11% of U.S. Children now homeschooled

[Anonymous]

Interesting outcome from the pandemic. I don't think we've seen this large a percentage of U.S. children schooled at home (or on the road) by parents since the Little House on the Prairie days.

https://sports.yahoo.com/more-11-us-households-homeschooling-174700845.html


Census data shows that homeschooling families grew at a rapid rate from 1999 to 2012 before plateauing at around 3.3% of the entire U.S. population. Recent events, including the pandemic, caused a massive spike in families looking for alternatives to traditional learning.

The data also showed that more diverse demographics have opted to turn away from traditional learning. Approximately 9.7% of white families have retreated to homeschooling, along with 12.1% of Hispanic families, 8.8% of Asian families, and 16.1% of black families, according to the report.

[Anonymous]

Two things...why is this an article in Yahoo Sports?
and, why would census data be relevant to the number of people homeschooling their children NOW? I think most of them went back to school when schools opened.

[Anonymous]

And a lot of homeschooled students don't go to college

[Anonymous]

Interesting

[Anonymous]

POC families with greatest %!

[Anonymous]

After witnessing the virtual school curriculum 1st hand- we’re homeschooling for middle school. We are a 2 PhD household and expect our child will attend college.

There is quite a large “secular and eclectic” homeschool community and some really excellent curriculum available.

[Anonymous]

I think this is very interesting and wonder if it will hold up. I believe that many families, including POC, found that school outside of school buildings eliminated problems like bullying and gave them a level of control that they did not want to give up. They feel more comfortable being in charge of their kids learning and safety and are distrustful of the public school system's ability to keep their kids safe.

In addition, families of all races, when faced with the burden of working and attending to their kids' schooling during the day, realized that they would prefer to have their time structured in a way that works for their family, rather than as dictated by the public school day and calendar. Families who have the ability to homeschool appreciate being able to start the school day later, to eat lunch at reasonable times, and to incorporate more movement into the day to help kids maintain focus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After witnessing the virtual school curriculum 1st hand- we’re homeschooling for middle school. We are a 2 PhD household and expect our child will attend college.

There is quite a large “secular and eclectic” homeschool community and some really excellent curriculum available.

I question how much most of the kids are actually learning at home. Of course, there are some kids who are learning a lot being homeschooled. I know two, but 11%?

[Anonymous]

Well that's terrifying. We're going to have a nation of illiterate morons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After witnessing the virtual school curriculum 1st hand- we’re homeschooling for middle school. We are a 2 PhD household and expect our child will attend college.

There is quite a large “secular and eclectic” homeschool community and some really excellent curriculum available.

I’m in a similar boat. I always thought that the curriculum in a public elementary school in a good district would be good if not perfect, but I was wrong. It is adequate, but thinking about it is like nails on a chalkboard. We started homeschooling in about February last year because of weird behavioral issues that I suspected were related to online learning (and I was right), but we are doing it again because I love that my kid is learning what and how I want them to learn. Which is basically a ton of content (science! Social studies! Novels!) that I try to teach according to the psychology of how human beings learn. I’m not expert but damn I have had fun learning all this stuff and teaching it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well that's terrifying. We're going to have a nation of illiterate morons.

The majority of homeschooling families that I know are very thoughtful and intentional in the schooling of their children. Yes, I’ve seen a bad homeschooling result too, but the majority of the time I’ve seen it, it’s been done well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And a lot of homeschooled students don't go to college

Where are you getting that from?

[Anonymous]

I asked my kids (MS/HS) if we should try homeschool, and they were horrified. They enjoy being with their friends in school. They may not necessarily like the academic part, but they like the social part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well that's terrifying. We're going to have a nation of illiterate morons.

The majority of homeschooling families that I know are very thoughtful and intentional in the schooling of their children. Yes, I’ve seen a bad homeschooling result too, but the majority of the time I’ve seen it, it’s been done well.

Exactly. Homeschoolers that go to college do well on entrance exams and have a higher graduation rate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well that's terrifying. We're going to have a nation of illiterate morons.

That may balance out the bitter hateful bigoted bullies.