I'm glad that in my country there are laws that prohibit homeschooling to replace regular education. Also I see what problem they solve, to prevent people like you ruining a child's mental health.
The public school system is more about socializing than gaining knowledge. But how could a person like you understand that, when you think that: "I think having them make $60 an hour while their friends make nothing will be a large deciding factor" is a deciding factor.
Also, I've never heard or seen any kid that listens more to their teachers than their parents. That says more about the parents than it says about the teachers or the school system.
The public school system is not without its flaws. For many, it can be battling constant abuse by their "peers" -- people neither their social nor mental equals, the like of whom they'll never interact with as adults -- under the guise of "learning social skills". Additionally, it's full of outdated, half-false, and irrelevant curriculum & busywork, pandering to the lowest common denominator and increasingly focused towards passing standardized tests.
All of the things you mentioned are true and still homeschooling is worse.
You know why? Our society is not without its flaws either. So unless you can provide a full alternative reality experience to your children, I'd say stand back.
And by the way, who's preventing you to teach your children to identify(and thus ignore) the flaws of this system?
What you're suggesting is the nuclear option and I don't see any reason for that.
I'm no expert, but when I was teaching college I had a few homeschooled students. They were usually younger (still high-school aged) and better students than the traditional students in my classes. So I saw a select group.
It seems to me that homeschooling is a great option for kids well away from the mean of the 'bell curve' - in either direction. It's difficult for the schools to properly handle kids that are far from normal. So for the kid who just needs to learn life skills as well as the kid who is taking the college physics class at 15 years old home schooling seems like a reasonable choice- if the parents are up to it.
I think tokenadult has a lot of interesting insight on this subject.
Kids that are far from normal was not the topic here though.
Also, why should it be only the one or the other? These are not mutually exclusive. Personally, I went to school and I was homeschooled at the same time.
Removing regular school from the equation is almost always a bad idea.
>And by the way, who's preventing you to teach your children to identify(and thus ignore) the flaws of this system?
What do you mean 'ignore'? If children are forced to go to school, they can hardly 'ignore' that they are being bullied or 'just go away' if a teachers is incompetent.
Most children are perfectly capable of identifying the flaws, they are just impotent and can't do anything about it which causes additional misery.
If they don't know how to handle those things then maybe: 1) they should have thought better before deciding to have children and 2) seek help on how to raise them?
We used to live in the fucking jungle and you think that today's society is cruel? What's the matter with you people?
It's a big country, and there's room for both approaches.
Ideally, the parents will choose the method that lets their child learn most effectively. In reality, some of them will make bad choices and stunt their children's education. Which sucks, but life is not fair.
> Also I see what problem they solve, to prevent people like you ruining a child's mental health.
Strange comment. I'm thinking of all the girls I knew in public high school that would cut themselves. The boys did other kinds of self harm; severe drug use, and if they couldn't get drugs, they'd go huff gasoline.
What I expect from my children is that they do a few hours of work in the morning, a few chores after lunch, and then they can do what ever they want the rest of the day (like help me at work if they want since I work from home). Is that such mental anguish?
Of course none of my kids are over 5, so this is all my pipe dream. Might work, might not.
As far as socialization, that is a human trait. Some have more of it, and some have less. Environment does play a small factor. But thinking your child will get great social skills by hanging out with teenagers is...unfortunate.
You've probably also seen little kids - elementary school aged kids - running drugs for older siblings. People in your school were more than likely terrified of going to school unless they were aligned with the right gang. These experiences are extremely traumatic. So, I can understand why you have such a strong opinion about public schools.
If you're still in that community, please get out. It'll change your perspective when you realize that your experiences are not the norm by a long shot.
My daughter goes to public school. Her experience couldn't be further from my memories. Granted it's only elementary school, but there is no bullying. There's no fighting. Kids form their own groups like everywhere else. But, they live and let live. The school has good academics, a theater program, and a homegrown after school program for parents who can't afford a private one and and can't be there for pick up when school ends.
There's a wide spectrum of public school experiences. But, the ones my daughter is having are more the norm than your own.
Why do you think social skills aren't heavily influenced by environment and experience? I'm curious because my intuition is the opposite: that it's mostly based on experience and practice.
I only have in support anecdotes, but I've met several people who were homeschooled, and they had a really hard adjustment to high school / college. All of them ended up being loners because of how different they were from everyone and how hard it was for them to relate. In the opposite direction, the person with the most impressive social skills I know is someone that had to overcome a childhood of poor social skill development and consciously train for it as an adult.
Honestly, as someone who is mediocre at socializing, I really wish I had more of it growing up (I lived in a neighborhood without other kids). It's a pain to improve as an adult.
Well if you think that by not hanging out with kids of their age is going to be better, that's even more unfortunate.
We get it, you had some bad experiences and now what? You're going to isolate them from the rest of the world? And when did that ever work?
> As far as socialization, that is a human trait. Some have more of it, and some have less
Well, yeah if you make them anti-social, I suppose they're going to have less of it.
> and then they can do what ever they want the rest of the day (like help me at work if they want since I work from home)
What?!! Why would a child want to help you with your work in their free time? Are you serious? A child must play, play play!! Preferably with other children of their own age. Please talk to a professional about those issues. This is not even remotely a good way to raise your children.
Ah, you're talking about the middle ages right? Yeah those were the times.
And by the way public education was institutionalized even in the Ancient Greece era.
So what about bullying and discrimination? This is your response? Close your eyes and hide? The only kids that I saw getting bullied were weak kids whose parents were overprotecting them. Instead of encouraging them to join a team sport(or a similar activity), they were trying to steer them away from being exposed to social activities. You see their kids were special, so they shouldn't mingle with the "plebe". It didn't work out well for them.
I'm not saying that bullying is not something you shouldn't be aware of, but this is not how you deal with it.
The public school system is more about socializing than gaining knowledge. But how could a person like you understand that, when you think that: "I think having them make $60 an hour while their friends make nothing will be a large deciding factor" is a deciding factor.
Also, I've never heard or seen any kid that listens more to their teachers than their parents. That says more about the parents than it says about the teachers or the school system.
You are truly a dangerous person.