experiences.

my personal opinion which you may not like, is that the schools have gotten away from reading writing and arithmatic. It has become a political arm of the government to indoctrinate kids in an amoral enviornment, i.e. absence of a moral code.

If you don’t care about that stuff, then send your kids to a public school. If you do, then bring em up homeschooled to where you can control the enviornment to your beliefs. It’s really pretty simple.

I homeschooled my 2 daughters. Then they went to Christian School in 6th & 9th grade for 4 years. The eldest graduated the youngest went to public school in NY for 1 year and 2 years in Florida.

The education in the high school years was better than what I felt I was capable of doing but the morality in both places was unbelievably horrible. Nonetheless I feel that both of my children made better choices and are able to stand on their own because of the strength of character and lack of peer pressure that they experienced in homeschool. They both feel that they would homeschool their own children in the future because of their own strength of character that they acquired in homeschool.

I am a homeschooling parent of two: a first grader, and a 4-year-old. We homeschool because I am 99.9% certain that my children will do better educationally, physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually in my care, than if I sent them to a government-run institution to learn how to pass standardized tests, which is what public school has turned into. Also, I like spending time with my kids (most days!). I couldn’t imagine sending them away to the equivalent of a full-time job (counting time spent on a school bus) just because they turned five years old. They are much safer, in all respects, being under my guidance than they would be with people who do not love them and whose primary objectives include “crowd control” and “not losing our accreditation.”

I often hear people say “homeschoolers are not socialized.” I wonder what they mean by socialized. Do they mean “taught to be a proper cog in the machine of society”? Or do they mean “taught to sit quietly and wait to be told what to do next, while surrounded by people born in the same year and living in the same zipcode”? If that is what they mean, then yes, they are right. Homeschoolers are not “socialized.”

If they mean “able to carry on a conversation with anyone, of any age, and also able to conduct themselves appropriately, think for themselves, and not get caught up in mob mentality,” though then I’d have to say that homeschooled children typically are better “socialized” than their public-schooled peers. Children in schools are categorized in groups of very similar children, and have contact with one (or possibly a few) adult throughout the course of a day. I don’t want my children being taught how to function as a member of society in a room with 24 other children and one adult. That does not make sense. Homeschoolers are out in the “real world” every day. They go grocery shopping, to church, to the library, to farmers’ markets, to the bank. They take classes based on their interests, and as far as I know, none of them teach them how to fill in bubbles on a standardized test. They go to the playground and to museums and zoos and art galleries and botanical gardens. They talk to people everywhere they go. The “real world” is not a classroom. It is not age-segregated. It’s real life, and it’s what homeschoolers do every day!

Thoughts of homeschooling first came to me while teaching elementary school. It just struck me one day how unnatural the current model of schooling was in social terms. I didn’t like what I saw socially. This has nothing to do with ‘evil’ in the schools, just that a lot of undesirable behaviours and attitudes are adopted by kids simply because they’re constantly around other kids who are just as immature as they are. These other kids are the primary role models for behaviour. I wanted more than that for my kids. Sure, I could send them to school and work extra hard on things at home, but if I’m going to do that work, why not just have them with me? What’s the point of being in school?

My husband was the first to actually bring up homeschooling. He’s a jr. high teacher and could not believe the socialization that occurred in schools (still can’t). ‘Socialization’ as in the process of learning the standards of behaviour around you (clothing, language, attitude, point of view, etc.), not in terms of socializing. We both had to take child psychology as part of our teacher training and we both knew that kids primarily do what’s around them. He didn’t want that for our daughter.

After we started looking at it the possibility more closely, academics factored in. The schools are not able to give the individualized academics that early schools did. It’s designed to be average, designed for everybody to stick to a certain pace. Those who are above average are really getting an inferior education. Those who are below average are getting an education above their heads, which means not adequate education.

As I got to know homeschoolers before we made the final decision, I loved how the kids were. They play with their siblings, are close to their parents, don’t care so much about fashions and brand names and all that, don’t care about how old the new kid at the park day is or in what grade he’s in… There were so many wonderful *character* traits seen that I knew homeschooling was the right way to go.

What it boils down to is that the schools of, say, the early 1800’s, were community schools, built upon a common sharing of values, usually a common way of raising children, set up as multi-level rooms where the children had older role models and well as WERE older role models, not to mention the constant exposure to material they would be expected to learn later on. What we have today is a setup I disagree with so much, I wouldn’t even go back to teaching in a ‘traditional’ program.

Are community sports and lessons and homeschool groups enough “socialization”? Well, what do you think? The Roosevelts were tutored at home for their schooling. Were they unsocialized? The upper class girls during the times of Jane Austen didn’t go to school and learned all their lessons at home. Their socializing consisted mainly of family and those they were able to visit or who came to visit. Were they inadequately socialized? Or how about even as recent as the 1850s? When most people still were not going to school? Are you saying that human beings have had thousands of years of not having enough socialization because there were no public schools to put them in?

Yes, kids will usually do well in public school if the family is strong. The question is: why put a kid through that? If you can homeschool, why put your child in public school? If you have the patience to be with your kids and be their teacher, to raise them full-time, the willingness to learn… why would you entrust the bulk of their waking hours during the school week to someone else? Now, you’ve said that you don’t have the patience, which is fine; but many of us do and are willing to and I don’t think it’s fair to look down on those who have decided to take on the raising and education of their children.

My wife’s sister has six children.

She has stayed home to raise them all.

She has breast fed them all.

And, she has home schooled them all.

It has become a known fact, that home schooled children are

better educated, because of their “one on one” attention. and

are more likely accepted into collages because of their

higher scores. The only disadvantage is, you don’t get

school days off for bad weather. Religion is not a factor in

home schooling. It may be for some, but I know two family’s

that are of no religious affiliation at all. <}:-})