Homeschooling. For or Against?

<p>^ It is also worth noting that Europeans overall are much happier with their jobs than Americans. But I digress.</p>

<p>I’m not going to become worried about the job market yet. I have 4-11 years to worry about that.</p>

<p>Europe FTW.</p>

<p>You don’t think you’re going to work while in college? Or start looking for a job?</p>

<p>^A lot of colleges guarantee that they’ll give their students jobs, and they usually have a minimum wage that’s well-above the national. So it’s not really the same thing as having a job in the real world.</p>

<p>If everything somehow manages to go wrong in my life, I know I can get a job in my parents’ home town in Alabama.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>No one can guarantee jobs anymore. Are you talking about on-campus or after graduation? Not even Wharton grads are 100% employed. And on-campus jobs are harder to find now too with the economy the way it is.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Would it be a job you actually enjoy? And do you really work 9-5?</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>On campus. Sorry. I thought I made that clear by saying that it wasn’t the same as in the real world. Obviously, they can’t guarantee jobs off-campus.</p>

<p>It’s generally pretty easy to get an on campus job as a student, but I don’t know of anywhere that actually guarantees it.</p>

<p>At most larger campuses, it is hard to get a job on campus simply because of the need right now. On-campus jobs are typically filled by work-study students first and there are many work-study students that can’t find jobs right now. Especially in hard-hit places like Michigan.</p>

<p>I’m good at turning bad situations into better ones. I’ll be fine.</p>

<p>^ And how did you learn to turn bad situations into better ones? By staying at home and avoiding high school? Or by going to high school and making the best of the situation?</p>

<p>It’s not knowing that worrying doesn’t solve anything. And that at the end of the day, it probably doesn’t matter.</p>

<p>^What?!?! </p>

<p>Those statements made no sense to me whatsoever. Clear signal that it is sleep time.</p>

<p>I’m about to go to sleep. Or try at least, lol</p>

<p>Good night you guys!</p>

<p>Oh, but I meant “It’s knowing that worrying doesn’t solve anything. And that at the end of the day, it probably doesn’t matter.”</p>

<p>Going to high school for four years is not the only way to learn how to get along with other people or function in the “real world.” In fact, in many ways, homeschoolers have an opportunity to interact with the real world to a much greater extent than do traditional highschoolers.</p>

<p>I know homeschooling students who participate actively in community theater, who take local university courses, who intern extensively at organizations throughout the area, and so on. They know all about deadlines, interacting with people, and making the best of a bad situation. They have learned how to deal with people off all ages and from all walks of life - not just the narrow band of people they know through high school. Homeschooling these days does not mean hunching over the kitchen table and blasting through a set of prepackaged materials.</p>

<p>I say this as someone who has been through four years of high school and does not regret making that choice.</p>

<p>I think it depends on the person. Someone dumb or someone who doesn’t care might as well go to high school, as they’re probably not going to learn much more as a home school student than as a high school student. Someone who is smart and motivated will learn more as a home school student, so for them it should be better.</p>

<p>My parents both taught public school and they chose to homeschool their kids. As I understand it these are their views:</p>

<p>The school system teaches false morals and questionable science. They belive parents have a right to teach their views to their children.</p>

<p>Parents are far more capable of teaching their kids than a system that must also teach 100s of other kids with different needs.</p>

<p>The “socialization” kids get in public school is a false one, in which only people in your age group matter and all people are judged by their academic rank. My parents feel that the school system build “gifted” kids up to a false sense of superiority and tears “slow” kids down to a false sense of inferiority.</p>

<p>Since I’ve never attended public school myself I can’t really speak to these issues, but I do know that the judging thing is true, since I’ve seen it in my friends. One of my best friends was rather slow at reading. For this reason he was in a “slow” class and constantly ridden down by others, and treated like a dumb oaf. Being homeschooled, I didn’t have the same attitude (I didn’t even know he was “slow” for a long time), and I saw he was actually one of the smartest of my friends when it came to reasoning and strategy.</p>

<p>I’m all for homeschooling.</p>

<p>…Especially after reading my counties facebook page yesterday.</p>

<p>I used to be against homeschooling, and to a small extent, I still am. I’m against religious homeschooling because, well, I’m pretty much against religion - especially in place of education. But, after becoming a distance learner in high school, I don’t see home school as so bad. A lot of people make ridiculous assumptions.</p>

<p>This is one thing I don’t understand:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Huh? I’m an online school student, but through that I’ve become acquainted with many home school programs. Their students have tough deadlines, plenty of extracurricular activities, volunteer experience, work experience, classes they DO like, classes they hate (after all, you still need math), etc. People who are self-employed don’t live in some kind of dream world with no schedules, deadlines, or person-to-person interaction - by a long shot. Self-employed people often have it more difficult. I don’t agree with the parallel or the characterization of homeschooling.</p>

<p>Of course, I’m referring to homeschooling done right. It often isn’t. On the same note, public schools are often a failure as well (as was my local high school). So many people on CC attend decent to excellent high schools that they often forget really bad one exists. I think with a thorough explanation of my old high school, no one would advocate the local traditional school vs. homeschooling.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>This is also a common misconception. I honestly thought the same thing for a very long time. I’m sure that there are homeschool-hermits out there, but if you look around your high school, there are almost certainly traditional home school hermits. Not being in school has allowed me to interact with far more different kinds of people than being in traditional school. In traditional school the “different people” we interact with are a group of vaguely uniform teachers and students of the exact same age stratified by academic ability. I don’t think I’d consider that diversity.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Absolutely! Homeschooling is FAIL - just like high school - without activities outside of school. Like I said, I’m sure there are homeschool hermits out there, but working, volunteering, playing music or sports, and taking community college classes (also offered as homeschool classes for younger students) are great social outlets. Depending on the local school, they can be much better than the traditional school as a social outlet.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Who says homeschoolers don’t get up early? I sleep in because I’m a senior, but until this year, I was up at seven. No, that’s not some ridiculous 5:00, but I don’t think anyone’s trying to say seven isn’t early. There’s no way of predicting when I’ll have to get up in the future. Maybe I’ll have to get up at 9. Maybe I’ll have to be up by 4 am! Contrary to popular belief, we usually DO have rigid schedules - they’re just different from yours.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Exactly. I spend 25-50% as much time on schoolwork than my public school friends - also accounting for the fact that I don’t have to fulfill stupid requirements like “communicating through the arts” aka skit-writing - and yet I learn more. How do I know? Last year, my friends and I both took AP US History. They were in that class for 72 minutes a day, every day. They had 30+ hours of summer work and usually an hour of homework at night. In a class of thirty-five students, only five passed the AP exam and only one got a five. I spent 3-4 hours a week on the class for a single semester, not a whole year, and got a 5 (and a 730). Almost the exact same situation played out in AP English Literature and AP Environmental Science. Of course, AP exams aren’t the end-all, be all. With the exception of calculus, I’m simply faring better than my public school friends. Plus, I have way more time to volunteer, relax, tutor, work, and, in the past, study for the SAT and complete college applications.</p>

<p>What some people often forget about stressful lives is that they can often be made less stressful.</p>