Thread: Home school vs Regular Schools

who else was/is homeschooled? i am homeschooled....was my whole life....i love it...
what are the pros and cons

Damn, you're lucky

Public school for me for another few months, then I get to go to IMSA and maybe my life will get better.

My ideal experience would be that of unschooling, but I don't have the resources to pull that off, and schools main function for me is hanging out with my friends.

So what do you do with science, if you're into it? I'd like to have my own microscope and colony of fruit flies, but again, I don't have the resources to pull that off.

I looked into and considered home schooling for my son,

I can see the advantages and disadvantages, but now i'm glad i didn't.

He's an only child so he has the advantage of mixing with other kids at school

Plus they have all the equipment and the teachers more skills than me

Plus it's a nightmare sometimes getting him to do his homework so god only knows what it would have been like trying to get him to work at home!

I was homeschooled for 2 1/2 grades and I am excelling in my studies now. It seems fine to me.

I find that for children who grow up in cities, where often you rarely interact with your neighbours at all. The only place to meet and make friends for a child is school and sports. I met all my friends at school, I think I would have been a completely different person if I had been homeschooled.

On a level of quality of education, if the parent is capable then it is probably better. I went to a god awful public school, but I loved it. When I look back at my, as of yet, quite short life, I really enjoyed high school. On the other hand, some people have a bad time. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is it is a personal choice of the parent on what they think is best for their child.

It truly depends on the type of learner you are!

Originally Posted by fictionalreality

Damn, you're lucky

Public school for me for another few months, then I get to go to IMSA and maybe my life will get better.

My ideal experience would be that of unschooling, but I don't have the resources to pull that off, and schools main function for me is hanging out with my friends.

So what do you do with science, if you're into it? I'd like to have my own microscope and colony of fruit flies, but again, I don't have the resources to pull that off.

Could you train these flies to carry cattle fly eggs, and larva, just to law makers? Ha-ha. I might be able to get you a microscope. Ha-ha.


Sincerely,


William McCormick

The "con" is that 1 teacher probably isn't qualified to teach you about every subject and for anyone who chooses homeschooling I'd doubt their devotion to teaching a broad range of subjects anyway. How much does your average parent know about physics, chemistry, and calculus? I wouldn't bet much.

Originally Posted by Neutrino

The "con" is that 1 teacher probably isn't qualified to teach you about every subject and for anyone who chooses homeschooling I'd doubt their devotion to teaching a broad range of subjects anyway. How much does your average parent know about physics, chemistry, and calculus? I wouldn't bet much.

Hmm, well the average Science teacher has a basic university level education in math, physics, and chemistry, as well as humanities and English. Although, you are right, most teachers would be able to teach out of a pre-determined curriculum because they have learned it before. However, I wouldn't trust most teachers to design one in a field they aren't specialized in.

The only part of public school I like is influencing my students and teachers!
It feels great! Anyone know what I'm talking about?

I have not read in any home school, i have finished my studies at public school and did very well.

Homeschooling isn't as interactive as public schooling. What i mean is, unless you are very rich and can afford all the different technology that teachers incorporate in their classes nowadays, you wont benefit from all the educational technology revolutions going on. Also, in public schools you get to mingle with all sorts of people, and while no one is immune from enmity, you can also creata some lasting friendships. Public schools offer the sense of community and school pride and prestige. Homeschooling on the other hand is just a bit reclusive and isolated.

In public schools you sort of get a preview into the real world because of all the different kinds of people. With homeschooling, you dont have that opportunity. Another aspect of public schooling is their great facilities. Consider the school library/media center. Once again, unless you are just living in opulence, you probably dont have access to the many, many different genres of books a library can shelter. Thus, the public schools can provide innumerable resources. The school community influences you by allowing you to be a part of many different events and gatherings,contests, social happenings, etc. Public schooling is just a totally different concept than that of homeschooling. I think public schooling is the more preferrable choice of the two.

I went to public school and for me it was a big joy ride since all i really cared to do was talk and hang with friends. I also didn't pay alot of attention in class due to the other wiseguys that were around me.

If i had the ability to choose public/homeschool now and go back and do it all again, I would most certainly go with homeschooling. Imho it would have been alot quieter since my mother wouldn't have put up with alot of playing around and I would have spent more time studying and thinking on the matter at hand. Since I wouldn't have all the distractions to hinder me I think I would have been able to retain more than i did and progress at a faster pace then in the public school system.

A large part of the education you get from public schools isn't lesson based. It's learning to interact with other kids and authority figures and not being the center of attention all the time (how can you not be the center of attention when you're being taught one on one?). But homeschooling can clearly give better book learning, at least through elementary school. You have a focused and loving parent teaching one or maybe two or three kids. It's how children are biologically wired to learn.

So if you can somehow provide your kid with the same social lessons they'd get in public school (maybe through church and sunday school, or clubs and activities, or whatever) then they're better off being homeschooled.

And just for full disclosure: I was schooled in public schools from kindergarten all the way up through undergrad. I mostly enjoyed the experience, but if the aim was to teach me book knowledge it was extremely inefficient. But then I tended to be brighter than most kids my age. This did tend to produce a superiority complex at times, which is something I probably still struggle with. So if your kid is extremely bright public school might not be the best fit. Likewise for someone slightly subaverage, I imagine it would be a frustrating experience that could turn them off learning forever.

I would home-school my hypothetical kids, but every year ask if they want to go to public school this year.

Let them go, but if they want to, I would make them have to stay for a whole year, even if they decided not to half way through.

Curriculum is pretty basic all the way up to high school, and even then, it is easy to find resources on line, and it can be an experience for you to learn with your kids.

Even if my kid goes to public school, I would have a daily place in my child's education. Looking over homework and talking to them about different subjects in hopes of helping them develop critical thinking. Plus it is up to the parent to learn how their child learns and if your child's needs are not provided for in schools, you will have to provide for them at home.

I'm into gardening, so I would use these as teaching tools. Gardening can be used to teach math, especially geometry, chemistry and biology, albeit all of these are basic. They will help a child understand the practicality of a subject.

I was taught basic multiplication by a baby sitter. You don't need to "school" a child to teach them something. One paper a day, less than an hour of work a week, when you are very young, will teach you a lot.

If I had my way, I wouldn't have children unless I lived on a commune. They would be born by midwife, without papers. I would raise them according to their nature, "home" schooling, which would actually be community schooling. They would learn all about farming, the land and living sustainably, taking care of animals. We would have a community library where we would frequent to learn relevant information in a way that best suits my child's learning style. I would try my best though not to seclude my child from the outside world. I'd take my child with me whenever I went into town for supplies. We would spend the day "exploring" the cities and towns. I would use this to show why the commune exists. My child would have the freedom to decide what activities and subjects they would focus on, if they wanted to go to public school, that would be fine, if they want to take martial arts lessons, that is fine. But I will be a part of all of it, making sure the public schools take into account learning styles, and the martial arts teachers, teach the philosophy as well as the technique. If they do not, I will.

both systems have pros and cons and the choice is up to the parents.

I have a question... How does home school work, exactly? How will someone get their diplomas and shit? I'm sorry, from where I come from, there is no such thing. *shrugs*, I'm completely out of the loop here.

I think they do it by hours. I tried homeschooling in high school after dropping out. It must be quite different in the lower grades, other states, and other countries.

I live in Maine which is in the US. You need 19.5 credits to graduate in this state, though some schools require more.

I had to do 80 hours of work for a credit and could pretty much choose whatever I wanted to do since my mom worked most of the time. She would just need to sign something. I think all I ever did was read, and I might have gotten 2 English credits.

Looking back I wish I took it more seriously and actually thought of the great opportunity it was to learn whatever I wanted.

It can be pretty lame unless the child is very self motivated and/or the parent is present and knows how to stimulate a child's learning. I didn't fit into any of these and so I didn't graduate until much later through a program called Job Corps.

Considering my experiences with it, I wouldn't be surprised if some collages don't look that kindly on home schooling, but then again, most collages these days only care about the money.

How does home school work, exactly

you get a teacher who can spot a forged signature very accurately, who will not take crap and will send you to your room if you misbehave. also they are not afraid of the male parent leaving you no one to complain to when your teacher gives you too much homework or excessive corporal punishment.

the male parent will support your teacher 100% of the time especially if he wants sex that week.

yikes!

yeah, that sounds scary...

just adding a little humor to the topic.

The thing about interacting with other kids is mostly a non-issue. The vast majority of people who home-school are careful to make sure that their kids interact with other children frequently. Often all the home-schooler parents in a given area will set up standing appointments at a local park or something so that all of the kids can have "recess" together and interact. There are also loads of things like local sports teams, community groups, boy scouts, etc. that gives kids a chance to interact with other kids.

As for the parents being qualified, I can certainly see that being a problem...but I had some unbelievably incompetent teachers in my years of public schooling, so I doubt that incompetent teachers would be any more of a problem at home than at a public school.

Finally, there have been studies showing that kids who are home-schooled do better in college than those who go to public school. I'm too lazy to google up the references right now, but I'm sure anyone who wants to can find them.

The main thing that you are likely to miss out on by not going to a public school is learning to obey arbitrary or pointless rules, getting to follow "authority figures" blindly without explanation, and experiencing having your behavior tightly controlled pretty much every minute of the day.

Originally Posted by tritai

Homeschooling isn't as interactive as public schooling. What i mean is, unless you are very rich and can afford all the different technology that teachers incorporate in their classes nowadays, you wont benefit from all the educational technology revolutions going on.

I doubt most of it is really needed--I wonder if we focus on the wrong thing. I'd rather have a good teacher with a blackboard, some books and an oil lamp than a bad one with the best tech available.

My wife and home schooled our only son from third to fifth grade, after some disagreements with a school and few private school options where we lived. The wife taught English and learned enough history to teach that as well. I look up teaching math and sciences. It was a lot of work, probably a couple hours every day, but tremendously rewarding. By the time we got our son into public school he was nearly two years ahead of his average peer according to the school after a battery of test.

We supplemented the home schooling with scouting, a horse riding club, and home school club that met once a week to provide a social outlet.

Yeah...a friend of mine in college was home schooled for most of his life, and he said it's amazing how much less time it took him to do a day's studying than his friends at public school. He would start at 8:30, spend about 45 minutes each on math, science, history, english, and art or music, plus half an hour for lunch...and be done by 1:00 pm, at which point he was annoyed that he had to wait around for hours until his friends from public school got home. And then his friends would often had hours of homework, which he never did. Still managed to start college a year early and do better than most there.

Yeah...a friend of mine in college was home schooled for most of his life, and he said it's amazing how much less time it took him to do a day's studying than his friends at public school. He would start at 8:30, spend about 45 minutes each on math, science, history, english, and art or music, plus half an hour for lunch...and be done by 1:00 pm, at which point he was annoyed that he had to wait around for hours until his friends from public school got home. And then his friends would often had hours of homework, which he never did. Still managed to start college a year early and do better than most there.

maybe he was just smart.

i am torn over the issue. given what i know about public school systems and the alternative 'christian schools', not to mention expensive private ones. i am leaning towards home school.

i am not just thinkng about evolutionists in the science room but the illiteracy rate, the violence, the sexual attacks by both teachers and students and so on. (i have had to do research on these areas recently so don't think i do not know what goes on)

Originally Posted by archaeologist

maybe he was just smart.

That's certainly possible. But if he had gone to a public school he would almost certainly have had to go at the same pace as everyone else, even if it was needlessly slow for him.

that is the problem, teachers have to teach to all even though i had an ancient greek professor who only taught to the smart side of the room. he even had the class seating reflect the intelligence in the room so he could ignore the slower learners.

I have been through it all

I was in public schools from the age my first year of school till my 7th year, then did 3 years of home school then 2 years in a private school

12 in total thats how my country works(South Africa) grade 1 to grade 12

My life in public schools was between grade 1 and grade 7 I was in one of the strictest schools in my country, they beat us basically for anything but made 100% sure we knew the rules before they touched us, our headmaster was over 2 meters tall and there is no intimidating a guy like that, It was fun got into sport seriously and did about 5 hours worth of reading a day, that was our study schedule we sat in a hall and did homework for that long irrespective of the homework we had, so we read books like crazy.

3 years in home school was interesting(I have 2 sisters) and it was chilled, I did all my sports and exams at a proper school, just down the road from where I stay all in all I could wake up, take 2 steps sit down do a few hours work with the music blazing, then head off to do whatever else I felt like doing.

I wouldn't be who I am today unless I didn't have the home-schooling, my mom has a degree in Computer Science and Maths, and a masters in Computer programming, so from that perspective she was more than qualified to teach me pretty much anything. Thats if I needed the help which 9 times out of 10 I didn't, most of the time I just did the work. She also has a collection of books that cover everything from economics and psychology to chemistry and biology, with religion thrown into the mix, I read them all.

The 2 years of private school I went threw without any problems, I developed the ability to sit down and work straight threw at home school and I just applied this to school homework without a problem

I remember sometimes on weekends If I had a project I would work for 24 or even 48 hours barely moving I am still a student and use this ability even today

I can also say that even though I would get 70's at public schools, once I hit home school they jumped up to 90's and have stayed there ever since

I would say the biggest issue that developed as a direct consequence of the homeschooling was the fact that while there I had the ability to take my time and learn why what I was learning was important rather than just wrought learn, but now I struggle sometimes to do the raw learning I need in my degree, cause I no longer have the time to do the background research that I could do before and I guess my brain sits back there asking itself why I should learn this stuff, because I don't know.

Originally Posted by Neutrino

The "con" is that 1 teacher probably isn't qualified to teach you about every subject and for anyone who chooses homeschooling I'd doubt their devotion to teaching a broad range of subjects anyway. How much does your average parent know about physics, chemistry, and calculus? I wouldn't bet much.

not only the one teacher case but also the luck of social intercourse,,,in any case I think public schools are better

I would guess that happy children are grown on happy environments. If home is a happy environment he will be happy home-schooled.

I loved school because I wouldn't get my ass kicked all the time. If you're a child hitter, home-schooling you're children is a big no-no.

If you're planning on homeschooling it is still a good idea to enroll your kids in some "extracurricular activity" where they can mingle with other children.

Originally Posted by LucyParker

not only the one teacher case but also the luck of social intercourse,,,in any case I think public schools are better

I think in the private ones are better,, though you need to pay for it-not a small amount ((

Many studies have shown that home-schooled students actually go on to get higher SAT/ACT scores and do better in college than traditionally-schooled students. They were followed by private schools, with public schools finishing last. There have also been many studies showing no detectable difference in the social skills of home schooled vs. non-home schooled students. Just google "home schooling studies" or something similar for loads of references.