Home Schooling

[*bfine32*]

The recent tragic situation in California got me wondering what folk's views are on home-schooling children.

Are you for it/ against it, should they be allowed/required to participate on the school's athletic teams/ extra curricular activities, what would you mandate they be required to do ect....

Evidently Cali has very limited requirements.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/no-rules-for-california-home-schools-where-13-found-captive/ar-AAuNnNj?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=ientp

I don't think I have ever seen a home schooled kid earn average or below grades on an academic transcript.

[GMDino]

(01-17-2018, 03:06 PM)bfine32 Wrote: The recent tragic situation in California got me wondering what folk's views are on home-schooling children.

Are you for it/ against it, should they be allowed/required to participate on the school's athletic teams/ extra curricular activities, what would you mandate they be required to do ect....

Evidently Cali has very limited requirements.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/no-rules-for-california-home-schools-where-13-found-captive/ar-AAuNnNj?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=ientp

I don't think I have ever seen a home schooled kid earn average or below grades on an academic transcript.

I don't know the grades of homeschooled children versus those that attend school, but I have always been wary of homeschooling only because the ones I know of personally didn't turn out so well.

I have two cousins (brother and sister) that went to Catholic school then public school then were home schooled.  

Without getting into details of their lives/troubles my concern is that bad/lax parents can produce bad kids and if they are in charge of their education also it probably won't turn out well.

Our district does have a cyber schooling program that they rave about, but I've only just gotten involved with the school board and don't know much about it.

[hollodero]

Depends. I'm tentatively against it for the reason that school also is a place where kids learn social behaviour, interaction and such. Also, because of instances like those in the link, or other examples where home-schooling is used to brainwash kids to not question the parents' beliefs or religion or whatever.

[CKwi88]

I know we live in a day and age where virtually all regulation is viewed as "bad" but home schooling needs it. There needs to be some sort of accountability for parents who would pretend to be educators. Not everyone is cut out to be a teacher.

There need to be standards that a prospective home schooling family needs to meet. Educators need licenses and certification, home schooling should be no different. There should be continuing education requirements, much like there are for teachers. The teaching facilities themselves should be inspected and ruled as adequate (which could have prevented this) as well.

While the topic of standardized testing merits it's own conversation, home schooled learners (and educators) should be held to the same standards. 

Home schooling is a fine idea in itself, but simply having gone to school does not mean that you are qualified to be a teacher. People who think they are qualified to home school are more often than not woefully unqualified.

[fredtoast]

I have seen many children in national spelling bees and other academic comeptitions that were homeschooled. I also have two cousins who were home schooled and they are illiterate. I have no problem with home schooling but it needs to be regulated. My cousin's wife who was supposed to be homeschooling her kids was just too lazy to send them to school.

The biggest issue I would have is extra curricular activities like sports, bad, drama, and such. I feel that these experiences are an important part of education, but I am not sure how to address the issue of home schooled kids being allowed to participate in school activities like this.

[Vas Deferens]

But who is going to teach these kids that math is the language of the devil?

[*bfine32*]

My issue is that I have never seen a Home Schooled student with a low GPA. I find that this can sometimes give them an advantage with applying for academic scholarships, ect...

I wonder if there is a record anywhere that lists class failure rate for home schooled kids as I would wager it is drastically lower than in public education and I'm not 100% sold on the fact that it is simply because they are more gifted students and/or their parents are more gifted instructors.

I personally do not feel your parents should be your sole instructor. Suggestions I would have is allowing parents to instruct certain lessons; while making some lessons required by a state certified institution or a home school coop where if you want to home school you do it as a community and other parents must teach your child various subjects.  

[BmorePat87]

People should have the right to home school, but there needs to be state standards and some form of home check ins to ensure it is rigorous.

They should have the right to participate in activities at their local school with the same requirements as others.

[BmorePat87]

(01-17-2018, 05:59 PM)bfine32 Wrote: I personally do not feel your parents should be your sole instructor. Suggestions I would have is allowing parents to instruct certain lessons; while making some lessons required by a state certified institution or a home school coop where if you want to home school you do it as a community and other parents must teach your child various subjects.  

Coops are what I was thinking would be the ideal home school scenario. They can engage socially, they can do extracurricular activities, and the parents pool the resources to ensure there's a qualified instructor for every subject. Smaller classroom sizes than private and likely cheaper too. 

[NATI BENGALS]

Im fine with home schooling. But there should be a final standardized test.

After each grade/ school year. Home school kids must go pass a test administered at the local public school. Not online. Not at home with the parents.

Comprehensive exam that covers all the basics that would have been taught in public school that year. 65% or better passes. Kid fails twice in their 1-12 career parent loses homeschooling privileges for that child.

Or something like that

[Belsnickel]

(01-17-2018, 05:59 PM)bfine32 Wrote: My issue is that I have never seen a Home Schooled student with a low GPA. I find that this can sometimes give them an advantage with applying for academic scholarships, ect...

I wonder if there is a record anywhere that lists class failure rate for home schooled kids as I would wager it is drastically lower than in public education and I'm not 100% sold on the fact that it is simply because they are more gifted students and/or their parents are more gifted instructors.

I personally do not feel your parents should be your sole instructor. Suggestions I would have is allowing parents to instruct certain lessons; while making some lessons required by a state certified institution or a home school coop where if you want to home school you do it as a community and other parents must teach your child various subjects.  

It's interesting, I thought along the same lines as you. Then I did a little searching. Now, this article is a little old, now, but it reports:

Quote:Research shows that home-schooled students are certainly capable of adjusting to the college curriculum academically – home-schooled students generally score slightly above the national average on both the SAT and the ACT and often enter college with more college credits. Studies have also shown that on average home-schooled students have higher grade point averages in their freshman years and have higher graduation rates than their peers.

I'm guessing you were talking high school GPAs, if not, my mistake, but it seems like they come in college doing pretty well.

Overall, I'm of the same mindset that seems to be prevalent on here. It's fine, but there needs to be standards. Most school systems have liaison positions that work with home schooling families to insure things like state standards are being met. If there is an accountability there, I'm all for it. I also don't have as big a problem with home schooled children participating in sports teams and things. I think there is a viable policy solution that can make this happen sensibly.

[fredtoast]

(01-17-2018, 05:59 PM)bfine32 Wrote: My issue is that I have never seen a Home Schooled student with a low GPA.

That is just anecdotal evidence.  

I have seen a lot of high achieving home schooled kids, but I also know a couple that are illiterate.

When you think about them getting one-on-one teaching you would think that they would have an advantage over public/private school kids, but sometimes the parents are just shitty and/or lazy at teaching.

[GMDino]

I'm just wondering:  Is this post supposed to be to discuss homeschooling or bad parenting or lack of regulations or California's lack of regulations?

[fredtoast]

(01-18-2018, 09:59 AM)GMDino Wrote: I'm just wondering:  Is this post supposed to be to discuss homeschooling or bad parenting or lack of regulations or California's lack of regulations?

All of the above.

Plus how Trump is to blame for the 13 homeschooled kids being starved and tortured by their parents.

[fredtoast]

So let me throw a hand grenade into this conversation.

Should a white supremacist parent be allowed to teach his homeschooled children that black people are inferior and need white people to control and govern them?

Should a radical Muslim parent be allowed to teach his homeschooled children that the infidels must be vanquished so that Islam controls the entire world?

[Au165]

(01-18-2018, 10:33 AM)fredtoast Wrote: So let me throw a hand grenade into this conversation.

Should a white supremacist parent be allowed to teach his homeschooled children that black people are inferior and need white people to control and govern them?

Should a radical Muslim parent be allowed to teach his homeschooled children that the infidels must be vanquished so that Islam controls the entire world?

Yes, we shouldn't be in the business of speech monitoring (especially inside a home). As much as you can hate the speech, it's there right to speak it. What they do with that speech is where it becomes an issue. 

[NATI BENGALS]

(01-18-2018, 10:33 AM)fredtoast Wrote: So let me throw a hand grenade into this conversation.

Should a white supremacist parent be allowed to teach his homeschooled children that black people are inferior and need white people to control and govern them?

Should a radical Muslim parent be allowed to teach his homeschooled children that the infidels must be vanquished so that Islam controls the entire world?

Are private Catholic schools allowed to teach kids the magic sky man is all powerful?

[Vas Deferens]

We need to deport all these damn psycho christians. They are not conforming to our cultural norms. We do not imprison our youth in this country. We sure as hell don't have that haircut.

If these pathetic white christians can't self police, we need to round them all up and send them back to where they came from.

[*michaelsean*]

I know there are athletic teams in this area that are for home schooled kids. They will also accept a kid if his school does not have that particular sport. That being said, I always picture them as being weird, and their parents weirder.

[GMDino]

This story reminds me of a couple that I had as customers decades ago when I worked in the rental business.  (Furniture/appliances/etc)

They had a gaggle of kids...everyone of them had some kind of mental impairment it seemed.  (To tell the truth the parents seemed to also.)  Some of them worse than others.  I never knew if they were all biological or if they were foster kids.  But it seems they were getting check for all them so I always assumed at least some were fostered.

Years after I left the business I read in the paper that they kept at least one of the kids locked in a room or in a dog cage in a room, something like that, and he went THROUGH A WALL to get to the kitchen because he was hungry!  Turns out they were NOT good parents/people and the kids were in a bad way.

They went to jail and I don't know what happened to the kids.