I’m admiring of those of you homeschooling the whole way. My kids went to high school. I think it probably wasn’t the best choice for them. But they turned out fine.
One thing this thread made me remember was the time a group of three of us moms were together, all very good friends, two homeschooling and one with children in school and holding a school board seat. She said, “sure, this is great for your kids but you aren’t concerning yourselves at all about any other kids” and I always thought she was absolutely correct. I’ve tried to give back other ways, because that really got to me. I’m grateful we had the choice to homeschool. It was certainly a luxury.
I was always too nervous to completely embrace unschooling, but the idea intrigued me and if I had it to do over I’d go that direction more.
Maybe it was just a coincidence, but the closest we came to unschooling with younger child was in English. This is the STEM kiddo. His highest ACT subscore was in . . . English! Still blows my mind. Until a junior year dual enrollment class, he hadn’t done a traditional English curriculum since early elementary school.
I, too, admire parents who homeschool all the way through and do a great job of it.
@MaryGJ , interesting post. I can see the humor in calling public schools jail schools… Both my kids were in ‘special’ classes- subsets of the primary school but with cohort type class sizes for 4 years. S went the ‘Governor’s school’ route and graduated from HS with 22 college credits. D went the STEM program route and studied engineering in HS. Whenever either kid would act up or complain about school and the amount of work they had to do (lots more than regular classes), I would tell them they could return to ‘general population’.
And before I get flamed, I greatly appreciate teacher/instructors and the work they do and think the USA is doing a great disservice to the teaching profession. But there are schools out there that do not have enough resources to do a good job.
There are also parents out there that do NOT do a good job and those kids end up sitting in classes being lazy, and disturbing the learning of kids who do want to go on to college. Unfortunately, the teachers are the ones who get stuck in the middle.
I’m glad your D is doing well and congratulations, despite all your efforts!
In my experience, homeschoolers are very involved in their communities. Each year our area homeschoolers adopt at least one project as a group. Two of the most popular are making regular visits to a senior center to run programming (crafts, sing-a-longs, bingo, etc.) and buying, prepping, cooking, serving, and cleaning up meals at a soup kitchen on a regular basis. The parents lead Scout groups (for public, private, and homeschooled kids), coach community sport teams, volunteer for library and school planning committees, and attend school board meetings. It’s not a contest, and it’s too bad that some people make it one.
We talked openly about the benefits and challenges of public, private, and homeschool options. Our eldest is a college sophomore and our youngest is in her last year of homeschooling, so we’ve been lucky. But we’ve known far too many homeschool families whose kids had to transition to public school due to a longterm illness, job loss, divorce, disability, or unexpected death of one of the parents to talk down one of our options.
Recent homeschool alumni here, did high school in an online public school. My parents are not religious. I’m all over pop culture references. I’m well spoken and well read.
Yes, lack of socialization is still a very common question where I’m from. And yes, if the last time you partcipated in an EC was the age of 12, you’ve never had a true peer, and your close non familial relationships are through the internet, yup your social growth is stunted. Especially if you’re prone to anxiety. Yes, I function just fine within society but I’m often sick to my stomach while doing it. I have an extremely hard time relating to people my own age. I seek out friendship with people older than me most of the time, which comes with its own problems.
Begged (yes, begged) to take advanced courses or community college classes; nope, those classes are unnecessary. No ACTs or SATs, community college is good enough. I’ve both seen the stigma attached to being a cc student on this board and experienced it in real life.
My K-12 educational experience could quite easily be replicated even if I’d gone to “jail school”. It is not public school vs homeschool vs unschool vs private school but how much our parents allow us to achieve. After 18, education is what you make of it. Yes, some of us go to college. Good on you, OP, for listening to your kid, doing what was best for them, and allowing them to flourish despite it feeling foreign to you. Some of us are not so lucky.
Private Conundrum, I’m glad you added your voice to this thread. I’m well aware that there are a growing number of “survivor” accounts from home schooled kids who feel their options were limited by their parent’s prejudices and fears. I’m really sorry for that part of your experience. I wish you’d had more support to dream big.
As much as I loved homeschooling my kiddo…and I really did…wouldn’t have missed it for the world…I am extremely concerned about the dark side of home school that no one talks about…the invisible kids that go so far off grid that no one can hear them scream to help them.
When my daughter joined “jail school” I was extremely surprised by how welcome we were made to feel. I remember the counselor told me, “Oh, we love home schoolers! Home school kids are almost universally well behaved, they have good work habits, and have involved parents who care. We love involved parents who care.”
But then she stopped and looked sort of stricken and said, “Well, the vast majority of home schoolers.”
Something about her expression made me inquire further. “Have you had some problems, too?”
She told me a story of two kids entering our school in fourth and fifth grade from home school who couldn’t read or write. They’d been badly neglected, and had a lot of problems adjusting. Mom ended up going down the path of addiction after an illness and loss of employment. Dad left the home and mom remained, suffering severe clinical depression. Was a bad situation,
Please keep speaking up about your experiences. Your perspective as a home school alumni is wanted and needed.
You still really like that term, in spite of the fact that many people out here find it offensive. Perhaps you could expand your vocabulary and find a less derogatory way to refer to the schools that educate 97% of US students.
Would you prefer incarcerate elementary education? I have to admit, it has a very official ring to it. But nah, it’s a bit too pretentious. Will stick with jail school. LOL:)
Because using generic terms would not capture my horror and distress about the way elementary school children are treated in American. While I respect your right to disagree with my feelings, you do not have the right to insist that I not express my feelings with the term “jail school”…which I think is quite accurate. You are not required to share my sense of humor.
If you wish to call public education “paradise school”, I’ll giggle a little, but I will defend your right to your opinion. “efficacious school” and “power school” will be regarded similarly. “Freedom School” might cause me to guffaw, though, be warned.
If you had bothered to do the search, you would find a thread that is actually entertaining. You are not funny. Merely rude. No one out here is criticizing your decision to home school. But it is offensive when you tag the education approach most parents have decided to follow with a nasty name.
@MaryGJ, I run a homeschool network in Downstate NY. We have hundreds of families and I make it my business to interact with other networks that each has several hundred more. It’s a disservice to all homeschool families for you to perpetuate myths and to purposely promote aberrations as the norm. The children who were put into public school in 5th grade were neglected because their parents were neglectful, not because they were homeschoolers. Abusive parents can be found in all areas of society.
You seem to take delight in denigrating public school families too. It’s going to make your children’s lives difficult if you persist in teaching them that they’re above everyone else. However, your insistence doesn’t make it so.
What state permits the school guidance counselor to pass on such personal details about other families? It’s a violation of FERPA regulations.
