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?"

Comments

Re:Well..

[quantax]

I know two people who have done this, one was socially inept and the other was 'normal' for a geek. The socially inept one was not a very nice person IMO, and treated other people with contempt and was generally apathetic towards others. The online schooling sure did not help this as he only got worst (I hung out with the individuals in an IRC channel) with time. The other guy is fine and is currently going to a university.

I definitely see your point and agree with it, but it depends largely upon the person involved, whether they have the mental maturity to get something out of it. Even though I hated HS and most of the people in it, it has helped me deal with people in college (who, guess what, come from HS, its the same deal), and thus the real world. If this is being use as an emotional shield, that is unhealthy and could screw you in the long run, regardless of educational benefits. The best way to deal with the 'real world' is to experience it as soon as possible and realize how it works. Those who jump in after a life of non-interaction usually end up screwed in some way, whether it be drug binging or in general just not being able to make any friends.

home schooling

[zogger]

--instead of asking here per se, a better bet is to seek out your local home schooling organization and get some recommendations from "been there, done that, this is good and this isn't, etc" folks as you'll not only get the actual info, but it will come with the hoops that are needed to jump through that are specific to your location. These are a big variable it appears, state by state.

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. They learn to clique up. The public schools have changed a lot, they are more social engineering propoganda brainwashing centers then houses of education it seems. They learn to conform and be politically correct and to not "think", only parrot approved dogma.

Yes, I know this is a generalization, this is a general topic, obvviously exceptions exist in both spheres.

Good luck on your quest for real education. And google will find you course outlines if that's all you want. I've forgotten the name but I know there are complete k to 12 outlines available on CD's for reasonable, but I honestly have forgotten the name of them right now.

Re:home schooling

[MrResistor]

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."

Re:home schooling

[schon]

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.

Re:Well..

[MrResistor]

I couldn't agree more. I have not known anyone who has done HS online, but I've known plenty of people who were home schooled, and they all have the same basic problems you describe. Some of them are OK, but all to many of them are impossible to be around.

I imagine online schooling would be even worse. At least with normal home schooling they need to go in and meet with their teacher once a week.

Thought for other posters....

[TibbonZero]

I know that some of you are going to give useless answers such as:
Shouldn't you kid get the social experiences of High School?
Don't do that, get your kid back in High School.
Teach him yourself, don't use online stuff
etc...

This is the worst thing that I can see about Slashdot. People think that those asking questions want life advice, instead of a simple answer. But really, they just want a simple answer. Too often I see questions of "How can I implement this in my school" or something liek that, and people go and just try to convince them that it's not a good idea, instead of answering the question that they asked. If they wanna use Linux in elemetary schools, let them- if they wanna have their kid go through High School online, let them; and give them good advice on how to do it- let them device whether it's the best thing to do. They didn't ask your opinion whether they should...
I am sure that everyone here knows what I am talking about...

Totaly

[commonchaos]

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.

Slashdot is not an emotionless tech database

[GuyMannDude]

You're welcome to your opinion, TibbonZero, but I strongly disagree. I am one of those posters that apparently aggrevates you and I plan to continue to post my opinions on these AskSlashdot forums.

This is the worst thing that I can see about Slashdot.

Well, apparently you and I have very different ideas about what this forum is good for. Yes, slashdot is a place where technically competant people hang out. But these people are (for the most part) very thoughtful and intelligent as well. And they have opinions that are worth listening to. Some of them may even have experience with these sorts of problems and would like to share the lessons they learned.

People think that those asking questions want life advice, instead of a simple answer. But really, they just want a simple answer.

Tough bananas. Sometimes these people need to be forced to think about the larger issues. Let's say someone here has already gone this path with their child and found out the hard way that the whole idea is horribly flawed (in their opinion, of course). Are you saying that this person doesn't have a right to share their experiences if they stray away from a simple answer like what software to use?

Slashdot is a forum where highly intelligent and very opinionated people gather to trade points of view with each other. We aren't a friggin' tech support line! ANYONE who posts to AskSlashdot is inviting a critique of their overall approach and philosophy. If they aren't willing to listen to that sort of stuff they can (a) choose to ignore the non-technical comments they get or (b) go ask their questions on a different forum (online or offline) or, god forbid, (c) do a Google search.

GMD

Digital Bridges resource

[Stavo]

For those interested in distance learning, you might find our resource useful: http://www.netc.org/digitalbridges/ We are the Northwest Education Technology Consortium (NETC) at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL), a private, nonprofit institution. We are not affiliated with any company or distance learning project. See: http://www.netc.org/ and http://www.nwrel.org/

Re:Well..

[gallen1234]

It seems that this tired argument is raised every time some heretic has the nerve to suggest that the public schools might not be right for their children. For some people the public school environment is great, for others it isn't. Deciding which is the case for a given child is a job for parents not bureacrats.

Re:Socialization / Not High School

[ameoba]

You're obviously new here. If you stop for a second and think about who we (the slashdot community) are, you'll realize that reading/posting to slashdot is entertainment for us. As such, we are in no way obligated to answer your questions exactly how you want them answered; in fact, by asking your questions in a public forum such as this, you're opening yourself up to all sorts of opinions.

Now, back to the original story... perhaps we could could use a bit more information about this "teenage family member who has left the formal education system". How old is he, and why did he leave the system? Based on my experience, most people who drop-out do so for bullshit reasons that are pure cop-outs.

The answers can vary widely based on his motivation for dropping out. A physically disabled student who doesn't get their needs met by the school system is entirely different than a kid who just doesn't want to get out of bed in the morning or wants to smoke pot all day. A kid who always gets beat up is going to have different needs than somebody who doesn't feel that classes are challenging enough.

Without knowing _WHY_ this kid is dropping out, we have to assume that he, like the vast majority of drop outs, is doing it 'cuz it's the "easy way out" of a situation that actually (**GASP**) sets standards & has expectations of them.

If that assumption is incorrect, a clarification is definately in order.

Assuming that the kid actually wants to learn, and is at least (based on an HONEST evaluation) of average intelligence & learning for a kid his age, I think the best thing to do would be to take a high-school equivalency test (in Washington it's called the GED, and most HS students who pay attention could pass it in their freshman year) and take college level classes, either online or at a local CC. Especially if you go through a community college, the classes, while being somewhat accelerated, would be at an appropriate level, and a GED + Associates degree is a lot more useful than a HS diploma. On top of that, college level classes are going to be easier to check up on; solid accreditation requirements, and multiple organizations rating them, and a far larger selection of organizations providing the service.