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

[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...