I know several reasonable highly educated homeschooling families. Good for them.

I am concerned about lack of oversight for homeschooled kids writ large.

My own SN kid struggles in school but also has a significant PDA profile. High IQ. ASD/ADHD/Dyslexia. She will not do school work for us. Ever. I am a teacher with a masters degree in education. We will not homeschool because it would not work for us AT ALL. I can’t tell you the number of times well-meaning people recommend homeschooling to us when I relate my child’s challenges. It’s really not for everybody and the parents’ educational level is only one factor. Temperament plays a huge role - both for the parent and the students.

Also I really wanted to believe that quality public schools could serve all students until I watched them fail my child even as I stood at the sidelines with experts, advocates, and reports. It is way too easy to slip through the cracks in a large system like MCPS - even with involved parents. We are now private school parents - much to my own surprise. I still want public schools to be better for all kinds of kids.

Something I personally have found interesting with homeschooled kids is that girls tend to have better outcome than boys. I don't know why that is, they seem to integrate into society more smoothly (get normal jobs in adulthood, get married etc.) compared to boys. So I feel sorry for boys who are homeschooled (esp if the reason is religious) but hey that is just my 2 cents.

They come from a variety of backgrounds (usually extreme in one way or another , rarely from parents who are “basic”- not that it’s a bad thing for parents not to be “basic”- most highly interesting individuals are not!) but one thing they share is a lack of experience with group socialization and learning to conform when appropriate. Not everyone in a society can be an orchid and solely focus on what is interesting to them day in and day out.

Anonymous wrote:They are mostly awkward and lack basic social skills and cues.

Hence weird.

I knew a guy who was functionally illiterate and home schooled his kids. Their schooling seemed to consist mainly of cleaning the kennels and exercising foxhounds. This was in a state with little to no oversight of home schooling.

I knew someone else who was home schooled until high school, when she took classes at the community college. Both of her parents had mental illness and she took care of them and had a really decent job. When we went to visit her, her parents kept in touch with her by walkie talkie when we went out to eat. Her daily stress levels were unreal.

So those are my experiences with a sample of hardly any.

Anonymous wrote:I follow homeschooler moms on tiktok because I think it's weird and interesting how they are depriving their children of the regular school experience.

I know it's anecdotal, but not one of these moms is highly educated. One is a community college dropout. The confidence of the foolish!

This site is the only place I've heard of actually educated parents homeschooling. Like you, I normally hear about people who barely graduated HS trying to homeschool... Not a great recipe for an educated well rounded young person. I'm all in favor of Masters or PHD homeschooling their kids - they actually understand material and have been taught by a variety of teachers, which is a great lens. But SAHM of 5 who's highest paid job was a bowling alley waitress? Ehhh maybe you should let actual teachers take a stab.

Anonymous wrote:I follow homeschooler moms on tiktok because I think it's weird and interesting how they are depriving their children of the regular school experience.

I know it's anecdotal, but not one of these moms is highly educated. One is a community college dropout. The confidence of the foolish!

As a homeschooling parent I can only shake my head at the idea that some non-homeschoolers know us primarily through tiktok. Oy vey

I follow homeschooler moms on tiktok because I think it's weird and interesting how they are depriving their children of the regular school experience.

I know it's anecdotal, but not one of these moms is highly educated. One is a community college dropout. The confidence of the foolish!

Bottom line how could homeschooling be better?

Most homeschoolers are not educated in all subjects.

How does one teach advanced math, physics, chem etc? Especially from a religious perspective. It is not possible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where does the “homeschoolers are weird” trope come from? Most of the homeschoolers I have met are intelligent and interesting, and have unique passions.

Your experience clearly does not reflect the larger societal experience. The only homeschooled people (kids) I knew growing up were religious fundies who were absolutely weird, annoying, lacked social skills, talked down to normal kids and were quite far behind in actual intelligence and learning. They seemed to feel superior to others but really had nothing or any justification to back it up.

Your "experiences" back in the 1990s are outdated and irrelevant, Karen.

🙄

“Karen” isn’t the catch all epithet for anyone who annoys you.

“Do better.”

Anonymous wrote:I don't know, but homeschoolers ARE weird. I've known several throughout a few different states and over the last few decades. Funny how adults sometimes find them lovely, but they can't get along with other kids their age for anything.

Yup.

Being able to socialize with and navigate within one’s peer group is an important skill.

No one wants to talk to a ten year old for an hour during a cocktail party.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My experience with home schooled kids, both as a child and now was a scout leader, rec league coach, and parent is that they are used to everything being about them.

If they have a thought, they share it and they expect everyone to stop and listen to them.

If they want to do or say something, or changes an activity, they are very confused when they aren't permitted to do that.

They are generally respectful and polite. But they definitely think they are the main character, even when its their turn to the NPC.

They just don't "get" some of the social expectations of them, that other kids do.

And now, as an employer, I can almost always pinpoint when a resource was home-schooled.

Got it, regular schools teach kids to be NPCs who know they are supposed to shut up until the teacher calls on them, and that's what you want as an employer.

I mean if someone is speaking to a group….. pretty much, yup! You don’t interrupt unless you raise your hand and are called on, or equivalent. Do you regularly interrupt speakers who are speaking to a group?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where does the “homeschoolers are weird” trope come from? Most of the homeschoolers I have met are intelligent and interesting, and have unique passions.

Your experience clearly does not reflect the larger societal experience. The only homeschooled people (kids) I knew growing up were religious fundies who were absolutely weird, annoying, lacked social skills, talked down to normal kids and were quite far behind in actual intelligence and learning. They seemed to feel superior to others but really had nothing or any justification to back it up.

Your "experiences" back in the 1990s are outdated and irrelevant, Karen.

Quite defensive there! Are you homeschooling your children? Are you teaching them to insult other people online and call them "Karens" because they have a different POV than you? Sounds like the experiences I, and pps have had arent quite so outdated...

I'm not being defensive, Karen. I'm attacking you for being old and stupid. You don't need to teach kids to point out when others are being stupid, this comes quite naturally.

NP here. Why is someone being older and less smart than you an automatic reason to attack them, as you claim you’re doing?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably from the people who are threatened by any better alternative to the failing public education system.

The only people I know who are staunchly against school choice and homeschooling are democrats/pro-school unions and very defensive when any of those topics or policies are mentioned. Any “threat” or perceived threat to public school is insulted or shot down as an “attack on our education system”. Their jobs are at stake if fewer students go to school. https://cei.org/blog/homeschooling-growth-worries-teachers-unions/

Well, no. A robust public education system is in the nation's best interest. Redirecting tax dollars and resources away from one is bad for national security in the long run.

While there are some exceptions, homeschooling by and large is wildly substandard to traditional schooling and provides too many opportunities for children to be abused and neglected without notice. And then there is the curricula that many follow, teaching that people and dinosaurs shared the earth, or that some dude 2,000 years ago was a zombie and so forth.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where does the “homeschoolers are weird” trope come from? Most of the homeschoolers I have met are intelligent and interesting, and have unique passions.

Your experience clearly does not reflect the larger societal experience. The only homeschooled people (kids) I knew growing up were religious fundies who were absolutely weird, annoying, lacked social skills, talked down to normal kids and were quite far behind in actual intelligence and learning. They seemed to feel superior to others but really had nothing or any justification to back it up.

Your "experiences" back in the 1990s are outdated and irrelevant, Karen.

Quite defensive there! Are you homeschooling your children? Are you teaching them to insult other people online and call them "Karens" because they have a different POV than you? Sounds like the experiences I, and pps have had arent quite so outdated...

I'm not being defensive, Karen. I'm attacking you for being old and stupid. You don't need to teach kids to point out when others are being stupid, this comes quite naturally.

You must have amazing shoulder muscles from how quickly you dig your own grave.