Ask Slashdot: Pros and Cons of Homeschooling?

VorpalRodent writes: I went to a private school for about 6 years, then completed my education at the local public school, going on to get a couple undergraduate degrees and a postgraduate degree. My wife dropped out of high school and got her equivalency many years later. Now, she wants to homeschool our son.

There is a significant body of literature which indicates that homeschoolers outperform their traditionally schooled counterparts academically, regardless of the level of education of the parent, and she certainly cares more now that she's older. I don't like anecdotes, but I certainly haven't seen the research borne out in any of the people that I know who were homeschooled. More importantly, it seems like the only reason my wife wants to homeschool is because she doesn't want to let go.

Our son would be going into Kindergarten this coming year. I'm interested in some rational discussion on this, since it seems like the only viewpoints I've ever seen on the matter are "Better academics" vs. "Social interaction," both of which are gross oversimplifications. It doesn't help that I can't find any statistical information on post-schooling outcomes.

Comments

Dick

[Ydna]

You are acting like a controlling dickhead. Don't be a dick!

As an academic homeschooling parent

[chuckymonkey]

I'll tell you this, it's way more difficult and far more expensive/time consuming than you might imagine. You should also be very clear about your reasons for doing this, keeping the kid at home is not one of those reasons. I know several homeschooled kids like that and they're a bit stunted, you have to make sure to get out and be active a lot more as well. Look around in your area for enrichment programs, for instance our kids go to public school 1 day per week. It's fantastic, and they make a lot of friends plus get that more structured school environment. Make sure that you're doing this for the right reasons. Finally, it takes an unbelievable amount of discipline from you both as parents. My wife and I are up late hours every week making sure that we have lessons ready, making tests, basically doing the things normal teachers do. If you're still reading and serious about this, it's also very rewarding. Seriously, if you do this right your kid will be light years ahead. You do it wrong and you'll really fuck up your kid's future.

Re:christ man

[ShanghaiBill]

Your dumb wife versus decades of teaching experience and tested/proven techniques.

Home schooled children, on average, score in the 70-80th percentile on achievement tests.
Very few educational fads are "tested" and even fewer are "proven".

Here is an article that provides an overview of home schooling results.
And for balance, here is an alternative viewpoint.

Disclaimer: My kids attend public school, but I do a lot of supplemental home schooling on the weekends, focusing on stuff the schools don't teach: programming, robotics, electronics, wood and metal working, survival skills, etc.

Re:As a parent, which requires no testing or licen

[whoever57]

I would heartily recommend investigating the choices for charter and non-traditional schools.

We live in the attendance area for some of the best schools in California, yet educated our kids in a hybrid manner. Our kids "attended" a charter school that supported homeschooling. They had monthly meetings with their teacher and some specialized classes. When they were older, they could take classes at the local community college and get high school credit for this. Utlizing the local networks of homeschoolers, my kids got plenty of social interaction with other kids.

They all succeeded academically, going on to graduate from excellent universities.

Re:Awkward...

[ShanghaiBill]

Your kid needs to be properly socialized in a structured environment.

There are many opportunities for socializing outside of school. They can play with neighborhood kids after school, or join a group activity like boy scouts or girl scouts. When my son was in cub scouts, several boys in his pack were home schooled. They were just normal boys that fit in with no problem.

Re: As a parent, which requires no testing or lice

[clorkster]

The certification argument is almost entirely a red herring for two major reasons. First, if you ask most teachers with certifications, you'll find that a massive portion of their education was based on classroom administration and not effectively communicating specific subject matter. Secondly, most home school curriculum are not based on in seat teacher to student instruction (though there are a plethora of online options if you choose that style). They are generally based on classical education which relies heavily on teaching children a love for reading with a heavy emphasis on classics and an ability to go seek and find answers for one's self.

yes, half-time, one day, cooperatives. Many option

[raymorris]

This is an important point. It isn't a binary choice between the typical public school (government school) or homeschooling by yourself. There are charter schools, there are schools that run half days and you homeschooled the other half. There are schools that meet one day per week. There are schools where you select which classes to send them to school for and which to do at home.

I was surprised to learn that in my town of about 90,000 households, 1,000 of those homeschooled their kids. That's 1,000 partners to work with. Families share curriculums, there are homeschool sports teams who play against the government schools, and parents teach small classes of three or four other students. So maybe we'll have three or four kids from other families come over for math class, or business or computers, while our daughter goes to music class taught by a friend who is a career musician.

Figure 1,000 families is about 1,800 parents. There are probably some parents who are chemists, some professional musician somebody runs an art studio, etc. So I don't have to teach my daughter art - she can do that at her friend's mother's art studio, then I teach her and her friend computer and technology stuff.

Anyway, there are a LOT of different options. In my area there are "crunchy" homeschool groups, specifically non-crunchy groups ... many choices.

Pros and Cons

[unimacs]

We only homeschooled for a year but here's how I see it:

Pros:
Academics - sky is the limit
Flexible Schedule
Can be tailored to suit the individual child
Have more control over who your kid spends their time with*


Cons:
Danger of controlling too much of your child's life*
Expense - you've got to provide all your own materials
Have to be careful of materials and programs made available to homeschoolers, - often have a political bent
Takes a lot of time to prepare and execute, - especially as the kids get older

Re:As a parent, which requires no testing or licen

[arth1]

Try again yourself.

The very first words in the study state:

This exploratory study examines the academic outcomes of homeschooled students who enter a
medium size doctoral institution located in the Midwest.

And later on:

Limitations
As mentioned in the previous section, the homeschooled student population used in this study attended a single institution. Additionally, the number of homeschool students is relatively small. As such, the results of this analysis should not be considered inferential to the general population of undergraduate students in the US. Rather, the results of this research should be considered a starting point in order to better understand academic outcomes of homeschool students entering postsecondary education.

I.e. it is biased from the start, excluding those homeschooled kids who did not pursue higher education. It only compares those who attended regular schools with homeschooled students who made it to posteecondary education.
It ignores all the failures who never made it that far.

Re:Why different in America?

[penix1]

There are 3 main types of schooling in America.

1. Public schools -- These are schools funded by public sources such as taxes and lottery earnings, etc.. They are often portrayed as crime ridden and failing in educating but this is often a function of the community they are in. Poorer communities tend to have poorer public education systems. It does have the advantage of socializing that other types of education lack (more on this later).

2. Charter / private schools -- These are schools that derive their funding from private sources such as tuition or through vouchers for poorer families. In the case of religious private schools, they also concentrate on their religious teachings as well as the standard curriculum. You find these in richer communities and they have the advantage over public schools because they can pick and choose whether the student will attend. Many see them as siphoning out the best students from the public school system and reducing the resources availible to public schools.

3. Home schooling -- This is where the student is taught at home for various reasons (some valid, some not) mostly for the reason of the perception that the previously mentioned types do not suit the needs or beliefs of the parents. The difficulty with home schooling is one of credentialing and certifying that the state approved requirements are being met. Home schooling requires a much higher degree of involvement on the part of the parents which often can't be the case due to the necessity of having both parents working to make ends meet. You do mostly see home schooling being done by parents who either have a high degree of distrust in the public forms of education or have a religious reason. Lastly, there are some areas that are remote or that have extreme weather conditions where home schooling is the norm. But these circumstances are fewer in the US because of the extensive network of public / private schools available and public funding of busing.

Personally, I think home schooling is a bad thing for kids since it doesn't teach them the proper socialization they will need as adults. It is often done for all the wrong reasons in all the wrong ways which can and often does hold the child back making things worse for that kid. And as the poster of this article has noted, it does tend to be the parents that can't let go of their offspring that want to keep them home all the time. This is unhealthy IMO. I personally believe that home schooling should be the choice of last resort since it does require a much higher degree of commitment from parents which often can't be met especially in poorer communities.