RE: More Americans Are Overcoming The Homeschooling Myth
Even the stats don't tell the story.
We pulled ours out of the state institutions in the mid-90s. It wasn't popular then at all, and we met a lot of resistance. But nobody could say much if they spent any time around them.
Comments we received?
You think you can teach them as well as a trained professional?
What makes you think you can do a better job?
As noted above - How will they get social skills?
How will they learn to be leaders?
Blah blah blah
We were in California while they were teenagers. It's a rather onerous state to homeschool in, but not overly so. They required us to register as a school, but we didn't have to have the boys take tests. They also have a program to help troubled kids get their diploma. We took advantage of that early, so we could quit dealing with the system, and also so they'd have that piece of paper that means so much to so many, for some reason.
Socialization - Our younger son is one of the most social people you could meet. In fact, perhaps too much so. :) The thing is, homeschooled kids generally learn to communicate with any age group, not just peers. They can hold an intelligent conversation with an adult and speak to someone much younger without issue. Age segregation has caused more problems than it could ever solve... well, it solves none anyway.
They were attending a JR college at about 16 or so. During a group project, a girl in the group commented on him being homeschooled, flippantly stating that homeschooled kids have no social skills. My son asked her if he seemed awkward, to which she replied he didn't but he was different. Then she asked what possible advantage there was to homeschooling.
He could have said a lot of things, but he just pointed out that he was 17, had his diploma and was in college. She said it wasn't fair...
The data about graduating from college is really meaningless. Both boys attended, but it didn't do much for them. The older one finished two years studying IT, but never even bothered to get his degree. He worked and studied hard to learn his trade and now, at almost 29, is an IT architect overseeing huge jobs and making far more than I ever have. The other boy is making plenty as a college dropout as well.
Both are married and giving us plenty of grandkids... homeschooled kids. Yep, I guess we screwed up pretty badly. I hope they'll forgive us.
I have a friend who works in the education industry who gave me the whole "parents are arrogant for even thinking they can come close to doing the job of a trained professional and it's detrimental to their kids" kinda deal, and then moved the goal posts when I pointed out that my (very cool) moderator is a retired schoolteacher who approves of my "unschooling" methods (she keeps approving us every year) and one of my friends (also an "unschooler ") used to be a school teacher, to "oh well maybe you're doing something right but the proof will be in when they graduate from uni".
Parents did initially resist as well but now mine and my mother in law are realising how awesomely everything is working out and are fully into it, father in law just can't because no matter how well they do he simply can't get past "kids are supposed to go to school" and some people are just like that. At one of the "extracurricular" activities the kids do I even had one parent anxiously justifying why it was acceptable and "character building" for her child to be mercilessly bullied at the school he was attending (I was trying very hard to be non-judgemental but in that situation, if the school wouldn't/couldn't do anything to stop/resolve the situation, I would have walked away from it).
LoL yep sounds like you screwed up that social experiment terribly, they will never forgive you :D I hope my kids grow up as happy and successfully as yours :)
Great story. I think our boys will do a much better job than us. We had no clue, little support and experimented as we went along. By the time we finished we finally realized what our philosophy had become. We taught them how to learn. With that skill anyone can do anything.
And this points to the absolute failure of public education. It trains to pass tests, not how to think. Sure, there are exceptions and some teachers are awesome. But the system is broken. It's designed to cater to the lowest common denominator and reward the status quo. Excelling is often meaningless. As long as you can get kids to pass tests, you'll continue to get funding. If they slip, ask for more funding. If/when they still slip, adjust the tests so they can pass, or make them meaningless drivel.
Not that I have an opinion or anything. I'm super excited that our property taxes went up this year so that we could pay more for local education programs. :/
Oh, I got on a rant. haha ;o)
Here's to sabotaging our kids' social skills!