Why do people homeschool? - Page 3

[joesmom]

Originally Posted by Ruthla

Besides, if you can't remember anything you learned in high school, why is it so important to teach to your kids?

Exactly. I don't plan to teach Joe the state capitals just for the sake of teaching them. I don't plan on making him learn ANYTHING on someone else's timetable. I had so much busywork in school, & I don't remember most of it. I don't know anything about geography etc... or the wars we fought... I still feel like a valued member of society, though.

Regarding not knowing something & teaching it to your kids- I sucked at math- I hated it... I took algebra one & I think I failed it- I had a HUGE mental block about it & knew I could never get it. Yet, the other day I helped my friend's 13 yo dd with her algebra homeschooling- & yes, I had the teacher's edition with the answers- BUT- I sat there & looked at the problems & helped her figure out how to work the problems. I was really very impressed with myself!

Originally Posted by Synthea™

Because schools are not god and are not the be all, end all, of education. Far better to prepare for "life" by living it, not stuck in a room with a bunch of other kids, bored.

YES! I don't care if you (general you) want to send your (general your : ) kids to public school. Heck, I don't care if you send 'em away to boot camp, really... all I know is, since before Joe was born- since my friend's 13 year old daughter, mentioned above, was 2 years old, actually, & my friend & I discussed homeschooling, I KNEW that was the route I would take. Who on earth knows Joe better than I do? Who knows how he learns, & what he is interested in?

In school, he would not be able to draw all day long. He would not be able to randomly google anything, from birds to Weird Al to the Tower of Big Ben... He would be squelched, & molded, & sanitized, & if he would be in public school he would not be the same kid he is today... I do not teach my son anything. He learns things when he wants or needs to know them, & then he remembers them. He does this not only with educational topics, but also bike riding, skateboarding, drawing, guitar playing... he is just an all around awesome kid & while I don't think public school is an instrument of Satan, I DO think that it has problems. I was so negatively affected by my "peers" in public school that I have never worried about Joe's socialization... if he lived in a box & never spoke to anyone & I breastfed him until he was 15, he would still be socially better off than I was!!!!

Anyway... interesting thread, for sure! I hope it hasn't been shut down in the time it has taken me to type this!! :

[oneKnight]

Originally Posted by M_of_M

What if your dc decides that he wants to have a career in a math-related field? Can he really do that if you only expose him/her to things that he/she can "live" in?

By the time they are seriously deciding on careers, they will be completely able to communicate what they would like to study. You can buy higher math books, get video education, enroll them in a college class, etc.

[alegna]

Why will I homeschool my children?

I think that it's not appropriate for children to be inside in desks all day.

I think that it's not appropriate for children to spend a great deal of time reviewing the same material over and over.

I think it's not appropriate for the school to have control over when we have vacations or just take time off.

I think that the very basis of our school system is flawed- we take too long to teach simple material, we assume all childen learn the same way, we require material that is not useful, at the end of schooling children are almost never prepared for a job and often are not prepared for college.

I am a teacher. There is no *magic* to being a teacher.

Children do not need a "teacher" to learn to walk. Children do not need a "teacher" to learn to speak. Children do not need a "teacher" to color or build with blocks. Why do they need a "teacher" to learn to read or add?

-Angela

[joesmom]

Originally Posted by M_of_M

Ok, but aren't there some things that you can't learn by "living it?". How about some not-so-basic math? Can you really learn all the algebra and geometry by "living it?", or you just don't think that your kids need it and knowing how to fix a leaking toilet is more important for them since this skill will be useful in life?

What if your dc decides that he wants to have a career in a math-related field? Can he really do that if you only expose him/her to things that he/she can "live" in?

I took a science class in high school & learned how to fix a leaky toilet LOL... you haven't lived until you hear a teacher explaining a "ball cock" to a bunch of adolescents!

I really do believe that learning by living is adequate for most any issue. Buying Hotwheels cars has taught Joe multiplication, & he has learned to spell a lot of words by googling different makes of cars. (He also can spell klapaucius, which is a cheat code for Sims... )

Originally Posted by moondiapers

You can learn algebra quite easy by reading the solutions manual/teacher's edition algebra book.

Yep. See my post about that very thing. I learn BETTER on my own than I did with someone breathing down my neck in school.

[shelbean91]

Honestly, a homeschooler could cover the same material in 2 hrs (or less) that a classroom teacher takes all day to cover. Once you subtract time to get ready (books, pencils, papers,quiet, etc.), time passing in the halls to lunch, PE, art, etc., classroom management, etc. It's much easier to teach one student who you know exactly how they learn and were raised than 30 from all different situations, with a variety of support levels/ideas about education from home.

[RiverSky]

Why would anyone choose to put their child in school?

Originally Posted by A&A

The decision to choose it.

I chose unschooling for my children because I wanted a superior education for them. I want them to know more than their force-fed counterparts. I want them to be happier than their institutionalized neighbors.

I want my children to enjoy their youths and to absolutely love to learn (which is the natural state of human beings, anyone who doesn't love to learn has had it beaten out of them). I do not want their love of learning to be quashed or for them to waste half their day passing notes (as I did) or reading novels on their lap while hiding them from the teachers (again, as I did) because their classmates are learning so much more slowly than they are and they are bored. I want them to experience as much of the world as possible and to find their passions through trying out and doing way more than schooled-children could possibly have time for.

School is an institution DESIGNED to create factory workers, to forced children to learn to sit and listen and do as they are told for hours and hours each day. They are told when they can pee, when they can talk to the humans sitting next to them, what they can learn and how quickly or slowly they should do it.

Another main thing that schools do is categorize and classify children. When my DS was in public school kindergarten, the class was divided into four tables. It didn't take much for my DS and the other children at his table to figure out they were the "smart" kids. I imagine the same probably happened for the children seated at the 4th table. : I distinctly remember my brother growing up feeling he was dumb and nothing could change that, BECAUSE of school. If he had been homeschooled or unschooled, he would not have felt that way, he might have just progressed at his own pace, always improving bit by bit, because his self-esteem would have been intact, instead of having been destroyed beyond all recognition.

I could go on for months, but I have stuff to do.

If the OP is really interested in the topic, there are many fantastic books by award-winning teachers and ex-teachers who delve into the topic. John Holt and David Guterson come to mind immediately...

And then there's the incomparable website here:
http://www.besthomeschooling.org

p.s. someone had to go there...

[JessasMilkMama]

Some people choose to HS because of their schedules. DH was working a swing shift (leave at 3PM and get home at midnight) - if he was still doing that while the kids were in school he would literally miss them the entire week until Sat morning, and that would have never worked for our family.

I could never send my children to the local public schools. We are talking the worst of the worst here. I dont like the strictness and conformity of a christian school. I would go for the Montessori school but at $540 a month I think its more beneficial for my kids to put the money into paying off our debts so that our family can have a house, etc. I also am enthusiastic about HSing - almost all of our friends HS and I see that their kids are bright, social, active in a ton of things. I truly feel my kids can learn and get a great education without being in a classroom environment.

[joesmom]

Originally Posted by alegna

Children do not need a "teacher" to learn to walk. Children do not need a "teacher" to learn to speak. Children do not need a "teacher" to color or build with blocks. Why do they need a "teacher" to learn to read or add?

Perfect! Can I change my answer?? This completely sums it up for me. When Joe was born, I naturally, easily, let him lead the way- we nursed when he was hungry or needed to nurse, we slept when he was tired, woke up when he wasn't... He weaned himself when he was ready, potty trained when he was ready- late, by most standards but I didn't care, I knew he'd get it- & when he got out of diapers he had NO accidents- he has never wet the bed...) He talked when he was ready- I didn't teach him, I talked to him though... he learned his shapes & letters & colors by living life... he goes everywhere with me & watches me do things... he is not at the level he'd be if he was in public school, but where he is "behind," he has other areas where he is ahead because he is allowed the freedom to CHOOSE what he learns & what he does. He loves living this way & so do I.

In fact, it is almost 12:30 am & he is watching Hannah Montana. We spent the day painting Hot Wheels cars & he just made himself two hot dogs in the microwave. We don't have to get up at the crack of dawn to fight over getting dressed, eating breakfast, getting homework together... we can just be together & enjoy our life. I did public school once, I have NO desire to do it again!!

[Sagesgirl]

Having an education degree isn't exactly isn't exactly a signifier of being a brilliant, burning soul able to perfectly impart knowledge to hungry minds. In fact, education majors tend to come from and remain in the bottom part of those going to college. (This is one huge reason for the push towards "highly qualified" teachers, ie those who have a degree in the subject they'll actually be teaching.)

So excuse me if I don't bow down in awe before an education degree. Or a teacher like my Geometry teacher who, God bless him, really only wanted to be a football coach but had to teach something in order to do that, and was brave enough to stand up in front of the class and admit he had no idea what the hell he was doing. Or a teacher like my 6th and 8th grade history teacher who, God love him, was blind in one eye, half senile, and basically marking his days until retirement. Or a teacher like my 3rd grade teacher, God have mercy on her soul, who hated me because my skincolor wasn't as dark as that of the other students in my class.

Of course I have also had wonderful, wonderful teachers. But they were quite few in number compared to the mediocre or outright bad ones.

A parent's ability to teach his or her children is limited much less by knowledge than by dedication, as is true of public and private school teachers.

And there are other issues. I was bullied mercilessly throughout elementary and junior high school in no small part because I had the misfortune of being white. (I actually had a worker tell me she believed another girl over me because "She's black.") Administration did nothing. My cousin is about to pull her kids out of school because of that administration turning a blind eye to bullying, so it doesn't seem as if things are improving any. Beyond that, I was nearly always the smartest person in the class, and it sucked to be pulled down to the level of the dumbest kid there. People with learning disabilities can speak quite eloquently about the inflexibility of public school classrooms. (Heck, isn't smaller classroom size one of the rallying cries of improving schools?)

[A&A]

Originally Posted by RiverSky

School is an institution DESIGNED to create factory workers, to forced children to learn to sit and listen and do as they are told for hours and hours each day. They are told when they can pee, when they can talk to the humans sitting next to them, what they can learn and how quickly or slowly they should do it.

Right, I'm a teacher; I get that.

But I still don't understand the choice to "unschool" as much as the choice to homeschool.

[A&A]

Originally Posted by Sagesgirl

Having an education degree isn't exactly isn't exactly a signifier of being a brilliant, burning soul able to perfectly impart knowledge to hungry minds. In fact, education majors tend to come from and remain in the bottom part of those going to college.

Just wanted to point out that I graduated cum laude, thanks. (I'm a high school teacher.)

[RiverSky]

Originally Posted by M_of_M

Ok, but aren't there some things that you can't learn by "living it?". How about some not-so-basic math? Can you really learn all the algebra and geometry by "living it?", or you just don't think that your kids need it and knowing how to fix a leaking toilet is more important for them since this skill will be useful in life?

What if your dc decides that he wants to have a career in a math-related field? Can he really do that if you only expose him/her to things that he/she can "live" in?

You might not realize that children are naturally curious about and want to know EVERYTHING. School teaches them that being into science or having really good grades is geeky. Or that if they get behind, they are losers and idiots and will never amount to anything. Only a small percentage of children leave school relatively unscathed and with their self-esteems intact and not blown out of proportion, one way or the other.

My children never stop asking questions. My 8 year old asked for "science stuff" for Xmas. Both of my children think math is so incredibly fun. But even if they didn't do or learn any math at all...you don't think that they could sit down at the age of 14 or 16 and learn whatever they are missing from a web program or a curriculum book or some work books, in a matter of weeks in order to catch up? Heck, if that doesn't work, just pay for a tutor! It's really not that hard to catch up when you want to.

Even now, I find myself wanting to learn about things all the time. What do I do when that happens? I go into a back room and cry for days. It sucks. I go, "oh woe is me, I wish someone had taught me that back in grade school"...nah, just kidding! I just go and do some online searches or buy a book or take some books out of the library and I start reading! Or I ask friends, "hey, what do you know about so and so or such and such?"

I'm not surprised that people don't understand the concept of homeschooling. I didn't understand it myself until I read some books on the subject. Then I went, "Ahhh!! Of course!!" I had been trained my entire childhood to NOT understand it!

I feel very fortunate to have found the light.

[eloquence]

Why hasn't this thread been moved?











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[alegna]

Originally Posted by A&A

Right, I'm a teacher; I get that.

But I still don't understand the choice to "unschool" as much as the choice to homeschool.

Because there is plenty to learn without being confined by desks and curricula.

-Angela

[Sailor]

As a kid, I hated school. I was SO incredibly unchallenged. And I went to the best private schools in the area. I remember breezing through my classes - including the honors ones. I got good grades, completely without effort.

The boredom in school was the worst. We'd briefly learn about a lot of subjects, even though I was interested in deepening my knowledge. I can honestly say that I learned A LOT more outside of school than inside.

Schools teach to the average student. So, all the faster students are bored out of their minds. All the "slower" students struggle to catch up. One teacher and 30 students, or even 10 students is never going to give them enough one on one time. Plus, students don't get to choose what they learn. Which means the love of learning, the pursuit of knowledge is quickly stamped out of them with boredom of topics about which they don't care.

If my kids are anything like me, they're staying home. There is NO teacher out there that could possibly know my kids better than I would. There is no teacher out there who would know my children's interest, their strengths, their motivation, etc., better than I would.

I had a REALLY bad experience with school ... so obviously I could be biased. A lot of kids do great in school. I did great too in terms of grades. But, the mind boggling boredom was horrible. I remember that I couldn't wait to grow up, get out of school, and be free to learn what I wanted, when I wanted. So many of my peers came out of school with a dislike for learning. I'm lucky to have kept my desire.

[RiverSky]

Originally Posted by A&A

Right, I'm a teacher; I get that.

But I still don't understand the choice to "unschool" as much as the choice to homeschool.

Because I don't want my children to lose their love of learning. I believe that if you sit your children down and force them to learn about anything...such as having a math hour or let's so some social studies or sit down while I read Story of the World to You before I will take you to the playground, well, I think that teaches a child that social studies or math or history are negative things. Instead, when my child expresses interest in anything, be it math, or natural science or how a computer works, I answer, right then and there, or I say, "let's put that on this list and we'll look it up when we get home or when daddy gets home". My children are dying to know someone so we grab it right there and then and go with the flow until they ask about something else. I also feel that play is the work of children, that there is so much more value in a week of play than in a week of going to public school, for instance.

I loved school when I was a child. I was a top student, it was easy for me. But in hindsight, school taught me that I was better than the other children because I was allegedly smarter than they. I'm sort of lucky, because at least I was one of the "smart" ones. I feel horribly sad for the ones who were not. School also taught me to learn just enough to get by, to never push myself that far or that learning was a reward in itself.

John Holt tells of an amazing experiment he did over and over in his classrooms. He would prepare his class for a test on Friday and his students would take the test. Then he would surprise them by giving them the exact same test on Monday and he said that every single time, not one student would receive an equivalent grade and all of them would get lower grades. The average grade would be much, much worse. He did this in numerous different subjects and always got the same result. So what did the children really supposedly learn in all that time studying and preparing and working towards the test? He came to the conclusion that they learned almost nothing that they would retain and that the only things that happen to children in school are negative things.

I don't believe that it is much different in a school-at-home capacity than an institutionallly schooled one. Children do as much as they need to to receive a grade that will be acceptable to them and then forget most of it.

I believe that my children retain MORE of what they learn than force-educated children because it's stuff they were actuallyl interested in, stuff they asked about, etc.

Okay, I'm really going now...

[eloquence]

Originally Posted by M_of_M

Why do people choose to homeschool?
.

Because they want to and they can.

[townmouse]

To answer the OP, I agree with everybody else. However, I'll address another angle I've been thinking of lately:

I homeschool to free up resources in the public schools.

I am qualified, capable, motivated, determined, etc. to help my own children learn at home. Is it not useful for me to then do so, thereby not contributing to the problem of overcrowded classrooms?

My viewpoint and opinions are entirely counter to the public school philosophy/methodology. If my sons were in school, I would probably be the teacher's worst nightmare. I would be continually lobbying for less homework, more recess, different discipline strategies in the classroom, etc. There would be too many battles as I tried to make a cookie-cutter operation modify for my own children.

Why do that? I don't agree with institutional education for young children, I don't need help with my child's education, and the busy teachers do not need the stress of facing my individual-oriented ideals when they are trying to teach large groups.

Apples and oranges. I have a peace pact with gov't schools...I don't bother them and (so far) they don't bother me. It is a reasonable arrangement.

[UnschoolnMa]

Because school sucks. Well, okay, we homeschool because school sucks.This is all just our opinion, of course. If others choose school that is just fine with me.

We believe that children should have the right to learn as an adult would go about learning. The right to decide the area(s) of interest, to decide when to start exploring a new thing or deepen some prior learning experience, to decide which resources to use, and to decide when they'd like to change things up and move on to something else are rights afforded to adults generally without question. We believe that young learners should have that same freedom extended to them. Today in my house people were eating, conversing, crocheting, using the internet to write/play games/research, cleaning, using the calculator, using the phone, reading fiction books, figuring out the value of x, and playing with the cat. Freedom.

We also believe that learning is totally inseparable from the life we live. This means that in addition to following our interests we also aquire knowledge and experience just by doing every day things like cleaning, cooking, talking with others, watching TV, listening to music, going places, taking up new hobbies, and working. We wake up each day and live our lives. We live to live and we happen to learn along the way. We don't live to be forced to learn someone else's way.

[boodafli]

Originally Posted by M_of_M

I am a good student but I am not a good teacher.

you don't have to be a good teacher to homeschool. you just have to show your kid how to be a good learner.

think of it this way, right? babies learn to nurse, to eat, to crawl, to walk, to hold things, to feed themselves, to dress themselves, to name shapes, and colors, and textures, and temperatures, and the words to songs, and the names of objects, and the dangers of too hot, or too loud, and and and..and none of that comes from a teachers guide. yet, as parents, we show our children how to be. we help them learn how to learn. when they reach a certain age/maturity level, we stop rushing in to right the toppled block tower, and we let them figure it out for themselves. we don't always turn the triangle puzzle piece the correct direction, because we want our kids to learn how to do it by themselves.

to me, the whole idea of a 'formal education' is a huge simplification of what it means to be a human in a larger cultural context. the social miliuexs of school don't resemble the 'real' world, the rote memorization and dependency on tests and scores don't resemble the 'real' world, in fact, the only part of traditional schooling, imo, that DOES resemble the real world, is having a person in absolute authority over your percived succsess and accomplishment.

i remember a lot from high school. but the stuff i don't remember, i can certainly google. or, even better, i can show my kid how to find the information for herself. (which, i have to say, is a skill that a huge majority of my peers graduated without.)

anyway, that's why we'll be homeschooling. well, unschooling, really. or, at least, my idea of unschooling, which might be more of a bastard child of homeschooling and unschooling.