homeschooling

[fluffpuffgerbil]

No highschool drama in the adult world? HAH! Adults can be just as petty and childish. If you think that people magically get mature as adults, then you're sorely mistaken.
.

Don't worry, I know that. I'll have to deal with it at some point.
Honestly though, I said it above, I'm not that clueless when it comes to this.
And really, if I did go to a public school, I'm sure I would only have a couple friends.
I prefer quality over quantity. I have two very good and close friends and that's all I really need. I have more friends too, but two that are closest to me.
One being the girl I met through my math class, the other being my older sister. Luckily my older sis and I are very close and identical in interests and even how we look. We've been asked if we were twins though she's 4 years older then me. Anyway I know adults can be pretty immature.
Not everyone wants or needs public school.
My mom hated it. Her sister loved it.
Me and my older sister hate public school, my younger sister never wants to be homeschooled again after a year of being in a public school.
We're all different. Doesn't mean we're at more of a disadvantage with learning than other kids are.
Parents aren't the only teachers in homeschool.
I'm doing a virtual academy next year. There are teachers you meet with online and can talk to.
Sometimes I believe homeschool can be better since you don't have the distractions of friends and boyfriend/girlfriend dating drama and stuff like that.
If I was anywhere else I'd have to have my paper and pencil so I could draw and concentrate.
In my math class I had to draw every time I went so I could focus. It annoyed the teacher, but she didn't seem to stop me since I was getting A's and my overall grade in math was an A-. She didn't care as long as we got good grades.
I do pretty well in school.
And again, I know I will have to deal with adult drama eventually.

[fluffpuffgerbil]

Heh. I had to redo four years of my highschool education because what I had been using was utter crap. Even then, I had to do developmental math classes. I see homeschooling as a way for parents to be overly controlling of their kids. I would have gotten a much better education had I gone to public school. All my books were either out of date, or a christian curriculum that twisted everything. Only when I managed to get into an online school did things actually go decently.

Ah, I see now why you seem against homeschool.
My parents are far from overly controlling.
And I do use a Christian curriculum most of the time, but I'm also a Christian, so it's fine with me.
I don't know if the online school I'm doing is or is not.
But if your(as in anyone in general, not you in particular) parents were overly controlling and you wanted to go to public school and didn't have a good curriculum when homeschooled, then I see why you wouldn't like it.

[Raptor]

There's too many issues that go along with it. Oklahoma has mandatory state tests. How is a child going to have those if it's being taught by it's parents? These tests are not just required, but also looked at by colleges. Not to mention, you're required to also supplies a highschool transcript that has the results of these tests on them.

[oliverstwist]

Not in Missouri. The best state to home educate in

[Obscurus28]

There's too many issues that go along with it. Oklahoma has mandatory state tests. How is a child going to have those if it's being taught by it's parents? These tests are not just required, but also looked at by colleges. Not to mention, you're required to also supplies a highschool transcript that has the results of these tests on them.

Raptor, i understand where your coming from. overcontrollling parents. my parents skrewed me up. and ive been a good kid all my life. nvr gotten in big trouble. I was given no choice and pulled from school. i hate my mom and stepdad and wish i had a different father. BUT.... those things have made me stronger. i have had to fight for every single thing in my life. i buy my own clothes, am embarassed as hell cus im 17 and my stepdad nvr let me get a license and my GF drives me around. once again i say. you should let your children choose once they are old enough ton make an educated decision. And i mean an unbiased decision. I know i come across as agnst homeschool but my real thoughts are this.... EvErY BoDy Is DifFeReNt.... let them choose. evryone deserves a choice. If they choose homeschooling? Then GREAT if they choose public? Great! but they need to know and be educated about both. i was lied and tricked and cheated to.

[Raptor]

Not in Missouri. The best state to home educate in

Sounds like you haven't done research, then. http://dese.mo.gov/divimprove/assess/ The bottom has a list of mandatory tests. Also there's http://dese.mo.gov/divimprove/assess/eoc.html For oklahoma, it's the EOCs that go to the colleges on the highschool transccripts.

[kc261]

There are some good points made in this thread, and also some misinformation flying around. I'm going to try to clarify some stuff.

First of all, it is legal to homeschool in every state in the US. Different states have different requirements, but it is legal in each and every one. If a state has mandatory testing, then either homeschoolers are exempt from it, or there is a way for them to take the tests. The tests listed in the link Raptor provided are related to the No Child Left Behind act, which means they are mandatory for public schools to give to prove the schools are doing their job, nothing else. Private schools and homeschoolers don't have to take the NCLB tests or meet those requirements.

Getting a high school diploma and getting in to college can be tricky, but far from impossible. Sometimes homeschooled students end up with a GED instead of a diploma, but since they are equivalent it really doesn't matter. Yes, a GED can be seen as somehow inferior to a HS diploma, but usually this is not the case when talking about a homeschooled student. Many colleges are actively seeking out homeschooled students, because for the most part, they do very well in college. But homeschooled students do still have to prove to the college somehow that they are qualified. Often this is done through a combination of SAT or similar tests scores, and a listing of what textbooks they used during their home studies, but there are plenty of alternatives and many colleges are willing to be flexible. It is handled somewhat in the same way as students who want to enter college at a later point in their life instead of just out of high school, when the usual admissions stuff such as high school GPA doesn't really apply, and each case must be looked at individually.

Socialization for homeschoolers is a big concern in the minds of many people, but there are now studies that show that not only does the average homeschooled student outperform their age-peers academically, but they do better socially as well. This is because most homeschoolers get plenty of socialization, and a much wider variety of social experiences than public schooled students. If you think about it, public schooled students are "socialized" by other kids who have mostly only known life in the public school system, and by teachers, who mostly went to public school, went to college, and then went right back into the public school system. That's a pretty narrow range of life experiences to draw from.

Another concern is what happens to those kids whose parents weren't good in math, or are otherwise not qualified to teach. As has already been mentioned in this thread, many homeschooling families team up to form co-ops, so each subject is being taught by a person who is fully qualified to teach that subject. But guess what else... it is possible to learn things without having a qualified teacher to teach you. Most of us learned how to walk & talk without being taught by a licensed teacher. And on this forum, I'm sure most of us have learned far more about reptiles than we ever knew in school. I bet you understand genetics far better than you did after your high school biology teacher taught it to you. Once you know how to read, you can pretty much self-teach yourself anything, and a lot of homeschooled high school students do just that.

I'm not saying homeschool is perfect. It isn't. And as I said in my first post in this thread, it is not for every body. There are a few people posting in this thread who have had bad experiences with it. That happens. I'm aware of others. But it happens in public school too.

[Raptor]

Lol. I couldn't self teach myself math. When you get into the higher levels, you really do need someone to show it to you because generally, the books tend to be very vague.

[DemmBalls]

I completely disagree with home schooling. My wife and I have "friends" that home school their three children...Niether of these people have more than a highschool education (and a weak on at that). Just from hanging out with these people, I have noticed that they are lacking simple math and reading skills that are a MUST in any childs education. I just find it odd that a college degree is required in order to teach in any school system, yet any idiot can teach their child at home in an uncontrolled environment.

I also think going through a public/private school system is an important step in a childs social developement.

[garweft]

I prefer the two faceted approach of traditional schooling with a large amount of parental participation to reinforce lessons learned at school. Too many people rely entirely on a public school system to teach their kid everything they need. The problem is that a student is only in class for around 30 hours a week and this is shared with 20+ other kids. Not much time for individual attention.

At the same time a parent that homeschools their kid without the proper education is putting their child behind both socially and academically. I do agree that math and science are the most common weak areas in homeschooled children, but to be fair it's not like traditional schools really do much better when preparing students for college level mathematics. If they did the remedial algebra courses wouldn't be so popular at colleges.