I think that we are all shaped by our own experiences. In my experience, the homeschooled kids were weird religious nuts. I cant say that about all homeschoolers, of course there's going to be a few normal ones in there! Add in that it's grown more popular than when most of us were growing up, there is a much more diverse pool of children being homeschooled. We can acknowledge that we have had these experiences, while knowing that they don't apply to every child. |
LOL yep sounds about right. |
Quite defensive there! Are you homeschooling your children? Are you teaching them to insult other people online and call them "Karens" because they have a different POV than you? Sounds like the experiences I, and pps have had arent quite so outdated... |
Nah they are mostly religious idiots. There are a few outliers but most are not. NC homeschoolers did not have to follow any state curriculum, state testing or any other real requirements except send in attendance sheets to the state. Many states are like NC. |
I live in Maryland between Baltimore and DC and I’ve encountered a number of homeschool families while I’ve been out with my youngest (who isn’t old enough for school yet). I see many “meet ups” at large playgrounds for example- they are obvious to spot since the kids are 8-10 years old amongst 2-3 year olds, since it’s 10am on a school day so most kids their age are in school. The ones I see have children who are very verbal and talkative to adults (they approach me to say hi with unusual frequency considering I don’t know them), their parents seem to trend liberal/ libertarian based on conversations I overhear. I hear a lot of discussion about how public schools couldn’t accommodate their incredibly intelligent child who just learns differently from other kids and how they were so focused on test scores being low that they couldn’t see his unique abilities . Now don’t get me wrong, I kind of agree with this sentiment. But it seems to be a common reason why, in my liberal area, people are homeschooling their kids. The kids mostly seem at least mildly on the spectrum to be perfectly honest. Hence the “poor test scores but incredibly intelligent the teachers just don’t see it” conversation I’ve actually overheard more than once. |
My experience with home schooled kids, both as a child and now was a scout leader, rec league coach, and parent is that they are used to everything being about them.
If they have a thought, they share it and they expect everyone to stop and listen to them. If they want to do or say something, or changes an activity, they are very confused when they aren't permitted to do that. They are generally respectful and polite. But they definitely think they are the main character, even when its their turn to the NPC. They just don't "get" some of the social expectations of them, that other kids do. And now, as an employer, I can almost always pinpoint when a resource was home-schooled. |
This. Religious nut job who teach creationism instead of evolution. |
This is pretty accurate. Of course, none of this means that any given child is necessarily going to be a good person, or a bad person, or extraordinarily more motivated or intelligent, or poorly motivated, or not as bright. You care going to have a lot of outliers of all kinds, but they are more likely to be "different" kids because they are taking a different path than the norm for the community. Some of those differences make them better or worse people, but for the most part, whether or not you are a good person isn't necessarily tied to whether you have autistic traits, or are great at sports, or have strong political opinions. Kids can be different than the norm and be good people or not. Hopefully none of us need to put others down to feel good about ourselves. |
Spot on. This has been my experience as well, all of the above. They are the sun and the rest of us are the planets. They might shine brightly, but we are expected to revolve around them. |
+1 The only homeschooled kids I know are from weirdly fundamental religious backgrounds. The Bible forms a huge part of their education (I had a friend/neighbor growing up who was homeschooled and she was very preachy about the Bible over science). I’ve also seen TikTok videos from “crunchy” moms who think having their kids man a garden and count eggs while baking is a sufficient education (now it can be part of it), but these women don’t seem to believe in any sort of formal phonics lessons or the like. However, I absolutely believe there is a subset of homeschooled kids who come from homes where the parents are well educated and can provide them interesting hands on opportunities for learning. I know a family that “world schooled” their kids throughout elementary before settling down once the oldest hit middle school (for social reasons). That seems like an awesome childhood and requires a lot of money and a very well paying yet flexible remote job to pull off. Unfortunately I think the weird religious or crunchy/off the grid type families are the ones most likely to home school, which is where the weird stereotype comes from. |
I'm not being defensive, Karen. I'm attacking you for being old and stupid. You don't need to teach kids to point out when others are being stupid, this comes quite naturally. |
I only know two homeschooling families. One has a bunch of kids—I think 5–definitely very religious, but the kids are incredibly smart and really interesting people.
The other is because mom is still afraid of Covid. Very interested to see how that all turns out. |
Got it, regular schools teach kids to be NPCs who know they are supposed to shut up until the teacher calls on them, and that's what you want as an employer. |
If someone was in school in the 90's, I don't think theyre that old LOL. But question asked, and question answered. You are clearly a religious fundie homeschooling your children. Probably teaching them that dinosaurs didnt really exist and the earth is flat... good luck to your children with their dim futures having you as a parent/teacher. And yes, dear, you are being very defensive. |
Well, no. A robust public education system is in the nation's best interest. Redirecting tax dollars and resources away from one is bad for national security in the long run. While there are some exceptions, homeschooling by and large is wildly substandard to traditional schooling and provides too many opportunities for children to be abused and neglected without notice. And then there is the curricula that many follow, teaching that people and dinosaurs shared the earth, or that some dude 2,000 years ago was a zombie and so forth. |