do you look down on homeschooling moms?

[Anonymous]

The families I've known who homeschool fall into a few categories:

1) ultra-fundamentalist / religious

2) ideologically suspicious / paranoid & full of conspiracy theories

3) ultra granola-crunchy-hippy new-aged AP homesteader types with big families

4) military families with frequent moves


While I don't look down on them, I do think that the kids in categories 1 & 2 often suffer.

[Anonymous]

Ok, whoever is riding the ass of the foreign born Professor stem teacher who is now homeschooling, give it a rest already. She's the one that sounds together , is making it work, and youre going to pick her apart over some matters of choice? Get a life, you chronic critic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What gets me is how many parents homeschool that don't have a masters. You can't teach in a school system without a masters so why would less education be ok for homeschooling? Let alone see dont even have bachelors. And most don't have teaching certificates.

Elementary school is one thing. I don't worry as much about children homeschooled at that age.

But middle and high school are different. When I was in middle school (public school), I took algebra, french, biology. My teachers all had subject-matter expertise. Each had a bachelor's in his/her subject (so a bachelor's in math, a bachelor's in french, a bachelor's in biology). In high school, I took physics, chemistry, etc. Again, each teacher had a bachelor's in his/her subject.

Even a person with an advanced degree still can't possibly have subject-matter expertise in all of those subjects. How can that person be her child's only teacher in middle and high school and still adequately cover all of those topics?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok, whoever is riding the ass of the foreign born Professor stem teacher who is now homeschooling, give it a rest already. She's the one that sounds together , is making it work, and youre going to pick her apart over some matters of choice? Get a life, you chronic critic.

I think the issue is jerking her kid in and out of school and complaining about how the inability to be placed with the same close friendsyear after year in public school negatively impacted her kid.

We don't know if she is making homeschool work or not, actually. She sounds qualified and invested though, but perhaps not for the long haul.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Should I? Don't know any though.

Of course! You can never be too judgy for DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What gets me is how many parents homeschool that don't have a masters. You can't teach in a school system without a masters so why would less education be ok for homeschooling? Let alone see dont even have bachelors. And most don't have teaching certificates.

Elementary school is one thing. I don't worry as much about children homeschooled at that age.

But middle and high school are different. When I was in middle school (public school), I took algebra, french, biology. My teachers all had subject-matter expertise. Each had a bachelor's in his/her subject (so a bachelor's in math, a bachelor's in french, a bachelor's in biology). In high school, I took physics, chemistry, etc. Again, each teacher had a bachelor's in his/her subject.

Even a person with an advanced degree still can't possibly have subject-matter expertise in all of those subjects. How can that person be her child's only teacher in middle and high school and still adequately cover all of those topics?

Between the two of us, we have bachelor's degree through PhD subject-matter expertise in math, biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, and English literature. So really the only subject matter not covered for middle school would be foreign language. Unfortunately neither of us is fluent in another language. Thankfully, DC has a lot of foreign language classes for kids, several of the community colleges offer foreign languages for middle and high school homeschoolers through community ed programs, and I'm considering using Homeschool Spanish Academy. I'm really not worried about middle school. High school a lot of students switch to dual enrollment programs.

[Anonymous]

I don't look down on them but I wonder why they are doing it if I don't know the reason. I have one friend who homeschools and she is not qualified at all. She got into college for athletics and barely graduated. I feel sorry for her kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find it really interesting that one thread is critical of homeschooling, while a parallel thread is all about how much parents supplement their child's school day with tutors and workbooks because they are unhappy with the level of education their child is receiving.


We homeschool and like another parent mentioned, I looked down on it as a choice before I had kids. Not that different to
how a childless adult might be critical of a parent whose child is melting down in the grocery store. Changing circumstance sometimes forces you to eat crow.

I will totally agree with you that one of my kids is socially awkward, but she's always been that way. Her neuropsych would support the argument that it's not homeschooling that made her socially awkward. Some of you see anecdotal evidence that homeschooling leads to socially awkward children, but there's no evidence the link is causation.

Btw, to the PP who said homeschoolers don't actually do all those field trips, we do and I see many other families like us at museums and performances on a regular basis.

I don't HS but agree with all of this! I think most posters don't realize how much "wasted time" there is in a typical day of school. I am friends with a HS family and their kids have formal lessons for maybe 2 hours and then the rest of the day is reading, pursuing hobbies, outside time, museums, art classes, etc. Kids are advanced academically. One is also socially advanced, the other is pretty awkward. They are twins and have been like this forever, so the social awkwardness has nothing to do with HSing.

I have a socially awkward child who attends a small private school. I can guarantee you that his awkwardness caused us to pursue the small private; the small private did not cause his awkwardness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or at least think their kids are receiving an inferior education?

Yes, if you aren't properly trained to educate the material and/or don't have the skills to effectively and efficiently impart knowledge to others (different than parenting).

+1. If you have a college degree in education, cool. If not, send your kids to learn from someone who does (barring any special needs that require home education).

This. There are two families in our neighborhood who do homeschool (not together). One of the kids is ALWAYS outside unsupervised, running around the neighborhood or down by the neighborhood pool, poking around in the parking lot. He's in fifth grade and these do not appear to be educational outdoor excursions. I think the mom is busy with her younger kids and is more "unschooling" him than anything else. If I had to guess, he's not learning much. The other family has older kids who are mostly done with homeschool and went to college at places like Liberty Online. The youngest daughter just turned 19 and is a really sweet girl. She went to NOVA for a semester last Fall and her mom told a bunch of the neighbors that she couldn't keep up and had to drop out a month into the first semester. I don't think the parents did those poor kids any favors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On average, homeschool students are found to be two grades ahead in one or two subjects, and behind in the rest. So yes, I have concerns.

Cite?

[Anonymous]

The ignorance in this thread is astonishing.

[Anonymous]

Please specify what is ignorant? Largely, the responses state an opinion based on the homeschooled kids the poster knows.

[Anonymous]

Link: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/30/home-schooling-outstanding-results-national-tests/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Link: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/30/home-schooling-outstanding-results-national-tests/

One grade level ahead if truly homeschooled with a real curriculum:

http://www.parentingscience.com/homeschooling-outcomes.html

And (same article) significantly behind if unschooled.

Granted it was a small study...

[Anonymous]

No. I know several homeschooling families through DS's activity, chess, and the parents are lovely and the kids very nice, accomplished and talented. Many are also very accomplished musicians. These kids are music and/or chess prodigies and homeschooling works for them.