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    Homeschooling hits record numbers

    (reason.com)
    216 points bilsbie | 12 comments | 21 Nov 25 00:31 UTC | HN request time: 0.423s | 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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    ecshafer ◴[21 Nov 25 20:14 UTC] No.46008461[source]▶
    My kids are not school age yet, and I am not sure on if I will home school or not. But I do think its possible to get good socialization exposure while homeschooling. There is the neighborhood kids, you have sports and clubs kids can join, religious groups.

    Plus not all homeschooling is just a student staying at home all day. Some people "homeschooling" I know are groups of parents getting together to educate their children together in small groups of ~5 kids to share the responsibility, and hiring a tutor to fill in the gaps. Monday they go John's house, his mom has a philosophy degree and teaches them. tuesday they go to Janes house, her dad is a Mathematician and teaches them. etc.

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    1. prng2021 ◴[22 Nov 25 01:33 UTC] No.46011224[source]▶
    Everytime I see these kinds of arguments, it sounds like someone desperately trying to argue that a park playground is almost as entertaining for kids as an amusement park. Your example of 5 kids socializing with each other is definitely better than 1 kid at home. It’s also definitely worse than learning to socialize in a school of 500 kids each day. This is undeniable unless you have an argument of how a pool of 500 kids would somehow have less diversity of personality, thought, languages, physical features, intelligence, etc.
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    2. sib ◴[22 Nov 25 02:01 UTC] No.46011381[source]▶
    But it may be much better than dealing with the problems that come with having 500 "random" kids to socialize / interact with. Everything's a tradeoff.
    replies(1): >>46011435 #
    3. only-one1701 ◴[22 Nov 25 02:13 UTC] No.46011435[source]▶
    Yeah, wouldn’t want kids to learn how to deal with problems.
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    4. eucyclos ◴[22 Nov 25 02:19 UTC] No.46011468[source]▶
    >This is undeniable unless you have an argument of how a pool of 500 kids would somehow have less diversity of personality, thought, languages, physical features, intelligence, etc.

    I have such an argument - have you considered the amount of forced social conformity in a public school versus a community of homeschooled people? Humans are weird in a way that 'public school culture' tries to paper over.

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    5. aeroevan ◴[22 Nov 25 02:47 UTC] No.46011600{3}[source]▶
    Dealing with adult problems shouldn't be something kids have to learn, as long as the problems scale with their development that's not a problem
    6. singpolyma3 ◴[22 Nov 25 02:53 UTC] No.46011639[source]▶
    Except you don't interact with a meaningful section of those 500 kids you get stuck most of the day with a small % all the same age as you and told not to talk to each other.
    7. biztos ◴[22 Nov 25 03:11 UTC] No.46011728[source]▶
    I went to a school of about 50 kids, and I often wished I’d been at a school of 500 or more kids, but looking back I’m very glad my family didn’t opt for the school of 5000 kids.

    At 50 kids, if you were social you definitely had friends (not just acquaintances) from very different socioeconomic backgrounds. At 50 kids, you could play sports on the official team if you wanted to and showed up and didn’t slack off. You knew everyone and there were no cliques, that would have been ridiculous with 50 kids.

    I could go on, but those are just a few things (IMO good things) you get in a tiny school that you probably wouldn’t have at 500 kids and surely not at 5000.

    I find it strange that you don’t hear of more homeschooling groups pulling together to create something like the 50-kid school.

    replies(1): >>46011912 #
    8. Melatonic ◴[22 Nov 25 03:11 UTC] No.46011730[source]▶
    What social conformity is forced by schools these days ? Only one I can really remember was we had specific uniforms for PE (basically just gym shorts and a tshirt)
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    9. eucyclos ◴[22 Nov 25 03:29 UTC] No.46011821{3}[source]▶
    not the school administration, other students.
    replies(1): >>46011971 #
    10. aeroevan ◴[22 Nov 25 03:44 UTC] No.46011912[source]▶
    My son is in a co-op with around that number of kids, but that's total (through HS).

    The co-op I was in 30 years ago was a bit smaller but sounds like it's still going strong (no clue how big it is these days though).

    So there definitely are homeschooling co-ops around that size. I do wonder what the average size of a co-op is though

    11. ethbr1 ◴[22 Nov 25 03:56 UTC] No.46011971{4}[source]▶
    So, good training for exactly the same pressures they'll face as adults?
    12. prng2021 ◴[22 Nov 25 03:57 UTC] No.46011974[source]▶
    “Humans are weird in a way that 'public school culture' tries to paper over.”

    I went to a public school as did the vast majority of the world’s population today. Genuinely curious… Are you saddened by what you view as a lack of diversity and creativity in the world and do you blame that on public schools?

    Schools have athletic kids and within that, groups interested in different sports. And within each sport, subgroups of kids who become close friends. All of that also applies to kids interested in musical instruments, art, computers, board games and on and on. Some kids are nice, some are assholes, and everything in between. You make it sound like public school systems output an army of clones. No. Your friend group changes over time as you meet others, as your interests/views change, and as other people change. You're constantly immersed amongst all the other groups and you learn to tolerate some, love some, and hate some. All of this learning is tremendously stifled if you’re talking about a kid learning to socialize in a group of 5 instead of 500.

    Aside from individualism, there has to be conformity as well. That’s part of learning to socialize and function in the real world for later as an adult. Conforming is also just human nature stemming from wanting to be accepted in a group. We all naturally learned to balance conformity and individualism when we were thrown into the public school system. By home schooling, you’re saying no, I don’t have the confidence that my child can do it on their own, even if 99% of the world has done so.