Homeschooling?

[Avery]

I have a totally different perspective on public school and socializing. I begged my parents to homeschool me every year after I got into middle and high school. Because of my test scores and IQ I was placed into gifted. Our gifted was the same 20 or so people, and we had ALL classes except our elective (music or wheel) together. Yes, every class. Math, science, history, English... for 7 of the 8 periods of school, I was with the _same_ people _every day_ for years!

The problem was, they hated me. I was bullied and abused and ignored for years. They would tell me I smelled and spray perfume on me, shove soap bars in my bag and tell me I was unclean (and I showered every day, so it's not like it was true!), stick horrible hurtful notes in my locker, and all kinds of things like that. My gym clothes would get stolen. There was all kinds of problems. EVERY DAY. When group work was assigned, no one would ever pick me, and the teacher had to always put me in a group. My group would then proceed to ignore any input I had, and the teachers tried to get them to pay attention to me but they never would. They usually never spoke to me, and treated me as if I wasn't there. As if I was invisible. It was pretty much as bad verbal abuse and ignoring bullying as you can get.

I honestly believe that in really severe cases, when the student just can't function in public schooling, whether it be special needs, unable to fit in, whatever, that the ability to be homeschooled needs to be there. My public school experience was miserable socially, and I have several emotional issues that still haunt me to this day, caused entirely by those people. If I'd been able to escape and be homeschooled I probably wouldn't have those problems. Sometimes getting out of the system is the only safe thing.

[Vix]

Though I do believe in some cases home-schooling should be an option, I don't think that it's always the best choice. My reasons:

1) Many parents are not equipped to teach. I've known parents who were trying to homeschool their children who hadn't even earned a GED, couldn't balance a checkbook, had no organizational or time management skills. Basically, these people were setting themselves and their children up for failure. In addition, the expectations held for the children may be unrealistic.

2) Often parents pull children from public schools for the wrong reasons. Removing a child from a situation without first helping him/her to work through a problem -- or at least try to do so -- teaches that it's ok to run away when confronted with a problem.

3) Parents are not required to supply that socialization aspect and sometimes remain in very closed situations. Couple that with a parent who pulled the child from school because of suspected abuse or neglect, and you have a potential problem situation.

4) Teaching and parenting both require vast amounts of patience. It's easy to use up one's stores of patience and have none left over at the end of the day. Believe me, at the end of the day, I'd just as soon not see any more children.

[Amanda N]

You know, I really just posted about this because I was annoyed at the right to choose how to educate their children was being taken away from parents. ;}

[PastMember]

I have a totally different perspective on public school and socializing. I begged my parents to homeschool me every year after I got into middle and high school. Because of my test scores and IQ I was placed into gifted. Our gifted was the same 20 or so people, and we had ALL classes except our elective (music or wheel) together. Yes, every class. Math, science, history, English... for 7 of the 8 periods of school, I was with the _same_ people _every day_ for years!

The problem was, they hated me. I was bullied and abused and ignored for years. They would tell me I smelled and spray perfume on me, shove soap bars in my bag and tell me I was unclean (and I showered every day, so it's not like it was true!), stick horrible hurtful notes in my locker, and all kinds of things like that. My gym clothes would get stolen. There was all kinds of problems. EVERY DAY. When group work was assigned, no one would ever pick me, and the teacher had to always put me in a group. My group would then proceed to ignore any input I had, and the teachers tried to get them to pay attention to me but they never would. They usually never spoke to me, and treated me as if I wasn't there. As if I was invisible. It was pretty much as bad verbal abuse and ignoring bullying as you can get.

I honestly believe that in really severe cases, when the student just can't function in public schooling, whether it be special needs, unable to fit in, whatever, that the ability to be homeschooled needs to be there. My public school experience was miserable socially, and I have several emotional issues that still haunt me to this day, caused entirely by those people. If I'd been able to escape and be homeschooled I probably wouldn't have those problems. Sometimes getting out of the system is the only safe thing.

I had the very same problem, especially during Middle School. Worst part about it was that the Teachers made fun of me too, and made me feel like there was something wrong with me. It nearly drove me over the edge near the end of Middle School and I was lucky enough to survive through it all. If I could, I would have chosen homeschooling, and then gone through high school in the public school system when I was ready to deal with other people. I had several friends that did that, and they exceed way beyond the school standards, and were also very socially advanced. Not to mention the fact they were around adults more (parent influence) so they were more responsible.

[Jane]

You know, I really just posted about this because I was annoyed at the right to choose how to educate their children was being taken away from parents. ;}

I guess I'm not convinced that the 'right to chose how to educate their children' should rest entirely with the parents.

[Paula]

There's no homeschooling in Finland and very little private schools either. There public school-system has a national standard and it's in general, very good one. We rate high on PISA-reachers. However, there's still problems: lack of funding, over-sized classess (or not enough students in some regions), lack of teachers and school-bullying. Where I live, the community is growing fast, and the schools run out of room. They have problems to find room to all students and they turned library etc to classrooms. They are also building a new school to help with situation, but it will be year or two before it's ready.

My son has wears eyeglasses and he's told that sometimes others make fun of him becouse of it. *sigh* But I wouldn't be able to homeschool him, since I don't feel I'm cabable to teach him all that would be required.

[emma]

I don't think I'd want to educate any children I had at home. Apart from the potential social issues, I'd not want them to feel different from their peers in the area.  Plus there are some incredible state schools in the area with far better results than the private ones. Yes, the education system does have its problems here in this countries, such as class size and under funding for some subjects. But hey, I turned out okay.

And they are working on alternatives for the kids who go through the kind of things that some of you have described. Special units that deal with kids who have learning issues, or have suffered with bullying.  These feature non-traditional types of education that are adapted to suit the needs of each individual as far as possible, run by some incredibly talented people.

[Amanda N]

I guess I'm not convinced that the 'right to chose how to educate their children' should rest entirely with the parents.

The thing is, they are the children of the parents.  Take away that right, you might as well take away the freedom to worship as you wish (or to not worship), the right to choose what you eat, the right to speak what you want.  Should other people choose what rights you do and do not have?

[Eimi]

You know what guys, this conversation is starting to veer a little too deeply into political issues and debate, and while I love a good debate as much as the next gal, we've had some trouble in the past discussing issues that people may have strong opinions/feelings about on the forums.  Of course, feel free to continue this discussion, but if we want to debate the issues, we should probably keep that to AIM/MSN/some other chat medium.

[Amanda N]

You know what guys, this conversation is starting to veer a little too deeply into political issues and debate, and while I love a good debate as much as the next gal, we've had some trouble in the past discussing issues that people may have strong opinions/feelings about on the forums.  Of course, feel free to continue this discussion, but if we want to debate the issues, we should probably keep that to AIM/MSN/some other chat medium.

Sorry Eimi.  I honestly didn't start this thread to be a debate.  I was just not happy with the court ruling.