Homeschooling: Your Views, Please

[Tuatara]

If there were a school like the one on Little House On The Prairie...that would be awesome.

My kids actually go to a one room school. Grades K to 7, 15 kids.

 

[R.D.]

I understand that, and I'm not disagreeing with it.

But the inference that only homeschooled kids are confident, self assured, and top notch in their academic skills etc puts a false face to the issue.

Re the bolded sentence, how so, when we are seeing it up close and personal with hundreds of kids? I'm sure there are exceptions, but I can honestly say I haven't met one yet.

Homeschooling accounts for less than 3%

To make such a claim is mindboggling to me.

 

[BULLDOG]

What people forget is that public education is the back up for people who cannot or will not educate their own children or pay a tutor or private school to do it for them. MOST Americans opt for the back up plan for various reasons like "it's too hard."

Go for the homeschooling if you want to. Bravo for you stepping up like that.

That would be great in an ideal world where all parents are willing to do whatever it takes for their kids, but that is just not the case in many instances. Here in Texas, all you have to do is notify the school that you will home school, and the kids no longer exist as far as the education system is concerned. No further educational requirements, no periodic tests, no checkups to see if the kids are being taught anything. When you see a 9 year old who doesn't know the difference between a nickel and a quarter, and can write her name, but can't read much more, It makes you question the home schooling thing. Don't you think there should be some way to check if those parents are actually stepping up, or if they just don't want to go to the trouble of getting up to get their kids ready for school?

 

[R.D.]

What people forget is that public education is the back up for people who cannot or will not educate their own children or pay a tutor or private school to do it for them. MOST Americans opt for the back up plan for various reasons like "it's too hard."

Go for the homeschooling if you want to. Bravo for you stepping up like that.

Paying taxes make it the first plan, not the back up plan.

 

[paulitician]

Seriously, many Americans are so sick of listening to Public School Teachers whining about how they're so mistreated and forcing their far Left political agenda on the kids. It's so tired and lame at this point. Homeschooling is a fantastic logical alternative. More & more Americans are considering it. Good for them.

 

[bodecea]

What people forget is that public education is the back up for people who cannot or will not educate their own children or pay a tutor or private school to do it for them. MOST Americans opt for the back up plan for various reasons like "it's too hard."

Go for the homeschooling if you want to. Bravo for you stepping up like that.

Paying taxes make it the first plan, not the back up plan.

Nope...the paying taxes is two-fold...gets the kids off the streets and ensures the rest of us that the next generation at least has a chance at an education.......unfortunately, for many parents who don't care, they just want it to be a babysitting service.

 

[bodecea]

Seriously, many Americans are so sick of listening to Public School Teachers whining about how they're so mistreated and forcing their far Left political agenda on the kids. It's so tired and lame at this point. Homeschooling is a fantastic logical alternative. More & more Americans are considering it. Good for them.

You should tell that to teacher Megan Silberberger.

 

[paulitician]

Seriously, many Americans are so sick of listening to Public School Teachers whining about how they're so mistreated and forcing their far Left political agenda on the kids. It's so tired and lame at this point. Homeschooling is a fantastic logical alternative. More & more Americans are considering it. Good for them.

You should tell that to teacher Megan Silberberger.

Many Americans are over em. The constant whining and forcing political agendas on the children. It's definitely time for an alternative. You shouldn't be forced to send your child into the Public School quagmire. Freedom & Liberty is the logical way forward.

 

[Foxfyre]

I understand that, and I'm not disagreeing with it.

But the inference that only homeschooled kids are confident, self assured, and top notch in their academic skills etc puts a false face to the issue.

Re the bolded sentence, how so, when we are seeing it up close and personal with hundreds of kids? I'm sure there are exceptions, but I can honestly say I haven't met one yet.

Homeschooling accounts for less than 3%

To make such a claim is mindboggling to me.

What difference does 3% make? A smaller percentage than that identifies as gay/lesbian and nobody seems to think those numbers are too insignificant to draw conclusions. Three percent of millions is a lot of kids. And with 400 AWANA kids meeting regularly at our church where I help with the youth programs, I have a lot of opportunity to know these kids up close and personal. And pretty much without exception they all appear to be extremely well adjusted, confident, properly socialized young people. On average, more so than a lot of the kids who attend public school and we have a lot of those in our church too.

The following numbers look pretty straight forward compared to what little research I've done on this:
Number of Homeschoolers by State 2013-2014 A2Z Homeschooling
You can find the approximate number of homeschooled kids in your state in the following table. Linked numbers are from state documents. (If the PDF report looks scrambled, try another browser.)

State	Total # Kids Ages 5-17	2013-2014 Homeschoolers (Estimate)
Alabama	821,893	22,963
Alaska	133,183	3,721
Arizona	1,194,870	33,383
Arkansas	518,534	14,487
California	6,757,361	188,792
Colorado	907,381	25,351
Connecticut	600,823	16,786
Delaware	150,182	3145
D.C.	72,055	2,013
Florida	2,966,229	77,054
Georgia	1,829,100	51,103
Hawaii	216,010	6,035
Idaho	313,903	8,770
Illinois	2,250,223	62,868
Indiana	1,171,881	37,346
Iowa	529,220	14,786
Kansas	522,583	14,600
Kentucky	741,328	20,712
Louisiana	807,109	22,550
Maine	198,984	5,559
Maryland	985,884	27,544
Massachusetts	1,043,265	29,147
Michigan	1,693,398	47,311
Minnesota	934,835	16,516
Mississippi	542,368	15,153
Missouri	1,027,570	28,709
Montana	162,565	4,542
Nebraska	333,487	9,317
Nevada	486,521	13,593
New Hampshire	209,178	5,844
New Jersey	1,504,074	42,022
New Mexico	371,217	10,371
New York	3,107,831	86,829
North Carolina	1,683,632	98,172
North Dakota	111,910	3,127
Ohio	1,971,833	55,090
Oklahoma	681,563	19,042
Oregon	632,982	17,685
Pennsylvania	2,021,159	56,469
Puerto Rico	633,378	17,696
Rhode Island	161,591	4,515
South Carolina	792,221	22,134
South Dakota	146,849	4,103
Tennessee	1,096,974	30,648
Texas	5,118,771	143,012
Utah	640,277	17,889
Vermont	93,531	2,613
Virginia	1,359,275	30,027
Washington	1,154,410	32,253
West Virginia	280,610	6,712
Wisconsin	970,043	19,394
Wyoming	97,912	2,736
Total	54,753,967	1,552,236

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[R.D.]

I understand that, and I'm not disagreeing with it.

But the inference that only homeschooled kids are confident, self assured, and top notch in their academic skills etc puts a false face to the issue.

Re the bolded sentence, how so, when we are seeing it up close and personal with hundreds of kids? I'm sure there are exceptions, but I can honestly say I haven't met one yet.

Homeschooling accounts for less than 3%

To make such a claim is mindboggling to me.

What difference does 3% make? A smaller percentage than that identifies as gay/lesbian and nobody seems to thing those numbers are too insignificant to draw conclusions. Three percent of millions is a lot of kids. And with 400 AWANA kids meeting regularly at our church where I help with the youth programs, I have a lot of opportunity to know these kids up close and personal. And pretty much without exception they all appear to be extremely well adjusted, confident, properly socialized young people. On average, more so than a lot of the kids who attend public school and we have a lot of those in our church too.

The following numbers look pretty straight forward compared to what little research I've done on this:
Number of Homeschoolers by State 2013-2014 A2Z Homeschooling
You can find the approximate number of homeschooled kids in your state in the following table. Linked numbers are from state documents. (If the PDF report looks scrambled, try another browser.)

State	Total # Kids Ages 5-17	2013-2014 Homeschoolers (Estimate)
Alabama	821,893	22,963
Alaska	133,183	3,721
Arizona	1,194,870	33,383
Arkansas	518,534	14,487
California	6,757,361	188,792
Colorado	907,381	25,351
Connecticut	600,823	16,786
Delaware	150,182	3145
D.C.	72,055	2,013
Florida	2,966,229	77,054
Georgia	1,829,100	51,103
Hawaii	216,010	6,035
Idaho	313,903	8,770
Illinois	2,250,223	62,868
Indiana	1,171,881	37,346
Iowa	529,220	14,786
Kansas	522,583	14,600
Kentucky	741,328	20,712
Louisiana	807,109	22,550
Maine	198,984	5,559
Maryland	985,884	27,544
Massachusetts	1,043,265	29,147
Michigan	1,693,398	47,311
Minnesota	934,835	16,516
Mississippi	542,368	15,153
Missouri	1,027,570	28,709
Montana	162,565	4,542
Nebraska	333,487	9,317
Nevada	486,521	13,593
New Hampshire	209,178	5,844
New Jersey	1,504,074	42,022
New Mexico	371,217	10,371
New York	3,107,831	86,829
North Carolina	1,683,632	98,172
North Dakota	111,910	3,127
Ohio	1,971,833	55,090
Oklahoma	681,563	19,042
Oregon	632,982	17,685
Pennsylvania	2,021,159	56,469
Puerto Rico	633,378	17,696
Rhode Island	161,591	4,515
South Carolina	792,221	22,134
South Dakota	146,849	4,103
Tennessee	1,096,974	30,648
Texas	5,118,771	143,012
Utah	640,277	17,889
Vermont	93,531	2,613
Virginia	1,359,275	30,027
Washington	1,154,410	32,253
West Virginia	280,610	6,712
Wisconsin	970,043	19,394
Wyoming	97,912	2,736
Total	54,753,967	1,552,236

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Apple and oranges

You're discussing the number of homeschooled kids who have these attributes without acknowledging any evidence to the contrary within the HS community, which there are many btw. One of my first posts was that the limited studies on the failures of HS is disturbing.

In the same vein you bundle all the other children as less than. By doing so you must dismiss the evidence that the majority - by a huge margin - of successful young adults, who also have the same admirable attributes, were not homeschooled. And certainly are not "the exception"

 

[thereisnospoon]

Getting back to the topic, I just don't think everyone is qualified to teach their kids for 8 years let alone 12. It's a tough job, lots of people have said teachers are never paid enough.

I have one niece who home schooled her kids but she has several degrees from the University of Toledo here. My other niece was all over Facebook trying to get a job in the porn industry, she is also homeschooling. Thus my opinion on the matter.

What you think or believe is immaterial. Fact is all states have qualification criteria with which parents must comply before and while their children are students in the home.
I find it laughable and it comes as no surprise you libs are in support of the government schools.
Indoctrination into the lib agenda. Protection of unionized teaching jobs.
Oh not paid enough? Go to google. There you can search teacher pay in the big union states.
In my former school district there are roughly 500 faculty members. 50% of whom are paid SIX figure salaries. And that does not include their benefits and pensions.
I think you missed school altogether.
Do you ever read your own posts?
And why the personal anecdote?
You claim to have a niece who is trying to do porn. She was home schooled.
You claim to have another niece who you claim has earned 'several' degrees from U of Toledo. She was home schooled.
Do you have a point?

 

[paulitician]

In conclusion, Government-run Schooling ain't all that. In fact in many cases, it's a downright nightmare. Parents need alternatives. Homeschooling is a fantastic alternative. Period, end of story. Case closed.

 

[Sarah G]

In conclusion, Government-run Schooling ain't all that. In fact in many cases, it's a downright nightmare. Parents need alternatives. Homeschooling is a fantastic alternative. Period, end of story. Case closed.

Sure, that might work for you and your lockstep teapartiers but not for anyone with a brain..

 

[Skull Pilot]

In conclusion, Government-run Schooling ain't all that. In fact in many cases, it's a downright nightmare. Parents need alternatives. Homeschooling is a fantastic alternative. Period, end of story. Case closed.

Sure, that might work for you and your lockstep teapartiers but not for anyone with a brain..

I for one, if I were to have kids, would home school.

And I have a brain. 2 BS degrees, and an MBA graduated with a 3.9 average over all 3.

I have no faith in public school whatsoever.

 

[paulitician]

In conclusion, Government-run Schooling ain't all that. In fact in many cases, it's a downright nightmare. Parents need alternatives. Homeschooling is a fantastic alternative. Period, end of story. Case closed.

Sure, that might work for you and your lockstep teapartiers but not for anyone with a brain..

It's not only teapartiers who'll be Homeschooling their children in the future. More & more Americans are considering it. And for good reason. Government-run Schooling just isn't all that. People need alternatives. And Homeschooling is a viable one.

 

[thereisnospoon]

why do we require DMVs, ballots, official instructions, public education, etc. to be provided in more than one language?

1) Some services are offered for practical reasons

2) Being a native speaker of English is not required to be a citizen

3) Ever heard of due process?

4) Bilingual education is not a requirement

You really don't have to be so frightened.

I disagree with you on many points.
Singularly, I will argue language.
A common language is one of tenets of maintaining a cohesive and orderly society.
We may not have a legally official language. but for all intents and purposes our official language is English.
This entire issue is nothing more than another cause for political correctness.
I can tell you from my view, the majority of Americans are sick to death of political correctness and the left wing moonbat agenda.

 

[paulitician]

In conclusion, Government-run Schooling ain't all that. In fact in many cases, it's a downright nightmare. Parents need alternatives. Homeschooling is a fantastic alternative. Period, end of story. Case closed.

Sure, that might work for you and your lockstep teapartiers but not for anyone with a brain..

I for one, if I were to have kids, would home school.

And I have a brain. 2 BS degrees, and an MBA graduated with a 3.9 average over all 3.

I have no faith in public school whatsoever.

The latest studies are showing Homeschooled children are actually being better-prepared for College. It is a viable alternative to Government-run Schooling. More & more Americans will begin to consider it.

 

[Foxfyre]

I understand that, and I'm not disagreeing with it.

But the inference that only homeschooled kids are confident, self assured, and top notch in their academic skills etc puts a false face to the issue.

Re the bolded sentence, how so, when we are seeing it up close and personal with hundreds of kids? I'm sure there are exceptions, but I can honestly say I haven't met one yet.

Homeschooling accounts for less than 3%

To make such a claim is mindboggling to me.

What difference does 3% make? A smaller percentage than that identifies as gay/lesbian and nobody seems to thing those numbers are too insignificant to draw conclusions. Three percent of millions is a lot of kids. And with 400 AWANA kids meeting regularly at our church where I help with the youth programs, I have a lot of opportunity to know these kids up close and personal. And pretty much without exception they all appear to be extremely well adjusted, confident, properly socialized young people. On average, more so than a lot of the kids who attend public school and we have a lot of those in our church too.

The following numbers look pretty straight forward compared to what little research I've done on this:
Number of Homeschoolers by State 2013-2014 A2Z Homeschooling
You can find the approximate number of homeschooled kids in your state in the following table. Linked numbers are from state documents. (If the PDF report looks scrambled, try another browser.)

State	Total # Kids Ages 5-17	2013-2014 Homeschoolers (Estimate)
Alabama	821,893	22,963
Alaska	133,183	3,721
Arizona	1,194,870	33,383
Arkansas	518,534	14,487
California	6,757,361	188,792
Colorado	907,381	25,351
Connecticut	600,823	16,786
Delaware	150,182	3145
D.C.	72,055	2,013
Florida	2,966,229	77,054
Georgia	1,829,100	51,103
Hawaii	216,010	6,035
Idaho	313,903	8,770
Illinois	2,250,223	62,868
Indiana	1,171,881	37,346
Iowa	529,220	14,786
Kansas	522,583	14,600
Kentucky	741,328	20,712
Louisiana	807,109	22,550
Maine	198,984	5,559
Maryland	985,884	27,544
Massachusetts	1,043,265	29,147
Michigan	1,693,398	47,311
Minnesota	934,835	16,516
Mississippi	542,368	15,153
Missouri	1,027,570	28,709
Montana	162,565	4,542
Nebraska	333,487	9,317
Nevada	486,521	13,593
New Hampshire	209,178	5,844
New Jersey	1,504,074	42,022
New Mexico	371,217	10,371
New York	3,107,831	86,829
North Carolina	1,683,632	98,172
North Dakota	111,910	3,127
Ohio	1,971,833	55,090
Oklahoma	681,563	19,042
Oregon	632,982	17,685
Pennsylvania	2,021,159	56,469
Puerto Rico	633,378	17,696
Rhode Island	161,591	4,515
South Carolina	792,221	22,134
South Dakota	146,849	4,103
Tennessee	1,096,974	30,648
Texas	5,118,771	143,012
Utah	640,277	17,889
Vermont	93,531	2,613
Virginia	1,359,275	30,027
Washington	1,154,410	32,253
West Virginia	280,610	6,712
Wisconsin	970,043	19,394
Wyoming	97,912	2,736
Total	54,753,967	1,552,236

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Apple and oranges

You're discussing the number of homeschooled kids who have these attributes without acknowledging any evidence to the contrary within the HS community, which there are many btw. One of my first posts was that the limited studies on the failures of HS is disturbing.

In the same vein you bundle all the other children as less than. By doing so you must dismiss the evidence that the majority - by a huge margin - of successful young adults, who also have the same admirable attributes, were not homeschooled. And certainly are not "the exception"

I did no such thing. I am a product of the public schools. My kids and most of the children of my other relatives, friends, and neighbors as well as most of the hundred or so regular kids in our church youth group were or are public schooled. And the vast majority of them have been and/or are just fine.

I did not even insinuate that all or most public schooled kids are socially inept or poorly socialized or anything like that. What I did say is in comparing the homeschooled kids with their public schooled counterparts, I find the homeschooled kids, pretty much all of them, to be extremely confident, well socialized, and socially adept while the public schooled kids, on average--not all but on average--tend to be less so. In other words, if I do observe a child who appears to be poorly socialized or less socially adept, that child is far more likely to be from the public schooled group than the homeschooled group.

My argument has been primarily to counter the very erroneous arguments by several on this thread that the homeschooled kids are disadvantaged in that regard. They aren't.

 

[Skull Pilot]

In conclusion, Government-run Schooling ain't all that. In fact in many cases, it's a downright nightmare. Parents need alternatives. Homeschooling is a fantastic alternative. Period, end of story. Case closed.

Sure, that might work for you and your lockstep teapartiers but not for anyone with a brain..

I for one, if I were to have kids, would home school.

And I have a brain. 2 BS degrees, and an MBA graduated with a 3.9 average over all 3.

I have no faith in public school whatsoever.

The latest studies are showing Homeschooled children are actually being better-prepared for College. It is a viable alternative to Government-run Schooling. More & more Americans will begin to consider it.

It's been well known for years that home schooled kids outperform their public school counterparts.

People who oppose home schooling are just control freaks as it really is none of their Effing business

 

[paulitician]

I understand that, and I'm not disagreeing with it.

But the inference that only homeschooled kids are confident, self assured, and top notch in their academic skills etc puts a false face to the issue.

Re the bolded sentence, how so, when we are seeing it up close and personal with hundreds of kids? I'm sure there are exceptions, but I can honestly say I haven't met one yet.

Homeschooling accounts for less than 3%

To make such a claim is mindboggling to me.

What difference does 3% make? A smaller percentage than that identifies as gay/lesbian and nobody seems to thing those numbers are too insignificant to draw conclusions. Three percent of millions is a lot of kids. And with 400 AWANA kids meeting regularly at our church where I help with the youth programs, I have a lot of opportunity to know these kids up close and personal. And pretty much without exception they all appear to be extremely well adjusted, confident, properly socialized young people. On average, more so than a lot of the kids who attend public school and we have a lot of those in our church too.

The following numbers look pretty straight forward compared to what little research I've done on this:
Number of Homeschoolers by State 2013-2014 A2Z Homeschooling
You can find the approximate number of homeschooled kids in your state in the following table. Linked numbers are from state documents. (If the PDF report looks scrambled, try another browser.)

State	Total # Kids Ages 5-17	2013-2014 Homeschoolers (Estimate)
Alabama	821,893	22,963
Alaska	133,183	3,721
Arizona	1,194,870	33,383
Arkansas	518,534	14,487
California	6,757,361	188,792
Colorado	907,381	25,351
Connecticut	600,823	16,786
Delaware	150,182	3145
D.C.	72,055	2,013
Florida	2,966,229	77,054
Georgia	1,829,100	51,103
Hawaii	216,010	6,035
Idaho	313,903	8,770
Illinois	2,250,223	62,868
Indiana	1,171,881	37,346
Iowa	529,220	14,786
Kansas	522,583	14,600
Kentucky	741,328	20,712
Louisiana	807,109	22,550
Maine	198,984	5,559
Maryland	985,884	27,544
Massachusetts	1,043,265	29,147
Michigan	1,693,398	47,311
Minnesota	934,835	16,516
Mississippi	542,368	15,153
Missouri	1,027,570	28,709
Montana	162,565	4,542
Nebraska	333,487	9,317
Nevada	486,521	13,593
New Hampshire	209,178	5,844
New Jersey	1,504,074	42,022
New Mexico	371,217	10,371
New York	3,107,831	86,829
North Carolina	1,683,632	98,172
North Dakota	111,910	3,127
Ohio	1,971,833	55,090
Oklahoma	681,563	19,042
Oregon	632,982	17,685
Pennsylvania	2,021,159	56,469
Puerto Rico	633,378	17,696
Rhode Island	161,591	4,515
South Carolina	792,221	22,134
South Dakota	146,849	4,103
Tennessee	1,096,974	30,648
Texas	5,118,771	143,012
Utah	640,277	17,889
Vermont	93,531	2,613
Virginia	1,359,275	30,027
Washington	1,154,410	32,253
West Virginia	280,610	6,712
Wisconsin	970,043	19,394
Wyoming	97,912	2,736
Total	54,753,967	1,552,236

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Apple and oranges

You're discussing the number of homeschooled kids who have these attributes without acknowledging any evidence to the contrary within the HS community, which there are many btw. One of my first posts was that the limited studies on the failures of HS is disturbing.

In the same vein you bundle all the other children as less than. By doing so you must dismiss the evidence that the majority - by a huge margin - of successful young adults, who also have the same admirable attributes, were not homeschooled. And certainly are not "the exception"

I did no such thing. I am a product of the public schools. My kids and most of the children of my other relatives, friends, and neighbors as well as most of the hundred or so regular kids in our church youth group were or are public schooled. And the vast majority of them have been and/or are just fine.

I did not even insinuate that all or most public schooled kids are socially inept or poorly socialized or anything like that. What I did say is in comparing the homeschooled kids with their public schooled counterparts, I find the homeschooled kids, pretty much all of them, to be extremely confident, well socialized, and socially adept while the public schooled kids, on average--not all but on average--tend to be less so. In other words, if I do observe a child who appears to be poorly socialized or less socially adept, that child is far more likely to be from the public schooled group than the homeschooled group.

My argument has been primarily to counter the very erroneous arguments by several on this thread that the homeschooled kids are disadvantaged in that regard. They aren't.

Excellent observation. They're just repeating old outdated arguments. There is absolutely no evidence supporting the argument that Public School children are more socially advanced than Homeschooled children. In fact, one could argue that Public-Schooled children are a real mess these days. So it really is an outdated argument.