Homeschooling On The Rise??

[Rikurzhen]

The problem with home schooling is that the student is limited to the abilities of the parent(s) providing the instruction.

Not a bad deal at all if the parents are fairly intelligent, but consider... would you just pull any adult off the street and ask them to teach your child, even if there was a fairy tale world where there was zero chance they would abuse that child?

I sure as hell wouldn't, people are idiots.

Then why are you sending your kids to public schools? If you're a university graduate the odds are fairly good that you're more intelligent, and thus more likely to have a better intuitive grasp of how education works for your child and also have a more refined bullshit detector, than your kids teachers, for education majors are usually drawn from the lowest performing tiers on the SAT. Girls who go to university to major in Dance score higher than Education majors. Education majors (1442) are equidistant between construction workers (1274) and Liberal Arts students (1613).

 

[Unkotare]

Its clear why you washed out of military service but continue to wannabe.

??????????????????

What the hell are you talking about, dimwit?

 

[Samson]

Its clear why you washed out of military service but continue to wannabe.

??????????????????

What the hell are you talking about, dimwit?

Pitiful, but happy to explain it to you:

1. Clearly you're out of your depth regarding every other subject about which you attempt to make a comment.

2. You need to start a tread all your own. Something you know at least a little about.

3. I suggest, "Frustrations of being Washed Out of Military Service."​

I tried to keep the plan simple for you, but if you still need help, please do not hesitate to ask.

 

[Unkotare]

1. Clearly you're out of your depth regarding every other subject about which you attempt to make a comment....​

​

For example?

 

[Unkotare]

2. You need to start a tread all your own. ...​

​

A "tread," eh? How does one start a "tread," genius?

 

[Samson]

The problem with home schooling is that the student is limited to the abilities of the parent(s) providing the instruction.

Not a bad deal at all if the parents are fairly intelligent, but consider... would you just pull any adult off the street and ask them to teach your child, even if there was a fairy tale world where there was zero chance they would abuse that child?

I sure as hell wouldn't, people are idiots.

Then why are you sending your kids to public schools? If you're a university graduate the odds are fairly good that you're more intelligent, and thus more likely to have a better intuitive grasp of how education works for your child and also have a more refined bullshit detector, than your kids teachers, for education majors are usually drawn from the lowest performing tiers on the SAT. Girls who go to university to major in Dance score higher than Education majors. Education majors (1442) are equidistant between construction workers (1274) and Liberal Arts students (1613).

Most reasons WHY Home-Schooled students have better test scores than Public School Students are as irrelevant as they are obvious: Home-schooled students by definition have many environmental advantages over Public School students that the Public School will never be able to match. Plus the population of home-schooled students is very small (<4% of total US students) and probably very select (their parents likely began home schooling while they were in the womb). These parents did not just appear in 1996 when home-schooling became legal in all 50 states, and since then the concern of parents about public school teaching quality has not increased much more than it was in 1986, 1976, or 1966, etc. What has changed? Internet access to online curriculum, making home-schooled lesson plans and structure much easier to maintain so they can target successful completion of standardized tests.

What is extraordinary is the attention that such a small population draws from both sides of the partisan spectrum:

Educational Conservatives use the success of <4% of total students (see OP) as some sort of evidence that ALL efforts to educate ALL students attending ALL Public Schools are failing. Clearly, this is not the case.

Educational "Liberals" react to the success of <4% of total students learning outside the public school system as some sort of major tragedy threatening ALL Public Schools.
Again this is clearly not the case.

If any group should be very concerned about this growing 4%, it should be Private Schools. They are the real competitive substitute for home-schooled students. Parents will find that the economic benefit that home-schooling offers may make it a very popular choice. In fact, I foresee a tremendous rise in demand what was once called "governesses" or private tutors, employed in homes not only of the wealthy, but also in the upper-middle, and even middle class to substitute for private schooling.

 

[Samson]

2. You need to start a tread all your own. ...​

​

A "tread," eh? How does one start a "tread," genius?

See, you're off to a great start:

You could start a thread about catching other's typos.

Then you could let us know how frustrating it must be to have not qualified for military service even with your awesome skills.

 

[Unkotare]

3. I suggest, "Frustrations of being Washed Out of Military Service."...​

​

What drugs did you take that gave you that idea, dimwit? Did you just completely pull that one out of your ass, or are you just stupider than usual today?

 

[Unkotare]

Then you could let us know how frustrating it must be to have not qualified for military service even with your awesome skills.

Are you going to explain this little fantasy of yours, or have you gone full Rain Man now?

 

[Samson]

1. Clearly you're out of your depth regarding every other subject about which you attempt to make a comment....​

​

For example?

You're already stuck on step number one?

Assisting you will be more work that its worth. I suggest professional help.

 

[Samson]

3. I suggest, "Frustrations of being Washed Out of Military Service."...​

​

What drugs did you take that gave you that idea, dimwit? Did you just completely pull that one out of your ass, or are you just stupider than usual today?

It is quite obvious.

Poor thing.

 

[Unkotare]

1. Clearly you're out of your depth regarding every other subject about which you attempt to make a comment....​

​

For example?

You're already stuck on step number one?

Assisting you will be more work that its worth. I suggest professional help.

So, today's theme is you saying random, stupid nonsense that you can't support in any way? Well, you couldn't look any more idiotic than you already do, so...

 

[Unkotare]

3. I suggest, "Frustrations of being Washed Out of Military Service."...​

​

What drugs did you take that gave you that idea, dimwit? Did you just completely pull that one out of your ass, or are you just stupider than usual today?

It is quite obvious....

What is "quite obvious," other than the fact that you stoned to the gills?

 

[House]

(their parents likely began home schooling while they were in the womb).

Recess must be a bitch.

 

[Samson]

(their parents likely began home schooling while they were in the womb).

Recess must be a bitch.

Troll!!!!

 

[ChrisL]

The problem with home schooling is that the student is limited to the abilities of the parent(s) providing the instruction.

Not a bad deal at all if the parents are fairly intelligent, but consider... would you just pull any adult off the street and ask them to teach your child, even if there was a fairy tale world where there was zero chance they would abuse that child?

I sure as hell wouldn't, people are idiots.

That simply is not the case. There are many fine online curricula that parents can utilize to their children's benefit. While my wife and I are both college educated, we used such a curriculum that allowed our kids to upload their assignments to be corrected by teachers on the other end. Therefore, even poorly educated parents have no problem helping their children exceed the performance of their counterparts in government schools.

That's interesting, but I think it's important that the homeschoolers/parents have a good understanding of the subject matter being taught, and there is also the issue with time. Many parents lack the time when they both work full time, although I imagine a "school day" isn't nearly as long as a public school day.

 

[Samson]

The problem with home schooling is that the student is limited to the abilities of the parent(s) providing the instruction.

Not a bad deal at all if the parents are fairly intelligent, but consider... would you just pull any adult off the street and ask them to teach your child, even if there was a fairy tale world where there was zero chance they would abuse that child?

I sure as hell wouldn't, people are idiots.

That simply is not the case. There are many fine online curricula that parents can utilize to their children's benefit. While my wife and I are both college educated, we used such a curriculum that allowed our kids to upload their assignments to be corrected by teachers on the other end. Therefore, even poorly educated parents have no problem helping their children exceed the performance of their counterparts in government schools.

That's interesting, but I think it's important that the homeschoolers/parents have a good understanding of the subject matter being taught, and there is also the issue with time. Many parents lack the time when they both work full time, although I imagine a "school day" isn't nearly as long as a public school day.

Nor does it need to be.

How much time, effort, and resources are wasted transporting students to and from school, feeding them lunch, and allowing them time to change classes?

 

[ChrisL]

The problem with home schooling is that the student is limited to the abilities of the parent(s) providing the instruction.

Not a bad deal at all if the parents are fairly intelligent, but consider... would you just pull any adult off the street and ask them to teach your child, even if there was a fairy tale world where there was zero chance they would abuse that child?

I sure as hell wouldn't, people are idiots.

That simply is not the case. There are many fine online curricula that parents can utilize to their children's benefit. While my wife and I are both college educated, we used such a curriculum that allowed our kids to upload their assignments to be corrected by teachers on the other end. Therefore, even poorly educated parents have no problem helping their children exceed the performance of their counterparts in government schools.

That's interesting, but I think it's important that the homeschoolers/parents have a good understanding of the subject matter being taught, and there is also the issue with time. Many parents lack the time when they both work full time, although I imagine a "school day" isn't nearly as long as a public school day.

Nor does it need to be.

How much time, effort, and resources are wasted transporting students to and from school, feeding them lunch, and allowing them time to change classes?

That's what I meant. Not to mention, you aren't going to have as many students who have questions and need help.

 

[Samson]

The problem with home schooling is that the student is limited to the abilities of the parent(s) providing the instruction.

Not a bad deal at all if the parents are fairly intelligent, but consider... would you just pull any adult off the street and ask them to teach your child, even if there was a fairy tale world where there was zero chance they would abuse that child?

I sure as hell wouldn't, people are idiots.

That simply is not the case. There are many fine online curricula that parents can utilize to their children's benefit. While my wife and I are both college educated, we used such a curriculum that allowed our kids to upload their assignments to be corrected by teachers on the other end. Therefore, even poorly educated parents have no problem helping their children exceed the performance of their counterparts in government schools.

That's interesting, but I think it's important that the homeschoolers/parents have a good understanding of the subject matter being taught, and there is also the issue with time. Many parents lack the time when they both work full time, although I imagine a "school day" isn't nearly as long as a public school day.

Nor does it need to be.

How much time, effort, and resources are wasted transporting students to and from school, feeding them lunch, and allowing them time to change classes?

That's what I meant. Not to mention, you aren't going to have as many students who have questions and need help.

I'm guessing something like 2-3 hours every school day is spent doing something other than instructional activities, and I'm not even counting classes where they're showing some movie that has some remote connection to the curriculum.

Homeschoolers also do not need to awake before dawn to have breakfast and catch a bus: sleep schedules which are naturally longer for adolescents are not disrupted.

 

[Rikurzhen]

Sciarra, whose organization serves as a legal watchdog for the Abbott districts, said the gap in state math test scores between fourth graders in Abbott districts and non-Abbott districts narrowed from 31 points in 1999 to 19 points in 2007, and on state reading tests from 22 points in 2001 to 15 points in 2007. Success in eighth grade was more modest, narrowing from 30 points in 2000 for math in 2000 to 26 points in 2007, and staying at 20 points for reading during the same years. The achievement gap has not narrowed in high schools, but New Jersey has the highest high school graduation rates in the nation for African American males, Sciarra said.

I won't get into the biology of what is happening but I can explain it by appealing to parenting. Any parent can tell you that they have more control over the minutia of their 3 year old child's life than they do over the minutia of their 16 year old child's life. The same dynamic works in schools. With young kids, we adults can SWAMP their environment but as kids get older they begin to exert THEMSELVES and resist having their environments controlled by adults. A kindergarten teacher can tell her kids to take a nap and the kids will comply, but a 12th grade teacher has nothing close to that level of control over students.

As we all get older we come into ourselves, we're no longer the little puppets we were when we were kids. So those gains we see in the 4th grade DON'T STICK. They diminish by the 8th grade and they're totally absent by the 12th grade. The student is no better prepared for college than their counterpart in a school that didn't have the intervention program.

This is first year genetics material but education professionals are totally damn clueless about biology and genetics.

I just thought of an example which can illustrate this process - drinking behavior. Watch as heritability increases with age, just like with intelligence. Notice the different outcomes with adopted kids:

Parent–Offspring Similarity for Drinking: A Longitudinal Adoption Study

Parent–offspring resemblance for drinking was investigated in a sample of 409 adopted and 208 non-adopted families participating in the Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study. Drinking data was available for 1,229 offspring, assessed longitudinally up to three times in the age range from 10 to 28 years. A single drinking index was computed from four items measuring quantity, frequency and density of drinking. As expected, the mean drinking index increased with age, was greater in males as compared to females (although not at the younger ages), but did not vary significantly by adoption status. Parent–offspring correlation in drinking did not vary significantly by either offspring or parent gender but did differ significantly by adoption status. In adopted families, the parent–offspring correlation was statistically significant at all ages but decreased for the oldest age group (age 22–28). In non-adopted families, the parent–offspring correlation was statistically significant at all ages and increased in the oldest age group. Findings imply that genetic influences on drinking behavior increase with age while shared family environment influences decline, especially during the transition from late-adolescence to early adulthood.
​

This is what education professionals seem to be ignorant of, perhaps because they invest so heavily in the notion that what they do has so much influence on children.. These parents exhibited drinking behaviors and raised their kids to standards different from their own behavior, but as the adopted children grew into adulthood they actually became less like their parents while the natural children grew more like their parents. The same process at work in schools, as we get older it becomes very difficult for schools to shape us, for our own inclinations have more powerful influence on our choices and outcomes.

This explains why early successes get washed away as the kids mature. We always need to look at programs in the latter years of high school, not at programs taking place in elementary school.