Topic : 11/24 Great School Debate

those who are promoting home schooling seem to be denying the fact that there are kids who are failed horridly in a home school environment.

No one denies that. Every method has its failures. I would argue that homeschooling has statistically fewer. It's difficult to fail when you have the person who cares most about the child's education and knows them best (the parent) selecting teaching methods and materials that perfectly suit the student. There are failures, certainly, but they are few and well-publicized.

"Go public?" No one stays a child forever. We all have to hit real life eventually. Where are all of these homeschool failures? If they make up sucha  proprtion of the hoemschooled population, there must be millions. Yet we rarely hear of one.

And, no, they don't all go to Stanford. But most or many go to college, and Stanford is merely one of the more notable universities that prefers homeschooled students. Just one of many--most universities that have any experience with homeschoolers prefer them.

The goal is to prepare children for life, right? And no one disputes that a college education is a good start on an adult life. If colleges, especially really good ones, find that homeschoolers are excelling academically and civically, isn't that a good indication that (as a whole) the method is successful?

As for purported skewed test scores, I believe they were compiled from a group of homeschoolers that offered to have them put in the mix before the children were tested. A blind sample. I can tell you that among the children in my homeschool groups--maybe 200 children in all--I would be shocked if they were below the 85th percentile quote. These are kids that play chess and discuss archaeological preservation methods for fun at sleepovers.

Schools also have their ways of skewing results as well. Parents can and do opt out of them. Many schools will move to classify a low performer as whatever category no longer has to test. Again, my father is a teacher, and this is from his own report. I have seen it as well with one of my older stepchildren. He was doing great but bugged out on tests, and that was what his school found the most important.

People get defensive when they are attacked, period. If you tell someone they are harming their child when they know that their child is getting a superior education, they'll argue. If that's defensive, well, I guess every parent is defensive.

I am just already bored with this conversation because those who are promoting home schooling seem to be denying the fact that there are kids who are failed horridly in a home school environment.

And I'm bored, too.  Show us these failures, please.

And I'm not defensive about homeschooling or even radical unschooling.  I'm a radical unschooler and readily admit that, and have been living joyfully and peacefully with my children for 12 years.  But you won't find failures amongst the true radical unschoolers, as these are the parents who are not only interested in their children's learning, but their overall emotional health and happiness.  Goes far beyond the scope of this debate board, but is discussed in prior posted links.

The 'failures' I think many are touting as proof are from parents who tried and it didn't work 'for them' and their family, not that homeschooling doesn't work.  Those are the ones that re-enter the school system.  Find the ones who graduated from their respective homeschools and have failed to become gainfully employed, living separately from their parents, and are not productive members of society.  Where are these failures?

It would have been nice to view a Dr Phil show where he had homeschoolers as well as unschooled. There is a difference.  I also would like to add that many home educators are required to test and report to the states public schools. It depends on the laws in place for each state. Also there are internet schools that parents are using to educate their children, many of these schools are considered private schools and not home schooled although the children are at home.

I keep reading posts which say something similar to, "why are all homeschool parents so defensive?". Well, if you honestly take a look at this forum you will understand.

Allow me to take the defensive for a bit.

I want to see some proof. I keep reading things like, "Many homeschoolers.....(something negative)." I want to see some examples. I can post study after study showing homeschoolers far exceed the public school students. I would LOVE to see a study which shows the opposite. If there really are so many bad homeschoolers then why isn't it plastered all over the media? It is quite obvious that mainstream media is set against homeschooling.

I'll tell you, if Dr. Phil could have found an actual study showing homeschooling was negatively impacting the children he would have shared. You can bet money on that.  But he couldn't find one. So, what did he choose instead? He chose the most radically extreme unschooling family he could find and attempted to paint them as the norm. There were many wonderful homeschoolers which applied for the show. They were not chosen and this was for a very specific reason.

Let's be honest here, homeschooling works. If it didn't there wouldn't be so many wonderful examples of success. If it didn't work there would be many examples of it's failure. I'm sure many of you have tried, without success, to find "dirt" on homeschoolers to use on this forum. Didn't find any, did you?

So, please, let's get to the actual issue at hand. There is no reason for all this blind debate with statements thrown about dressed as facts.

I have some questions for those opposed to homeschooling. Do you realize there are an estimated 1.1 million homeschoolers in America? (According to the National Center for Educational Statistics) Do you really believe another 1.1 million students would fit into the already overcrowded public school system?

Numerous studies have shown students do much better with one on one interraction with their teacher. Luckily homeschoolers have this opportunity. However, public schooled students do not. Many parents choose to homeschool and as a result lighten the burden on the public school system. Aren't you happy about this?