I’d put money on the percentage of weird homeschool kids to the total is the same as the percentage of weird traditional school kids to the total. Just yesterday my daughter told me one of her high school classmates came to school dressed as Winnie the Pooh. She said the guy was weird to begin with.

Over the years I’ve been subbing, one thing I’ve noticed is that home schooled or not, the Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
Our granddaughter is 4 and we are looking to find some way to homeschool her. The schools are terrible and the school district she's in is the worst of the bunch. My wife and I are both full time at our jobs so I'm not sure how that will work.

A friend and his wife both work, but when Covid started they found a tutor to teach a small group of kids. She is doing a great job, the kids are learning, and the parents are able to continue working. I think there are about 6 kids in their class, not all the same age. As the tutor's pay is split by many, the cost is reasonable.

Public school teacher here. I started a few years ago as my latest career. I am another one trying to change the system from within. Having said that, while both of mine went to or are attending public schools, my grandkids will have the opportunity to be homeschooled, if I am alive.

In my opinion, it needs a complete and total re-structuring, down to society figuring out what the purpose of public school is. Many seem to think that our purpose is to mainstream folks and bring Americans from different backgrounds together, much like boot camp used to do. Some think it's to provide a social safety net for the parents who cannot or will not take care of their kids. Very few seem to think it's to push ALL of the kids academically. In fact, I have seen teachers (not ones I know personally) post on social media that the smart kids "will be OK" and that we should focus on the left side of the bell curve.

Which view is correct? Is there a point at which public schools should be able to turn you away because you're dragging everyone else down? That requires all of us

Another trend is that we are pushing kids to junior college and technical school. While this is great for the individual kids, the school culture loses a lot because the motivated, driven kids are off-campus.

I will say that I recently went to some professional development for a new STEM course I am teaching. The VAST majority of folks there were not career teachers. Most are industry folks who are wanting to make a difference and/or spend more time with their own HS kids. One dude was the test case for a homeschool group using the curriculum. I wish him the best.


No matter what you believe with regards to homeschooling, one of the biggest things I have learned is just how many kids lack supportive adults in their lives. If you have the opportunity to be in that position for someone, I highly recommend it.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Yep. Athletics is a BIG part of high school for many kids. I doubt you get many kids who go on to play D l sports in college. The carmaradarie was great and you learn the nuances of male relationships. Home schooling leaves that out.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Yep. Athletics is a BIG part of high school for many kids. I doubt you get many kids who go on to play D l sports in college. The carmaradarie was great and you learn the nuances of male relationships. Home schooling leaves that out.

No, they don't leave that out. Home schooling students can do what's frequently called dual-enrollment. The public school is happier as they get some of the money they would have otherwise lost, and the student can choose any class, sport, or club just as any other student. Several friends had home schooled their kids that also ended up with sports scholarships at college because they did so well at the sport through dual-enrollment.

Good to hear.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Yep. Athletics is a BIG part of high school for many kids. I doubt you get many kids who go on to play D l sports in college. The carmaradarie was great and you learn the nuances of male relationships. Home schooling leaves that out.

That’s really a poor argument against home schooling. One, the home school kids can play whatever sports they want for whatever school whose team they can get on. There’s a home school kid on my son’s high school swim team. He likes working on cars, video games, hangs out with the team at after the meet get togethers, and is as normal as can e for a teenager.

Two, playing for a D1 school is not a metric, period. You know how many kids playing high school sports who wind up playing at D1 colleges? Not many. My nephews were absolute studs in baseball and basketball at their public high school. The one is 6’7” the other is 6’3”. The one plays baseball at a D3 school the other basketball at a non-NCAA private school.

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One, the home school kids can play whatever sports they want for whatever school they whose team they can get on.

^^^^^^^^
Not where I live. There is cuthroat competition. Must be in that district. My kids were recruited at the high school level. Being accepted into another peer group is a problem. Both my kids played college athletics btw.

I do not think you can create the high school experience through home schooling. I have seen it time and time again. As I said earlier I have no issues with home schooling if that is what you desire. I had fun in high school,played sports, participated in extra curricular activites and was exposed to my share of diversity. I guess home schoolers will be good candidates for work at home jobs.

Topic for another thread, but athletics is not the be all and end all...

If we had more focus and funding on say STEM curriculums and facilities in high schools instead of sports there's a good chance we wouldn't be continuing to fall behind in education in this country.

Or, make the requirements to be a teacher more stringent and take some of that money poured into athletic programs and pay the rest of the teachers a salary commensurate with those elevated requirements. Somehow I suspect actual education as a whole would benefit.

In regards to socialization and homeschooling, it requires a constant effort to give them the opportunity, and should be an integral part of any home schooler's routine. Fortunately there are any number of programs that can provide this, inside or outside a public school program.

I am sick of hearing about STEM. Thank God that was not around when I was a kid. We have enough of those folks around already. The engineers and often the premed students struggled when they had to write papers and read the Great Books. I would like to see more critical thinkers who know that Chaucer did not play first base with the Yankees. The athletic programs at my University were all self supporting.

We aren't talking about university level education.

And yes, I agree that education should be well rounded to include math, science, language, literature, history, geography, civics, and arts, in addition to extracurricular activities. If the education system as a whole were accomplishing what they should be and producing well-rounded students, many of us wouldn't feel the need to homeschool.

You brought up STEM in the high schools, not me. Coaches would string you up for suggesting that money be diverted to STEM from athletics.

quote:

Must be in that district. My kids were recruited at the high school level.

Which is it? What kind of recruiting can there be if you have to play for the school in whose disctrict you live?

I'm only familiar with the Florida High School Athletics Association (FHSAA) rules. Recruiting is specifically and expressly prohibited. When my son was in 8th grade, I was asking one of the coaches for the club team he swam for some questions about high school swimming. The coach is also the coach for one of the local high schools, so I figured who better to ask. Certain questions he wouldn't answer because he said they could be considered recruiting. The high school my son attends has no sports program and is thus not an FHSAA member. He can swim for whatever high school he wants; same as the home school kids. In fact, FHSAA rules even allow kids living in one district to attend schools in other districts and play sports at the school they attended. There's at least three swimmers on my son's team that live in the next county over, but attend the school whose team my son is on.

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Both my kids played college athletics btw.

That's great, but so what? Did they play for D1 programs? That's the metric you set forth.

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I do not think you can create the high school experience through home schooling.

You are painting with an incredibly broad brush here.

What exactly is a "high school experience"? Is that like the one one of my friends had where he OD'd and died before he got out of high school? I'm sure that was a great experience. My high school had about 1,698 white students and was rumored to have 2 black students. I say rumored because we had a split campus with freshmen and sophomores at the south campus while juniors and seniors where at the north campus. I was a freshman when they were seniors, so I never actually saw them. Neither the high school nor the large state university I attended prepared me for living in Chicago. There were times where I found myself in parts of Chicago and wondered if those two kids felt the way I was feeling.

I bring these three experiences up because there is no one "high school experience". High schools can have 40 to 4,000 students. They can have a variety of educational focuses, sports, clubs, music and theater programs, etc. A home school "high school experience" is no less valid than any of the practically infinite "high school experiences" other people have had.

In reality, the only two things I ever hear folks talk about in reference to a "high school experience" is sports and prom. Both are easy to do for home schoolers, at least in Florida. I already talked about sports. As for prom, sign your kid up for cotillion. They might learn something and probably won't knock someone up/get knocked up.

You could also have them watch John Hughes movies and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Home school, public school, private school, boarding school, whatever school; how the kids turn out all boils down to the parents and the choices the parents make. PASigs kids aren't going to turn out any weirder than he is regardless of the educational choices he makes for them. Not that my opinion on the subject matters, but he seems to be a fairly normal guy, husband, father.

For the record, I really do belive it boils down to the parents and as such I'm really not for or against any form of school. Each form of school has pluses and minuses that require the parents to make adjustments for. We chose the path of least resistance for us. There are things that are important to us and we picked the combination of schools that offered us the easiest path to achieve our goals. I would think every parent would do the same.

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Which is it? What kind of recruiting can there be if you have to play for the school in whose disctrict you live?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Well this ain't Florida. Since you have to live in the district, a wealthy donor bought the family a house in the district and they moved. The kid played college and was an NBA starter. Private schools can do what they want, but kids
cannot transfer to a 2A school from a 5A without a waiver which is hard come by.

There are middle school kids playing high school sports if they are good enough.

Sounds like you had a sheltered high school experience. I went to a large public high school in Chicago. ALL class levels not just middle class kids by any means. I also worked manual labor and factory jobs. A number of my fellow workers had done prison time. I was the minority white kid. I learned to play Wisk and get along.

While I enjoyed Fast Times at Ridgemont High it is a comedy and not close to what I dealt with in high school or on the streets of Chicago.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
You brought up STEM in the high schools, not me. Coaches would string you up for suggesting that money be diverted to STEM from athletics.

...pretty much makes my point.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

Which is it? What kind of recruiting can there be if you have to play for the school in whose disctrict you live?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Well this ain't Florida. Since you have to live in the district, a wealthy donor bought the family a house in the district and they moved. The kid played college and was an NBA starter. Private schools can do what they want, but kids
cannot transfer to a 2A school from a 5A without a waiver which is hard come by.

There are middle school kids playing high school sports if they are good enough.

Private schools down here can't do whatever they want if they are FHSAA members. They and their students have to follow the rules the same as anyone else. That's the reason I switched my son from a private school to a public school. Even though the private school didn't have a swim team, because they were FHSAA members, he couldn't swim for a high school that did.

Just want to make sure I got this straight. You said your kids were recruited at the high school level. Are you now also saying that recruiting consisted of someone buying your family a house so your kids could play in the district that house was in and that your kid was an NBA starter? I'm curious, was the wealthy donor a relative? Even so, that's not the school recruiting and if you actually moved into the house and lived there, not against FHSAA rules. Plenty of people move to good districts for the benefit of their kids.

Yep wealthy donor who attended the school The Catholic high school has a good football team because a wealthy attorney paid their tuition and expenses. Although it is against the NCAA rules kids are routinely recruited in high school

Did your kids go to school in Chicago as well? Because that’s typical for Chicago.

[QUOTE/]I do not think you can create the high school experience through home schooling. I have seen it time and time again. As I said earlier I have no issues with home schooling if that is what you desire. I had fun in high school,played sports, participated in extra curricular activites and was exposed to my share of diversity. I guess home schoolers will be good candidates for work at home jobs.[/QUOTE]

I would agree it is difficult to recreate the HS experience. Avoiding the HS experience was one of the drivers in the decision my wife and I made to homeschool. No one in either of our families had a good school experience. That's six people, of whom two found it tolerable but not great and 4 who struggled significantly with the HS experience, not the academics, although academic performance slid for several of us due to disengagement.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Coaches would string you up for suggesting that money be diverted to STEM from athletics.

So is the goal to educate kids, or to teach them how to kick around a little ball for a few years?

There is WAY too much emphasis placed on sports. They are called extracurricular activities for a reason. In addition to the curriculum, not a part of the curriculum. If you want to do them, fine. If you don't want to do them, fine. Education comes first.

In my perfect world we'd get sports the hell out of the school system altogether. You want to to play? Start an intramural league. We spend way too much money on buying sports teams uniforms and stadiums and practice equipment and busing them all over God's creation to play a game. That money would be far better spent on making sure they can read by the time they graduate.