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Lynn (Friday, 10.17.08 @ 20:16pm)
I disagree wholeheartedly about my children having less friends than public school children. They are positive role models in their lives verses negative ones that come out of public schools. My children do not need a professional teacher to make them smart. My son's are smarter than the average child as far as academics to their public school peers so that is not the issue here and they are being 'schooled' by 'just a mom'... everything that this article says that homeschooling is a disadvantage is not in our lives by far... Maybe more research in your article before making a poll would benefit better for you in the future!
Lisa (Friday, 10.17.08 @ 20:29pm)
Your statements about "disadvantages" are flawed. My homeschooled children have many friends. They have no difficulty whatsoever making friends. There is absolutely no proof that children who are homeschooled have "communication and socialization problems later," as you stated. Please do not state such things without concrete evidence to prove such a claim. I was schooled through the public school system and I was painfully shy through most of it. Being in public schools didn't teach me how to socialize or communicate properly. My parents taught me that.
I also disagree that homeschoolers can't give their children the things that public school children have. If anything, I see it the opposite way. Public schools are cutting everything out of their budget. Music and arts no longer has a place in most public schools. My children take real art classes and piano lessons. Once they are in 7th grade, they can choose to be a part of a very well-known speech and debate team (that has won national awards, by the way). My children are all active in sports. Homeschooling does not keep us from doing those things. In fact, because we homeschool, my children have more time to pursue their interests.
As far as a "professional teacher", what teacher truly cares about each and every student? What teacher waits until each student really understands a concept before moving forward? What teacher can move ahead when each child is ready? What teacher wouldn't say that one-on-one ratio is the best ratio possible? Again, it has been proven that having a credential does not equal higher test scores. In fact, homeschoolers outscore public AND private school students in testing.
I agree with the previous poster who suggested to you that you do more research before making erroneous statements and then asking people to vote on misinformation.
Mumov5 (Friday, 10.17.08 @ 23:11pm)
Not only do I find homeschool children have plenty of friends (and are not forced to be contained in rooms with bullies and the like), but they socialize better with people of all ages, not just their age group. Do a little homework before making such comments!
Janet (Friday, 10.17.08 @ 23:16pm)
I strongly disagree with the entire paragraph concerning homeschooling. According to research and info. I've read and my own personal experience, the assumptions made are totally incorrect.
From my own experience, the following examples address these false assumptions:
(1) One would be hard-pressed to find a kid with any more friends than my Sarah. Anyone who has even met my daughter knows this to be true. Sarah's one of the most out-going, confident, friendly kiddos I've ever seen.
(2) I have a Master's degree in Counseling Education...not Teaching Education, specifically. I've taken many teaching education courses though. I've also worked in the public school system for 5 yrs. (which has greatly affected my view of public education).
However, I do not evaluate my ability to teach and guide my children based on my education and professional experience. Furthermore, I do not believe that parents have to be educational professionals to teach their children. I believe that homeschooling is a calling from God. When God calls a person to do something, He equips him/her to fulfill that task. (There are many examples in the Bible of God equipping people to fulfill extraordinary callings. God also tells us in His Word that He will help parents to instruct and guide their children. Also, all parents have a God-given responsibility to protect, nurture, and teach their children.)
(3) The kids have the opportunity to participate in several field trips with our local homeschool group. This group also offers many different clubs, sports, and activities. My children also attend Classical Conversations that offers various classes, field trips, and activities.
Sarah is 7, and she has played soccer with our town for two years. She has also played t-ball with our homeschool group and my niece's church. In addition, this year, Sarah will be playing basketball and softball. My son, Kerry is 5, and he will play t-ball this spring. In a couple of years, Kerry will be playing boy's baseball.
The kids have had several chances to do arts and crafts as well. They have participated in church art/craft contests and homeschool exhibitions. Sarah and Kerry also attend a class in arts and crafts every Thursday. Of course, we also do arts, crafts, and even cooking at home. My daughter never lets me neglect these areas because she loves them so much!
__________________________
Anyway, I don't care for the mistaken conclusions mentioned in this post. However, I do appreciate the voting poll. I also LOVE the results!
ChristineMM (Friday, 10.17.08 @ 23:19pm)
Your statements regarding homeschooled children are way off base. With all due respect the myths you write of have been dispelled numerous times.
Homeschooled children are seldom isolated from society. Homeschooled children talk amongst themselves and learn things like swear words and other things that they were formely naive about.
Homeschooled children usually interact with other kids in the community such as through sports and Scouts. Therefore all the 'enlightened' schooled children help 'inform' the homeschooled kids on things like profanity, talking about the opposite gender, and sex.
My homeschooled children have been the victim of physical injury (intentional) by other kids and also called names and such by kids who are homeschooled, private schooled and public schooled. Some of the meanest homeschooled kids were formerly schooled and suffered bullying in school, then they leave school and start bullying the other homeschoolers.
My homeschooled kids also 'get educated' by interactions with their schooled cousins.
So it should make you happy to hear that my homeschooled kids are indeed socially 'enlightened' by schooled kids they interact with 'in real life'.
Some homeschoolers from a supposed non-materialistic Christian family have been pressuring my kids about the brands of sneakers they wear and also talk non-stop of their latest iPod and portable DVD player and expensive computer gadgets. That is peer pressure from one homeschooler to another.
Some other things you say are way off base as well. Homeschooled kids can take classes outside the home with professionals such as moonlighting public school art teachers and with professional artists. Homeschooled kids can take experiental nature classes in some areas, when the only thing like that that the public schooled kids in my state get is sometimes one week of it in fifth grade and never again in their entire public school education.
Our homeschooling family does more 'field trips' than the public schools. We also travel more as our schedule is less restricted, usually each trip has something 'educational' in it.
Up to high school homeschooled kids can compete on community based sports teams. A number of sports like fencing and crew are done in the private sector and can be done up through the end of high school.
In my state it is the sports association that bans homeschoolers from joining high school sports teams. It is not really right as we pay full property taxes yet our kids can't even do a sport, band, or drama with the high school. Repeat we get no money from the government to offset our cost to home educate, we are given no vouchers or refunds and not given any free books or materials or even educational advice, but we pay our full property taxes, state and federal income tax and all the other taxes the contribute to paying for the public school system.
My kids at young ages do more cooking than any schooled child I know. I teach them here at home.
My kids have done tons of crafts activities here at home and also with teachers at outside classes and even as parts of other classes (at religious ed for example).
I don't know who wrote this and what your interest is but really if you want to learn about homeschooling all these concerns have been addressed and the information is there if you truly seek to inform yourself and hear the true information with an open mind.
HomeschoolMomto4 (Friday, 10.17.08 @ 23:29pm)
It's obvious you know nothing about this subject and it's quite laughable that you are attemtpting to host a poll for merit. It's definitely only for amusement. You spam people's blogs to get them to come here, with no indication of how many homeschooling blogs you left a comment on or how many public school blogs you left a comment on, so we have no idea how accurate this poll really is.
As for the subject, you asked if homeschooling was worth it knowing that sooner or later our children will have to face the "real" world. (emphasis mine) What makes you believe that the public schools are the real world? Once you graduated did you go to your job and find out that it was just like public school? Did only the cool employees hang out at the water cooler? The fact is that public schools are nothing like the real world. Homeschoolers do travel, go to the store, and other places of business on a regular basis. They see billboards, magazine covers, ads, and people every time they go into town. They see boys with their pants down around their knees, wearing ball caps backwards, and totally apathetic looks on their faces. They see girls who had their clothes shrink fitted to their bodies, humiliating themselves by fawning all over the guys with baggy pants, and tittering at everything they say because there is no intelligent conversation going on between them. In short, homeshcoolers see those children wasting their time and their lives waiting for the day when they can join the real world.
I admit that not all public school children are like this and that some homeschoolers are just as bad as the teens described above, but don't do a poll asking if homeschooling is worth "sheltering" our children based on your idea of when they face the real world.
Grizzly Mama (Friday, 10.17.08 @ 23:39pm)
Your list of disadvantages is flawed. To the person who wrote this article: Please do some basic research on homeschooling. Homeschooled kids have been studied half to death over the last several decades, and all of your 'disadvantages' have been shown to be 'hoo-haw'. Homeschooled kids are fine socially (in fact, more mature and better able to cope with different age groups), they are involved in more outside activities on the whole, and academically they are WAY beyond traditionally schooled kids - even the kids who are educated by parents without an education degree.
Get with it, so that the next time you address this issue you don't sound so ignorant!
T (Friday, 10.17.08 @ 23:55pm)
Perhaps, had you been homeschooled, your mother would have taught you not to write an article on a subject about which you know nothing. I would tell you to go back to school to learn how to properly research your topic so as to avoid making foolish statements, but.........
Pamela (Saturday, 10.18.08 @ 02:39am)
I find it interesting that the author would believe homeschool children do not have similar opportunities to those that public schooled children do. My kids have many friends (we belong to a co-op and meet on a regular basis, in addition to friends from many other enviroments). They participate in sports teams, often with public school children. We often cook or make crafts together at home or in a homeschooling group. I believe we do many more things that public school children cannot possibly do at school. My favorite comment was about homeschool children not taking part in as many "excursions" as public school children- that's the beauty of homeschooling, we can go out and see the world.
Rachel T. (Saturday, 10.18.08 @ 03:22am)
You have obviously never met a home schooled kid. I learned things in school.... among them were how to do and where to get drugs. I used to skip school so I could go to work.... I loved my job. School, especially public schools do not work for everyone. The person who wrote this probably went to school....and see how much you don't know.
Harvest Mom (Saturday, 10.18.08 @ 04:14am)
Wow, if this is the quality of research that goes behind setting up your polls, I won't bother coming back to this blog again. Your entire paragraph about homeschooling is long-since debunked myths. Most of us that homeschool do it because we can provide a better education for our kids than they can get in a school setting. Period. There's certainly no lack of social opportunities for homeschoolers, both within the homeschooling community and during "after school" activities with kids who are schooled.
Feel free to check out what goes on in our homeschool: http://along-the-crooked-path.blogspot.com
VoteTheDay.com (Saturday, 10.18.08 @ 06:12am)
Ladies, please, take it easy. The article is only an opinion piece of one of our writers. Please notice, that it speaks both about advantages and disadvantages of homeschooling, as he sees them. Also, it does not have neither positive nor negative conclusion about homeschooling - that is why we invite our visitors to vote on the poll about it. The aim of all our website is to encourage people to think about different topics and express their opinion, we ourselves always have a neutral position on every topic.
This article, like all others, acts as a start for discussion, that is why we are posting invitations to vote on it in related blogs. We are also happy, that the discussion did evolved here, and that you provided our visitors (and the article author) with so much valuable information, which otherwise would not be available to people, visiting VoteTheDay.com.
So thank you again, and you are kindly invited to leave links to your blogs/websites, so that our readers could get a broader picture of homeschooling. By the way, all the links in VoteTheDay.com are DoFollow.
bgdnewlondon (Saturday, 10.18.08 @ 16:15pm)
May I suggest that the writer of this "polls" lead-in do his or her homework before trying to talk about the pros and cons of homeschooling. Communication and socialization problems among homeschoolers? Completely untrue. (Read The Well-Adjusted Child by Rachel Gathercole.) None of the homeschool parents I know are "educational professionals" and all of their children are doing work equal to or, more often, years ahead of their government-schooled peers. As far as excursions, sports teams, art classes, and cooking lessons as concerned, homeschoolers not only also have these activities open to them through community and homeschool organizations, but they have much more time for field trips and concentrating on their real-world interests.
I did not start homeschooling my son to "protect him from the world." Quite the opposite! He is living in the world every day now instead of being herded into a classroom with other children who are of his own age and live only in his own town. His homeschool friends are all ages and come from all areas of our state. His learning isn't limited by one teaching style or a few textbooks or any curriculum. He doesn't stop learning when a bell rings at 40-minute intervals.
Perhaps the term "homeschool" should be changed to "world school."
cfwilton (Saturday, 10.18.08 @ 16:29pm)
Your paragraph is shamelessly misguided and unresearched. It seems designed to discredit homeschooling, based on ignorance. Please research thoroughly and try and remain balanced in your publication.
Janet (Saturday, 10.18.08 @ 16:44pm)
P.S. You may also learn more about homeschooling at my blog: http://dailyprovision.wordpress.com/
I have a homeschooling page that offers resource and information links along with different posts.
RFTurtleman (Saturday, 10.18.08 @ 17:18pm)
It is interesting that the author states that homeschoolers have less social interaction with friends than do publicly schooled children. Being from a public school environment, out of the 400 students, I only had less than a dozen friends. The remaining students were classmates. My son, being homeschooled, has more friends than I did. The myth of social interaction of a public environment is just a myth.
hsmamainct (Saturday, 10.18.08 @ 18:49pm)
When we find articles week after week in news outlets across the country about the problems facing our current system of public education, I'm constantly amazed to find people knocking a solid and historically successful alternative that features children learning outside that system.
My first child attended pre-k and k only -- having volunteered in the classroom, I quickly saw many of the disadvantages of small, impressionable children hanging out with their peers for such a large part of their day. Already at that age, there were bullies who harrassed other children (tho luckily not mine). Children who could read were doing pre-reading activities because they had no alternative. The artwork lacked creativity -- "here, we cut out these shapes for you, glue them together so it looks like everyone else's". And they rarely went outside.
Freed from these limitations, we now enjoy many area museums, both visiting their collections and taking classes with artists, historians and other experts in their fields. My son is a budding naturalist, and we've been able to find classes to support this interest that otherwise would have been impossible due to the amount of time spent in school, not to mention the burden of homework. We get together with several different area homeschool groups at park days and other organized field-trip style events, and the children of all ages interact with one another. Tell me where, outside of school classrooms, do any people interact only with people who were born the year they were? How is that "natural"?
My children also have a relationship with many adults -- the people at the grocery store, post office, bank, library and other entities we visit in the course of living life. They see what it takes to run a household and participate in cleaning, cooking and gardening. Before we start forcing children who don't need to use complex math or written grammar in their daily life to learn those rules, I feel it's important to give them a grounding in how to live life. Having children gone for so much of the day, tired when they get home and facing an hour or so of homework, who want to ask them to help do the laundry and scrub the toilet?
It just seems so obvious that being home is not only an excellent alternative to school, but one that gives children time to explore their world in a loving, supportive environment. And so what if your third grader can name all the state capitols? I've never found that I needed that info, despite getting them all right on the quiz.
Most people learn things because they want to, not because they're told they have to. Our schools, with all this testing and accountability you year about these days, are so focused on pushing information at children so they can regurgitate it correctly on the test, they lack the vision to support these curious and interested young people in their own journey through life.
Suni (Saturday, 10.18.08 @ 19:16pm)
I think it will never be equal to school, because homeschooling surpasses anything that a public school could ever hope to teach our children.
Rita (Sunday, 10.19.08 @ 02:27am)
I question the age and education level of the writer of this article. Having a degree and have worked in the education field, I cannot disagree with this article more.
Teachers are taught to teach "groups" of children. As many educators know, education does not just end in the classroom, it often begins and ends at home. To ask "Is it worth to protect your child from the world, knowing, that sooner or later he will have to face it?" clearly shows this writer does not understand what homeschooling is about and how it can benefit children. To assume that children have no interaction and they have emotional problems later shows the ignorance of this writer. Please site your sources before making comments like this.
To suggest that a school can teach a student everything they need to know is a fallacious argument. Teachers can only teach what they know and what they are allowed to teach. I would also like to remind the writer that children are not encouraged to socialize in school as they are there to learn.
As for the comment about competition, this again is another fact the writer knows nothing about. Stating these children do not compete would suggest the writer knows nothing about community sports, activities and events.
If you are going to ask people to vote on a subject, please write an article that is not biased so people can look at the issue with an open mind.
deldobuss (Sunday, 10.19.08 @ 03:27am)
So if this article is an opinion based piece (not peace), and not a fact based one, then why is the poll necessary? Do we in fact agree with the author? Apparently not. No hard feelings, but sometimes "opinions" can be interpreted as "researched material".
deldobuss (Sunday, 10.19.08 @ 03:30am)
http://www.deldobuss.wordpress.com
SSBcon (Sunday, 10.19.08 @ 08:24am)
If the author of this post is an example of a public school education than I'll happily continue homeschooling my sons.
Sadly I am unable to punctuate my comment as the author has used up more than her/his fair share of commas.
Beth (Sunday, 10.19.08 @ 16:17pm)
My children have many friends both in our neighborhood and through homeschool groups. We take field trips, they compete against themselves to earn better grades in the areas needed, have the opportunity to participate in sports teams through town activites, learn cooking and arts/crafts at home/with homeschool groups as a class. People don't realise that homeschoolers have a wonderful network of support out there waiting to assist them. Some of our public school neighbors have more problems socializing than any of the homeschoolers I know, and I know quite a few. As for needing to be an educational professional, I only have two years of college under my belt and feel I can do a better job with my children using the curriculum we have than any public school teacher could. I don't have to worry about no child left behind negatively affecting my kids, because if they have an issue come up, we address it immediately. In a class of four versus a class of thirty, that's much better odds my kids are getting the individual attention they need and deserve.
Sarah (Sunday, 10.19.08 @ 16:32pm)
If the author of this article is a product of public schooling, then heck yes, homeschooling gets my vote! *lol* Incomplete sentences, faulty logic, nonsensical phrasing, misspellings.... I had a difficult time just reading the first paragraph.
The author presumes that homeschoolers want to hide their children from the evils of the world. That's a pretty big leap to make. Is socialization a factor of my choice to homeschool? Yes. I feel my children will be better socialized, in a more normal and healthy fashion, through homeschooling than through the public school system. Is that only part of my reason? Yes.
I am a product of the public school system. I taught high school. It wasn't a horribly traumatic experience (most of the time), and clearly I graduated with the ability to put together a written argument using proper grammar, but it wasn't the best it could be, either. I see my children, and I imagine them in school, and I know I can provide them with a better education and a better learning experience. I can meet their individual needs in a way that simply can't be done in a setting with a ratio of one adult to twenty or more children. I have more resources available and can offer more flexibility.
Why settle if I don't have to?
Karen (Sunday, 10.19.08 @ 18:55pm)
Your choices are misleading, thereby invalidating this whole exercise.
I voted ...will never be equal to school, which is exactly the reason I pulled my children out of public school. A homeschooling day, in my experience, has been far superior to the public school day my children were experiencing.
Communication and socialization problems are why my son is homeschooling. He now has the opportunity to communicate his ideas freely, and is socializing on a daily basis with people rather than age-restricted individuals. My daughters are also now being homeschooled and neither child reflects the image so often portrayed of a weird, unsocialized misfit homeschooling kid.
My son had nothing in common with his peers from school. Once homeschooling, he met children both younger and older with similar interests. We are busy everyday interacting with a variety of families we meet at classes and activities such as Robotics, Bowling, the Library, home-based playdates, park days, Engineering, Flying club, book clubs, craft sessions, potluck picnics, hikes, plays, camping trips, fruit picking, volunteering, etc.
There are so many professionals outside the public school system willing to share their hands-on expertise with these eager to learn homeschoolers, that the idea of being an education professional (whatever that means) incited me to write this comment. Our excursions are far more interesting to my children than those they had at school (library, grocery stores, plays, naturalist outings) and what's more, when we make our excursions to these same places, my children can interact, socialize, speak with each other and ask as many questions of the professionals in attendance as and when they please.
We participate in soccer, swimming, gymnastics, baseball, my children debate on a daily basis, we cook and bake together, we participate in many craft sessions with people of all ages, and foster healthy, respectful competition amongst us.
I see no disadvantages to homeschooling. Public schools teach as they do because they have to teach many children with varying interestes from varying backgrounds and learning abilities according to specifications mandated by politicians. Homeschooling parents are free from these constraints. We can teach our children what they need as they need it. I was a reluctant homeschooling parent, my 8-year old son (now almost 11) kept debating the issue until I finally began asking questions, reading, and researching the subject and relented. I am a convert!
Hence, homeschooling will never be equal to school.
~ Lisa (Monday, 10.20.08 @ 06:18am)
I don't understand why you have this poll and a place for people to comment, and then after you receive comments you tell us "ladies" to "take it easy."
If it is only an opinion of one of your writers, maybe the piece should make it clear that it is truly an opinion. The way it is written, it sounds as if the "disadvantages" are facts. People are only responding to what was written. What else would you expect people to do?
Carolyn (Friday, 10.24.08 @ 15:41pm)
Evidently your own schooling didn't train you very well in the craft of writing. Your research is faulty, your sentence structure and punctuation are horrible, the readability of your writing is miserable.
As a homeschooling mother of two I patently disagree with all the claims you state, and my children would likely concur. They so enjoy their homeschool education that sending them to school is a threat that is made when they behave poorly. They have all the attention they need, they have many friends to play with, and they can pursue what interests them unencumbered by SOLs and a public school agenda.
Ron (Thursday, 10.30.08 @ 18:26pm)
My children were homeschooled from K to 12 in Ontario and are both running high GPA's in university now. Both have a great network of good friends and willingly help others coming up behind them.
Was hard work, but anything worthwhile will be hard work. I don't believe any school could have given them an education targeted towards their gifts and talents. The character qualities them have developed are really positive.
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