Just had a conversation about this with my barber (I didn't even bring it up--he knew I was an English teacher so he started telling me about it). Basically he keeps his daughter at home because he doesn't want her going to any of the local public schools (most of them are kind of dangerous and sketchy), but he doesn't have the time or ability to really give her a full education himself (English isn't even his first language--he's from Egypt) so he mostly relies on a tutor to teach her to read. He says he's going to put her in a public school soon because the tutor is too expensive and his daughter still can't read at the level of her age group. I'm not going to try to point this out as anything more than anecdotal, but I think it illustrates that there aren't really any clearcut alternatives to a public school system, for all its faults.
Originally posted by Time-Immemorial
If this was employed on a large scale, it might work. The idea of having to go to a school that looks like a prison needs to change.
Being homeschooled is much more of a prison since you're confined to the same building all the time and have the same figures of authority all the time 👆
Originally posted by krisblaze
Being homeschooled is much more of a prison since you're confined to the same building all the time and have the same figures of authority all the time 👆
I kinda went over that, that is a thing of the past being tied down at home.
Moving on
I have 3 friends that are brothers and were homeschooled. I grew up with them. One of them is now a Registered Nurse and does traveling nursing, another owns his own landscaping company, the other works for a large tech company.
I have another friend who I grew up with who went to private school. He has his MBA, he was deans list through his entire undergrad and graduate, he lives at home and works as a cashier at a gym smoothie restaurant.
Something is right with the first three examples, and wrong with the second example.
Originally posted by krisblaze
Actually, how the **** is the world going to go around if every other person is busy teaching their kids?
Originally posted by krisblaze
If these kids don't need teachers, then why the **** are they graduating high school without learning how to read?
Ok I see we have resorted to swearing and cussing when I was having a simple conversation with you.
Originally posted by Bardock42
State schools are necessary, not everyone can be homeschooled, and a lot of parents are not fit to homeschool children anyways. I am in favour of private options as long as they have to adhere to certain minimum requirements. And while state schools may be in need of a lot of reform and increased funding, they are still a necessary part of societies staying stable.
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Originally posted by Time-Immemorial
People are graduating who can't even read. Especially in the black communities, this is the current state of the public school system.
The answer in these situations isn't home school. The home situations of the most at-risk kids are routinely the worst.
Originally posted by Ushgarak
I can think of little more indoctrinating than taking children away from school and leaving them purely to the influence of the household. School has an essential value in exposing people to ideas.
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Originally posted by Ushgarak
Homeschooling is the preserve of the middle class privileged set- like I say, the type of kids who do well at school in any case. Comparing the achievements of a relatively elite subsection against that of the entirety of society is a false comparison.
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Basically, TI is touching on a valid topic of concern in society, but lacks proper context, and seems to conflate poor areas with public schools as a whole.
As a former teacher, the success of a child in school was almost directly correlative to the emphasis their parents placed on education. Seriously, take out ANY other variables, and this remains one of the best indicators of academic success. So the ones whom the public schools were failing were, inevitably, the ones who had the roughest home lives. I.e. the worst situations for potential home schooling. The sad truth is that, if you trace the problem to its roots, it's more an economic issue than an education one. A comprehensive solution will never come from education alone, but will have to coincide with either increased funding for various programs and/or a less stark contrast in opportunity between the poor and middle class.
Originally posted by Time-Immemorial
The teachers union is out in force.
That's...not a rebuttal. I also have no political pony in this race. I'm entirely removed from the profession. But some really, really obvious observations from the profession seem to disagree with some of what you've posted; like the correlation between economic factors and academic success, and how home schooling is an inadequate response to this. I'd love a solution to this. I just don't see it in home schooling. Do you have an actual response?