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    Homeschooling hits record numbers

    (reason.com)
    193 points bilsbie | 12 comments | 21 Nov 25 00:31 UTC | HN request time: 0.445s | source | bottom
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    kylehotchkiss ◴[21 Nov 25 19:26 UTC] No.46007963[source]▶
    I can't say my public school experience was great, I was bullied and didn't really click with the popular kids, but being around a cross section of actual American kids in my age group (my school district mixed middle class with lower class neighborhoods) helped me shape my worldview and learn to deal with people who didn't look or talk like me. I frequently saw fights, so I learned that you just stay away and watch your mouth around specific people. I learned that the BS American value of "popularity" doesn't translate into successful futures.

    I worry this move to homeschooling and micromanaging children's social lives just creates bubbles and makes children incapable of interacting with those outside of them.

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    1. usefulcat ◴[21 Nov 25 20:45 UTC] No.46008770[source]▶
    There are certainly tradeoffs, but it's not all negative. In my experience, what it boils down to is that home-schooled kids tend to have more experience with adults and less experience dealing with a wide variety of other kids, particularly assholes.

    When I was a kid in public school, there was no shortage of assholes and I definitely would have preferred to not have to deal with them. OTOH, I don't doubt that there is also some value in that experience, not to mention interacting with all the other people. Also, we didn't have social media or semi-regular school shootings when I was a kid. So yeah.. to me, it's not at all obvious which set of tradeoffs is preferable nowadays.

    replies(3): >>46008806 #>>46008861 #>>46010750 #
    2. BobaFloutist ◴[21 Nov 25 20:48 UTC] No.46008806[source]▶
    You're forgetting that public school also exposes you to more adult assholes, including ones with direct power over you that can screw you over for no reason.

    It's important to know how and when to advocate for yourself and others, when to escalate through proper channels and when to escalate outside of proper channels, and when to back down and let them be an asshole because they're frankly not worth your time.

    replies(1): >>46010137 #
    3. ghssds ◴[21 Nov 25 20:53 UTC] No.46008861[source]▶
    What happens to asshole kids? Do they become regular adults or asshole adults? Do they become soldiers or prisonners never to be seen again by normies? Do they even reach adulthood? Are they even a stable group or were we all asshole kids to some other kids?
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    4. ksclarke ◴[21 Nov 25 20:56 UTC] No.46008903[source]▶
    Some become President of the United States. Others probably grow out of it?
    5. kylehotchkiss ◴[21 Nov 25 21:01 UTC] No.46008951[source]▶
    I think it's an important development milestone to learn that people don't want to be their friends, and the longing for human connection might be a good moderating force in their life. I was a really pessimistic teenager, which I received plenty of feedback on, and have worked against my own nature to become a more positive and cheery adult.
    replies(1): >>46009279 #
    6. arevno ◴[21 Nov 25 21:37 UTC] No.46009279{3}[source]▶
    This is a strange claim.

    In my personal experience, the asshole kids overlapped greatly with the popular kids in a Venn diagram sense. People, in general, did want to be their friends.

    replies(1): >>46011341 #
    7. Matticus_Rex ◴[21 Nov 25 22:02 UTC] No.46009503[source]▶
    Looking back at the assholes of my youth, they run the gamut. Some seem like lovely adults, and are very successful. Some are just like they were and are very successful. Some others crashed out completely. The more brash, upfront assholes and the clever assholes seem to have done better than the sneering, malicious assholes.

    And we were (almost) all assholes sometimes, but there's definitely a class of kids who were assholes most of the time.

    8. usefulcat ◴[21 Nov 25 22:34 UTC] No.46009829[source]▶
    Dunno, maybe all of the above? Believe it or not, I didn't really keep in touch with them.

    My point was that kids are disproportionately likely to treat other kids badly, especially when adults aren't around. That kind of situation is common at school, but much less common at home, unless the parents choose to allow it.

    9. JoshTriplett ◴[21 Nov 25 23:05 UTC] No.46010137[source]▶
    In particular, learning "pretend to lose now, win later" is a useful skill. But I think there are healthier ways to learn that skill than on a live-fire course.
    10. gbacon ◴[22 Nov 25 00:22 UTC] No.46010750[source]▶
    All over this discussion, the big negative has nothing to do with missing out on stellar education, skill development, or expert teachers. Instead, it’s the perpetual handwringing that homeschooled kids won’t be Properly Socialized, i.e., be exposed to and have to endure mistreatment, disruption, and sometimes assault from other maladjusted, cruel, or even mentally ill peers — because that’s “the real world.”

    This is not the W for the government schools that proponents seem to think it is.

    11. MathMonkeyMan ◴[22 Nov 25 00:59 UTC] No.46011016[source]▶
    In my experience they become regular adults. Whatever made them an asshole is still there, but they've either learned to deal with it or the context has changed such that there's no point in being that kind of asshole anymore. Nobody's perfect, and adolescence is rough in the best of times.
    12. jgwil2 ◴[22 Nov 25 01:53 UTC] No.46011341{4}[source]▶
    I think that a lot of the assholes behaved that way because they were naturally charismatic and people wanted to be their friends despite their being assholes. They were never socially punished for their behavior because they could turn on the charm at will. In other words, they were assholes because they could afford to be.