Slashdot Mirror
Taking High School Classes, Online?
AtariDatacenter asks: "I have a teenage family member who has left the formal education system and we're wanting to enroll him into an accredited online high school curriculum. Happily, this is his wish as well. There seems to be a few services available online, but it is hard to tell very much about them from the outside. What should we be looking for? Are there any good deals (as far as quality or cost) out there?"
Isn't there something to be said that going through the social experiences, good and bad, of high school is important in the development of an adult?
Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot to be said, the real question is: what is to be said? I drives me nuts when people tell me that, per education, I need "broaden my horizens" and be "well rounded" BECAUSE that's just stereo-typing me, what my future is, and what my educational needs are. Isn't stereo-typing "you need to go to HS to be an adult" just as bad? Many people didn't get anything from HS but misery and scars. How does make someone a mature adult?
Karma: Bizzare (mostly affected by varying internal caffeine levels.)
I know that in California you can take a standardized test which, aside from being a piece of cake, will make you a high school graduate in the eyes of the state. I have many friends who took this test around 16, attended community college for their Jr. and Sr. years in high school, then transferred into a 4 Year.
With that said the "no social life" bugaboo is a red herring that detractors use. Any kid can have a social life. I know families with public only educated, private bricks and mortar only educated, and home schooled. On a scale of adjusted-normal to weird I'd give the nod to the public school kids as being more or less less educated, less informed, and their only acceptable normal behavior seems to revolve around wearing the same clothes in a trendy manner.
Let's see where those home schooled kids are when they're 25.
The idea that the social aspects of school are a red herring seems to be based entirely only the immediately observable. The home schooled kids don't belong to cliques or follow trends, and they seem to have more "book learning" (which I assume is what you mean by saying they are more informed/better educated). OK, great, but where does that get them?
5 years down the road they still haven't learned to fit in. They have serious social problems, which all to often lead to other problems with drugs and alcohol (and sex, well, the girls anyway) which only exacerbate the social problems making it even more difficult for them to find/make friends. They often have difficulty handling pressure or criticism, but at the same time are very arrogant and have no trouble criticizing others.
Yes, these are generalizations, and yet they hold true for every single person I've met who was home schooled. Some of them have been tolerable, but all too many have been highly irritating.
It is not an issue of "no social life", obviously that is easily worked around. The issue is one of social education, which is very hard to get without putting the kid in a school situation. If that valuable social experience is a red herring, well, so is your assertion that all kids learn in public school is to "conform and be politically correct and to not 'think', only parrot approved dogma."
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
5 years down the road they still haven't learned to fit in. They have serious social problems, which all to often lead to other problems with drugs and alcohol (and sex, well, the girls anyway) which only exacerbate the social problems making it even more difficult for them to find/make friends.
Hello,
I was home schooled.
I am 30 years old, have been happily married for 4 years, have a good job, and am well-adjusted. I have a lot of friends, who generally say that I'm an OK guy.
I have never used drugs (I saw what it did to my friends, and decided it wasn't for me), and although I used to be a social drinker (typically wine at parties), I haven't had any since I got engaged (my wife's family has a history of alcoholism, and she asked me to say away from it.)
Yes, these are generalizations, and yet they hold true for every single person I've met who was home schooled.
Maybe you need to reassess your generalisms.. how do you know that all the other people you know who are well-adjusted aren't home schooled? Did you ask everyone, or do you just assume it because they don't fit your prejudiced view?
And what about all the drunkards and drug addicts I know that weren't home schooled? I could argue that it's the school system that caused their problems too!
About the only thing that home schooling lacks is physical education and sports - both of which are tough to do in a home environment, but neither of which cause "damage" if withheld.
The issue is one of social education, which is very hard to get without putting the kid in a school situation.
Bullshit. In case you hadn't noticed, kids are supposed to go to school to learn to read and write, not to socialize.
Social education is a matter of parenting - if your parents are lousy communicators, then you'll get a lousy social education - simply putting someone in a school won't fix that. After school hours and vacation gives kids lots of time to socialize.
I am a student in a regular high school, but I leave school early and come home to take two classes at FLVS [http://www.flvs.net/]. They offer just about every class you need to take to pass high school in Florida, and they have a rather large amount of AP classes too.
The teaching is done based upon reading lessons and submitting assignments/quizzes based upon them. If you need special help, you email your instructor. Otherwise, your instructor grades papers and sends them back your way.
As far as social skills, it is absolutely nothing like what I do in other classes. For example, my AP Calculus BC class [which I take at normal high school] regularly has chat room study halls, and everyone has eachother's email and im address for help. Our teacher is signed on every night [I'll admit, he is not the most social person... his life basically consists of teaching. This can vary from awesome to dismal depending on your point of view.] FLVS is much more like reading a text book and doing the same type of work over and over. You learn from it, it is just that it gets boring. There is no real social setting [100 page parties, free days, after school study sessions, etc]. The only way you meet your fellow students are through weekly discussions in a few classes, and those really aren't as social as a discussion in a real class. The fascists make you stick to the topic and only the topic... you aren't even allowed to bring in a real life experience to clarify your point of view.