Your View On Homeschooling?
 

A California appellate court has just ruled that children being homeschooled must be taught by accredited, licensed tutors. This would essentially make homeschooling impossible for most parents.

I'm not that interested in whether the court's decision was legally "correct". Apparently there was clear precedent that the court followed.

Incidentally, Governor Arnold has stated he supports homeschooling and suggested changes to California law.

I'm more interested in views on homeschooling. Do you think it is a good idea? Do you know anyone who homeschools their kids? What, if any, controls should there be on homeschooling - e.g. evaluations every couple of years to make sure the kids have learned the basics, etc? Or just leave it up to the parents to do as they will?

Myself - I only know one family who homeschools their kids. The parents are highly educated, the mother stays at home and devotes a lot of time to this, and the kids are great - literate, intelligent, well-adjusted, etc. So based on a sample of exactly one, I - well, I guess I can't really reach any conclusion.

Thoughts, information, arguments?

Not a huge fan, but it depends on where you live.

If my son was of age to start school now, and we could not afford a private school WE WOULD.

Not a huge sample, but most of the ones I've known have done it because the kid has some problem dealing with other kids and/or otherwise coping at school.

So rather than address the underlying issues (the kid is going to have to deal with the cold cruel world without being tied to mommy's apron strings sooner or later), the parents eliminate the immediate problem (i.e., the other kids/school).

I suppose if one lived in a remote area or one which otherwise had no decent other alternative. But hard to see why one would do that in an area that had regular (either public or private) schools available to them.

The kids in your example, how old are they now? IMO, they could be fine now, most kids would like to stay home with mommy. But there's just a lot of socializing and other lessons, not all of which are fun but are valuable, that can't be duplicated by mommy.

When I married my wife, she had been home schooling the girls (ages 6 & 7). I told her that I was flatout against it and talked her into sending them to a private school till sixth grade then they went to the public highschool (my oldest struggled her first year at "real school" but then caught up just fine). Several other families that went to the same church as my wife were into the home schooling thing also. I am SO HAPPY our girls went to regular school with regular kids! While not the rule, I think a good portion of families make the decision to home school in an attempt to shield their kids from an immoral society. IMO, many of these kids (note: I did not say all) miss out on life lessons and they get a rude awakening when they have to transition to the real world.

My oldest is nearing completion of her first year of college with nearly straight A's and my youngest is nearing graduation from public highschool with a 3.85 GPA and a 27 ACT score. Neither drink or do drugs and neither have tattoos or nose rings. YMMV :D

Great point, keeping the kids home is no way to prepare them for the real world.

This is close to real

http://www.southparkzone.com/episodes/313/Hooked-on-Monkey-Phonics.html

In this instance I think the law is actually not necessarily a bad thing. While I generally dislike legislation that reinforces "the system" and dependence upon it, in this case I think there are too many people that exploit the "home schooling" loophole to simply keep their kids home, introverted and under-educated. The kids ultimately lose.

I'm sure there are some really great home school parents that give way better educations to their kids than they'd ever get in one of our overcrowded, prison-like, gang-infested slumholes called "schools" here in CA, but they're probably FAR in the minority.

Not to make this a racial thing, but one of the worst offenders (so I'm told) is the hispanic community - both legal and illegal. For "cultural reasons" a lot of these families do not value conventional education. Children are taught at an early age to only value having a strong back and the ability to do manual labor, since that's the only way the parents have ever known to survive. As such, a lot of these kids get kept out of the schools under the excuse/loophole of "home schooling" and ultimately become a self-fulfilling prophecy (i.e. "they're only good for manual labor" because they lack even basic education) when they could potentially be so much more and determine their own paths in life, rather than simply defaulting to what their parents tell them.

In this sense - that it will benefit the kids and increase assimiliation - it's a good thing. The downside (and perhaps the reality) is that it will only create more overcrowding in the schools, higher gang recruitment and more dropouts. Like most government "good intended" legislation, it will almost certainly fail and create more problems than it solves, and cost a lot of taxpayer money.

IMO, this ruling sucks! Why? Not everybody can afford private schooling. Not everybody wishes their children to be educated (or is it introctinated?) with the situational ethics AND liberal politics being taught in today's government schools.

Home School students often whip their government schooled counterparts in standardized testing. Does this mean they are taught only to perform well in the testing? I dunno. But I also think government school students are taught to perform for the tests.

Bottom line? The teachers union loves this ruling...others don't. Count me among the others.

You see, in my opinion, this ruling tends to make children "the property of the state". Parents now have less to say about the education, and more importantly, the values they instill on their children.

Another way to put it...If I'd wanted my daughter to become a liberal head full of mush? I could have taught her that at home.

Just more info:

In NC you have to have a min. of a bachelors degree to give the exams or what ever it is that is turned into the state for that grade.

More to the point, I'm sure there's some sort of a "processing fee" or other such revenue-generating initiative tied to it. I don't even have to read the text of the bill to know it's there someplace. . .

I know LOTS of people that home-school.

Some do it because of behavioral issues with their kids, some do it because of moral issues with the public curricula, some do it because they think the public schools are too academically lax. If you think that homeschooling is a parent waking up in the morning and saying: "Today we're going to learn about biology. We're taking a tour of the Anheuser-Busch brewery to learn about yeast...", you are very wrong. They must have their kids pass the appropriate state and federal tests appropriate for their grade-level. There is a whole industry of home-school materials, including lesson plans, textbooks, workbooks, tests and so on. Most of the people I know that home-school have a room in their house that is the "classroom", and they work with other home-schooling parents to coordinate field trips, tests, and other activities.

I'm kind of torn on the issue myself. I think the liberal education system loads curricula with politically-charged content--trying to indoctrinate the kids young when they are not mature enough to think for themselves. On the other hand, I think learning how to interact with other kids is vital to a child's development.

So your choices are either misguided kids or socially inept kids. I don't know which is better (or worse).

That being said, I am 100% convinced that this is NONE of the government's business. Parent's should have absolute authority on how to raise their kids. Thank God this kooky idea would never fly in Illinois with all of the Amish here...

Wife and I home schooled our middle child daughter; she just did not fit in with mainstream public schools and was mostly a big nerd like her dad.
She was diagnosed ADHD where public education wrote her off as a problem child, she just rubbed teachers the wrong way, we even tried private schools!

That was 11 years ago, she has since graduated from a top college and has one stellar future at this point!
Some kids just do not fit the system; my youngest and oldest fit it just fine, while my middle child just floundered.

It was a battle every step of the way with the school system and lost revenue, but I love her and always had the faith!

I agree with Porsche-o-phile. I am sure for a few thousand dollars an average parent can become an accredited and licensed tutor.

Only if agreed to by the teacher union. Which IS the most financially and politically powerful "political lobby" in our country, Follow the money..

I would be willing to wager the CTA had more than a little to do with this ruling.

Lot of people home schooled in Texas, but they lived out in BFE for the most part.

Kids don't learn to socialize with any facility unless they are around people their own age. Most of the home school kids seemed okay, only half a bubble off center, but were probably in for a rude awakening when they went away to college. No follow up on any though

My initial reaction after reading the story this morning was that a court shouldn't be deciding how parents wish to educate their child(ren).

I realize there are pros and cons, but I think I feel the same way now as I did this morning.

I think my opinion is based upon the principle that the court should stay out of this, for better or for worse.

FWIW.

Best,

Kurt

I use to think that many "home schooled" their kids because they were just too smart for the public school where they lived. Now I see it as a great way to deal with issues and problems in a form that is most convenient to the parent. I guess under the right parents, it could be a great learning environment. Unfortunately I don't see that all the time. As the previous poster has stated, its any easy way to deal with problems. I guess if you kid lives at home until he's 40, everything should work out fine.

Bingo!

Best,

Kurt

Kurt? You don't understand...in many liberal minds, children are to be raised by the state...Meaning, "educated" in all thoughts, by the "trained professionals" who
"teach" in the government schools. Parents? They are there only to provide the raw material and pay the tax money...After all..they, the teacher's union members, are the pros. What could any mere parent know about raising a child???

Ain't that the truth!

At least my mama and daddy learned me good without no fancy teachin' papers. :D

Seriously, the sad part is a lot of parents subscribe to what you wrote and take a passive role in raising their kids.

Best,

Kurt

When the state says what you can do / not do with your kids it truly has gone too far! Some of the best educated kids i have known have been Home.S. and way ahead of public rhetoric.
To fall into the states idea of right and wrong is akin to Nazism..........No dobt it would start in Ca.
No doubt....complasent people,,watching their youg ones eyes picked out by the sea gulls of govt.
Where will original thought come from ??