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Homeschooling hits record numbers

(reason.com)
193 points bilsbie | 9 comments | 21 Nov 25 00:31 UTC | HN request time: 0.197s | source | bottom
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jmathai ◴[21 Nov 25 01:56 UTC] No.46000348[source]▶
I do think Covid forced people to ask questions they hadn’t before.

We have sent our kids to private, poor quality and top rated schools.

We saw a stark difference between the poor quality and higher cost options. No surprise.

But the reason we are considering home schooling our younger kids was surprising. It says something about a system dedicated to teaching children when parents think they can do as well or better.

That’s just education. The social situation in schools is ludicrous. Phones, social media, etc. what a terrible environment we adults have created for kids to learn both educationally and socially.

Home schooling has answers for ALL of that.

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Esophagus4 ◴[21 Nov 25 02:05 UTC] No.46000409[source]▶
How are you thinking about the socialization aspects of homeschooling vs not?

I imagine part of the benefit of schooling is to socialize children with their peers so I’m curious how you thought about it.

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1. jmathai ◴[21 Nov 25 02:10 UTC] No.46000452[source]▶
Having put 2 kids (10th and 8th grade now) through a couple school options…the socialization in schools is pretty bad.

Kids from home schooling families we know are as polite or substantially more polite than those in the school system.

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2. PKop ◴[21 Nov 25 18:40 UTC] No.46007438[source]▶
You're just outsourcing the authority you accept to some other group of adults and institutions. They don't have some special moral high ground that makes them better than a child's own parents and non-school social circle. If you care about your kids and have self confidence in your own character, why wouldn't you hold yourself up over strangers?
3. jay_kyburz ◴[21 Nov 25 19:06 UTC] No.46007730[source]▶
I've always thought that learning how to deal with people who are not as polite, and even kids that are downright scary, is an important aspect of socialization. They'll have to deal with those folks when they hit the real world too.
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4. SauntSolaire ◴[21 Nov 25 19:09 UTC] No.46007764[source]▶
Hopefully they learn how to deal with them instead of picking up their communication style.
5. logical_proof ◴[21 Nov 25 19:13 UTC] No.46007801[source]▶
Judgment and sense are not earned... they are taught. Tell me how teachers demand any less than total respect from domineered children? Maybe Pink Floyd had no basis for Another Brick In The Wall? I would ask who is more qualified than their parents to instill in their children judgement and sense? You might argue that there are morally bankrupt parents but I would counter that there are morally bankrupt teachers and a parent has more incentive to raise their child than a stranger does.
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6. BeetleB ◴[21 Nov 25 19:33 UTC] No.46008043[source]▶
> I've always thought that learning how to deal with people who are not as polite, and even kids that are downright scary, is an important aspect of socialization.

It is, but do we have any studies showing how well school kids are at this? From what I've seen, most kids in school do not learn those skills.

7. jen20 ◴[21 Nov 25 19:35 UTC] No.46008060{3}[source]▶
> I would ask who is more qualified than their parents to instill in their children judgement and sense?

That largely depends on the parents. Many are _wildly_ unfit for this.

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8. variadix ◴[21 Nov 25 19:42 UTC] No.46008125[source]▶
I.e. disassociating from those people? Isn’t that what homeschooling does inherently? It’s more likely that kids will pick up bad behaviors than they will learn to “deal with” those kinds of people.
9. logical_proof ◴[21 Nov 25 21:02 UTC] No.46008957{4}[source]▶
Absolutely agreed. There is likely a much higher proportion of unfit parents vs unfit teachers (though the latter category is a non zero number). There is also an economic element to this scenario. My spouse can stay home with the kids while I go to work, this is not at all common in our modern day and age. There are tremendous sacrifices that a family must make to do this and I think that anyone wanting to homeschool because it will be 'easier' is setting themselves up for hurt. Much like the folks who get into programming because the pay is good... It won't be what you think.