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[quote=Anonymous]When I had no kids of my own, I looked down on homeschoolers. Nine years later my child is in the 4th grade. The child spent K-3 grades in public schools, but now in the 4th grade we started to homeschool. Why? My husband and I realized that public schools are not meeting our expectations. The child attended four different public schools (three in FCPS, one in a different state, all were highly ranked), as we moved several times. Only two had good teachers, the curriculum was terrible everywhere (it does include the AAP, although the AAP is certainly better than the non-AAP version). My husband and I taught at several top-ranked universities (STEM fields) in the U.S. for over a decade, and could not understand why our seemingly bright students had such poor knowledge of background subject matter, as well as an inability to think. Anything that went beyond solving elementary recipe-driven problems was impossible for them to do, but now we understand the causes behind this phenomenon better. We cannot allow our child to receive worse education than the one we ourselves got 30 years ago in a third-world country. We decided to stop waiting for schools to educate our child, so now we homeschool.

When we were growing up, we were lucky to have some amazing teachers at the schools we attended, who were not only experts in their fields but could also inspire kids to learn. I would like my child to have a chance to meet such teachers, if possible. This means that we will re-enroll our child in public schools periodically in the hopes of lucking out on a great teacher, but, if not, we can and will give a much better education at home. Nor are we averse to hiring great private instructors or joining group lessons, when the teachers and subject matter are worth it, which makes it closer to a private school experience, but at a fraction of the cost and with hand-picked teachers.

A lot was said about socialization. Well... our child is doing sports (4 hours per day), plus a number of other enrichment activities (not to mention, playdates), which involve interaction with other kids, so the topic is moot for us.

It is ironic that, only 3-4 years ago, we were like many of you in your attitudes toward homeschooling. In reality homeschooling is amazing if (and it's a big 'if') the parents are educated and care about their children's education. But it could also be a complete disaster. However, staying enrolled at public schools can be a disaster too. Either way it's the parents' responsibility to give their child the best secondary education possible. As for socialization issues, forget it... teenagers are socializing through their smartphones these days, regardless of the schooling method.  [/quote]

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