I need to know as much about homeschool as possible ASAP! either side is good...more against then for..?

Question

i'm doing a project on it and it's due tomorrow. haha i am procrastinating i know. But yeah i need to know stuff on it. Please help me. there isn't much info on it on the net. But like my stand is i'm against home schooling if you live in toronto. It's for a persuassive speech.

SO please help!

Thanks

Answer 1

Hmm...  Kate seems to be offering some 'sweeping' generalizations about homeschoolers.  Let's set the record straight, shall we?  

"One argument against increased homeschooling is that it pulls some highly motivated parents from public school who could be influential in supporting and improving public education."

Kate, you really need to realize that from day one public education was a bad idea.  It has never improved.  It has always had declining standards.  I don't think a few 'highly motivated' parents are going to fix any problems because ultimately, the government runs our education system and not the parents.  And I hate to say it, but the government does not really care about each individual child like their parent does.

"Homeschooling has the potential to limit children to their parents views and not explore divergent views."

Hello?!  What about kids learning Creation vs. Evolution?"  Global warming vs. global cooling?  If a public schooler disagrees with a teacher there is not enough class/one-on-one time to find the truth and study outside the assigned curriculum.  Public schooled students do not get to explore 'divergent' views.  



"Parents may struggle to teach advanced subjects like calculus or foreign language and outside resources may be expensive or difficult to find locally."

Actually, most homeschool parents are fully aware of what they are capable of teaching and when it gets too advanced they take co op classes, hire a tutor, or send their child to classes at the community college.

1. With homeschooling you are removing yourself from the common experience of society.

(Right.  Because in the real world everyone you socialize with is the same age.)

2. Some talented athletes require a school to achieve their potential (I am thinking football mostly).

(Completely untrue.  One of the top high school basketball stars this year is a homeschooler. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/sports... )

3. Homeschooling is difficult without solid support (at least in my experience -- the quality of the local co-op/support group makes a big difference).  (

(Although we did belong to a homeschool group, most of my 'support' came from family and my friends (public and homeschooled) .)

4. You will be misunderstood and constantly have to defend your decision. You may even be criticized within homeschooling circles for curriculum choice etc.

(Misunderstood?  Sometimes.  Annoyed by people with narrow ways of thinking?  Unfortunately, all the time.  The only place I have to defend my decision is on Y&A.  And that is only because I like a good debate and I do it to myself.)

5. Lack of peer competition. In some cases groups have less children of one age group than another.

(Gee.  You're right.  I missed out on all the peer competition...  All those music competitions I was in, auditioning for different music groups, competing against myself to better myself, competing against other homeschoolers in classes we took together, competing with college students when I took classes at the commuity college...)

6. Socializing (as opposed to socialization) - This is a practical problem for some families whether anyone wants to admit it or not.

(People need to understand that not every kid needs/wants to be around other kids all day every day.  For some kids this is too much socializing and they can't control their excitement/anxiety.  It's not the end of the world if a homeschooler does not see/hang out with/socialize with another child thier age everyday.)

7. Unexpected costs - For example, in our case this is the necessity to drive to most group functions resulting in high gas costs. (Are kidding me?  Do you know how much gas those school buses guzzle up?!  I have a student who lives so far out in the country that she has to drive to school because there is no school bus system.  Chew on that.)

8. Access to high end lab equipment is easier in a school situation.

(I had lab at the community college.  Their equipment is ten times better than the stuff at the public school.  And in our district students are not allowed to do much of anything anyway because of safety concerns.)

9. A StanfordB-School-Isnt-What-It-Used-To-Be professor who studied homeschooling determined lack of access to different teaching styles and viewpoints as his main criticism of homeschooling.  

(I had different teaching styles from my four violin teachers, piano teacher, dance teachers, my mom, my dad, other homeschool parents, tutors, one volleyball coach, orchestra consuctors, community college profs., people from camps and workshops...)

10. Dealing with curfew and truancy laws.

(They are based on age and are the same for public and homeschooled students.)

11. Cost and access to good music and art lessons.

(Ok, this one is totally ridiculous.  I am getting my degree in music.  I am attending the top music school in the Midwest.  I have alwasy taken from the best teachers in our area.  I teach violin lessons and most of my students started their instrument at school and lemme tell ya, they are not getting 'good' music instruction.  I fact, this week my middle schoolers have been watching 'Phantom of the Opera' in their orchestra class.  That's right, they haven't played their instruments once this week.)

12. One article I read cited the necessity of a parent staying home as a negative because of loss of income

(Most kids would rather have a parent home than more money and toys.)

13. Failed expectations in terms of the amount of time required to perform adequate instruction with some children

(I think homeschoolers realize that every child learns at a different pace and that could be one of the reasons they have chosen to homeschool.  They don't want their child herded along grades like cattle into a pasture.)

14. Failed expectations in terms of progress also becomes a burden

(Only if the parent makes it a burden.)

15. State and legal requirements can often be a burden especially in terms of documentation

(It's not that hard to document stuff.  You can even buy programs where you simply type things in and it organizes it for you.)

16. Friction is often encountered if one should need/desire to enter the public school system for any reason after homeschooling

(That would defintely be the public schools fault.  Why they don't just accept that a child has been homeschooled and move on is beyond me.)

17. Housework becomes a lower priority. In some homes it is to be expected that it will not retain that museum like quality

(Musieum like quality....? It seems to me the homes with both parents working are usually messier and much less organized.  This is really silly.  I don' t know anybody that thinks about their hosework when deciding whether to homeschooler or not.)

18. I have heard homeschooling graduates complain about the amount of time spent with their parents.

(I have yet to hear this from any of my fellow graduates...)

19. I have heard homeschooling graduates complain about gaps in their education stemming from mistakes by their parents (curriculum choice etc)

(All my homeschool graduate friends complain about sitting through college gen. ed. classes feeling completely bored because they are 'learning' material they have known for a long time but apparently most public schoolers either forgot or never learned.)

20. All of us have heard of parents who had no business educating their children.

(And all of us have heard of parents who had no business having children.  For every homeschool parent who has no business educating their child, there is are public schooled parent who had no business even having children.)

21. Interpersonal relationships do not cease in a homeschooling environment. You will find disagreeable people (bullies even) in a group.

(True.  But at least you won't have to deal with them on your own, everyday.  And honestly, I can't think of any homeschool bully situations.  I'll let you know if I remember, but I don't think I have ever encountered one within my group/groups.)

I am sure I did not help you with your speech, but I just had to let you know what is really going on here.  Kate, while she might have been well meaning, has probably never homeshcooled, probably doesn't know that many homeschoolers, and feels it's her duty to give you cons of homeschooling.  Meanwhile, I was homeschooled my whole life and recognized that many of these cons are utter nonsense and felt it my duty to let you know.  True, there are 'bad' homeschooling families out there, but you can say the same about public schoolers too.  

I wouldn't tell a mechanic how to fix my car, and people who have never been homeschooled should not quote silly sites that publish false homeschooling cons.

Answer 2

Well I was not home schooled, but I have known a few people who were.  Two being good friends.  And I can honestly say I feel their education is lacking.  They both come from different parents.  Its difficult to say whether its the parents, or whomever is teaching the kids, fault or just the home schooling system in general.

To be honest you would probably have to talk to people who were home schooled.  But in general, from the people I have met at least, home schooling seems to lack the education that the state can provide....and since the state education ( US T_T ) is lacking as is, I would say thats bad.  

I cant say much for Canada either.  My step dad went to Waterloo and all his family in Canada was not home schooled.

Hope this helped in some way, goodluck...

Answer 3

home schooling all the way

Answer 4

As the author of the homeschooling negatives copied in above I wanted to point something out that was excluded...

http://www.earlychurchfathers.org/fullci...

"Second this list doesn't apply to all homeschooling families but individual items certainly can apply to some. In at least one case the "negative" seems to apply to all (#4)."

Taken out of context they might paint an unrealistically challenging environment that no sane person could operate under. Furthermore I responded to my own list in a different post showing how we deal with them.

People like to criticize homeschoolers as if they are all incapable of pointing out negative aspects in the particular environment they are in. I have never met someone who is convinced that there are no negatives regarding homeschooling so I decided to collect and enumerate them for the masses. I left the discovery of positives of homeschooling and negatives of public/private schooling as an exercise for the reader. There are plenty of resources there.

The retorts to my negatives from personal experience or pointing out single examples doesn't take them away from some families who experience them. For example the response to #2 (talented athletes -- football mostly) pointed out a basketball player. Basketball has an AAU circuit where schools are not necessary. Find me a football player and I would think your criticism of my #2 more valid. As it is, it is not a valid critique of the football example and certainly not "completely untrue". Even if you could find a football player that doesn't mean the point is undeniably refuted. It could easily be true that in one state an environment IS available for him to compete. The next state over it might not be possible at all. Consider though, this is not a negative for the vast majority of homeschooling families. Its a moot point for most of us.

Whether the negatives are merely perceived or actual, the effect they have on those experiencing them are real and could possibly include depression or other side-effects that could make a parent unfit to homeschool for a particular time frame.

The main gist of my post was to point out that homeschoolers take these challenges into consideration. They by and large WANT to know what they are getting themselves into. I don't think pointing out challenges, calling them negatives and posting them for the world to see is a bad thing. I also don't think we have to pretend that homeschooling is always a bed of roses. For some of us -- dare I say most of us -- it isn't.

Of course the rewards for our sacrifices, I would argue, are certainly worth it.

Answer 5

Well, I have a feeling I'm too late to help you with your project, however, as Glurpy pointed out, it's not a really great thesis, difficult to prove and defend. The problem is that outside of NEA, there are no independent studies that prove negatives of homeschooling. Any negatives cannot be attached to a percentage of homeschoolers, so you can't know the validity of the negatives.

And now, to break community guidelines like everyone else and join in the discussion. Katie, I gave you a thumbs down and I'll tell you it's because your 'links' are to opinion pieces, and in any paper you were writing, would not be considered a resource.

The first is written to state that by homeschooling, we're are making public schools worse. It assumes that public school problems are not about poor curriculum, too many kids or overwhelmed teachers. What can parents do outside of PTA and volunteering to help cut paper? My kids were in PS for five years, parents can't do more than that.

Second link is again an opinion piece, with no facts.

The last link is a blog, that has nothing to do with homeschooling (maybe there's a permalink somewhere?)

Answer 6

You picked the wrong site to ask this on- people here are very pro-homeschooling.  I bet that even though I am just offering POSSIBLE negatives of homeschooling, my response will get nothing but thumbs down.  The people on the homeschooling section of Yahoo Answers are not very tolerant of other viewpoints even when no one puts them down.  You mention a POSSIBLE difficulty of homeschooling and most people go crazy, meanwhile the make sweeping generalizations about public schools and teachers.  (People like these do not reflect well on the homeschooling movement).

One argument against increased homeschooling is that it pulls some highly motivated parents from public school who could be influential in supporting and improving public education.  

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content...

Homeschooling has the potential to limit children to their parents views and not explore divergent views.

http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/...

Parents may struggle to teach advanced subjects like calculus or foreign language and outside resources may be expensive or difficult to find locally.

On this site (http://www.earlychurchfathers.org/fullci... a homeschooling advocate discusses the following negatives/challenges of homeschooling:

1. With homeschooling you are removing yourself from the common experience of society.

2. Some talented athletes require a school to achieve their potential (I am thinking football mostly).

3. Homeschooling is difficult without solid support (at least in my experience -- the quality of the local co-op/support group makes a big difference).

4. You will be misunderstood and constantly have to defend your decision. You may even be criticized within homeschooling circles for curriculum choice etc.

5. Lack of peer competition. In some cases groups have less children of one age group than another.

6. Socializing (as opposed to socialization) - This is a practical problem for some families whether anyone wants to admit it or not.

7. Unexpected costs - For example, in our case this is the necessity to drive to most group functions resulting in high gas costs.

8. Access to high end lab equipment is easier in a school situation.

9. A StanfordB-School-Isnt-What-It-Used-To-Be  professor who studied homeschooling determined lack of access to different teaching styles and viewpoints as his main criticism of homeschooling.

10. Dealing with curfew and truancy laws

11. Cost and access to good music and art lessons

12. One article I read cited the necessity of a parent staying home as a negative because of loss of income

13. Failed expectations in terms of the amount of time required to perform adequate instruction with some children

14. Failed expectations in terms of progress also becomes a burden

15. State and legal requirements can often be a burden especially in terms of documentation

16. Friction is often encountered if one should need/desire to enter the public school system for any reason after homeschooling

17. Housework becomes a lower priority. In some homes it is to be expected that it will not retain that museum like quality

18. I have heard homeschooling graduates complain about the amount of time spent with their parents.

19. I have heard homeschooling graduates complain about gaps in their education stemming from mistakes by their parents (curriculum choice etc)

20. All of us have heard of parents who had no business educating their children.

21. Interpersonal relationships do not cease in a homeschooling environment. You will find disagreeable people (bullies even) in a group.

Hsmomlovinit- No one has given me a thumbs down yet, but I honestly expect it.  I’m a regular poster in higher ed and whenever I wander in here my response gets a million thumbs down even though I don’t bash homeschooling.  Just a few weeks ago I responded to a similar what are the cons? question with possible problems and I got 12 thumbs down and people telling me I was completely wrong, no homeschooling parent EVER had any problems with socialization or teaching advanced physics.  In response to another question, I posted that the homeschoolers that I’ve met seemed no better or worse than the public school kids I’ve met and pointed out that methodologically you can’t compare the test scores of the two, I got a dozen thumbs down.  Meanwhile, people here routinely bash public school children and teachers as if they are all the same.

This board has actually LOWERED my opinion of homeschooling parents.

Violin_duchess86- You just proved my point and made homeschooling look bad in the process.  You ignored every single "some" and "may" and proceeded to behave as if I said these were facts rather than possibilities.  

I offered up some possible negatives associated with homeschooling and included citations.  I did not say these were facts, I said that these were things that the original poster could consider for her project.    Two of my references were from peer reviewed journals and one was from a homeschooling site (which if you follow the link Violin_duchess86,  discusses how they are overcome by good homeschoolers).

It is quite possible she has been assigned the con argument, so I think helping her is more important than promoting homeschooling.    Unlike you I can be in favor of something and still present the con argument for.  Your intolerance to the discussion of problems SOME homeschoolers have reflects very poorly on you.

Answer 7

Good luck with that one.

For one thing, there is no conclusive evidence that homeschooling is bad, and a lot of evidence that it's good.  Secondly, it's the oldest form of schooling known to man, and it's been successful for thousands of years.  The only "cons" to homeschooling are on an individual basis - the child didn't adjust well to homeschooling, the parents were not willing to put the time in, etc.

Last, your premise is flawed.  "Homeschooling is bad if you live in Toronto."  What about if you live in Montreal?  Calgary?  New York?  Seattle?  Dallas?  You need to pick a premise you can defend - and this one, you really can't.

You can find plenty of statistics to support homeschooling though, if you care to change your premise.  Higher test scores, early college enrollment, higher percentage of civic involvement, success in every area of the business world...there are tons of them out there.

Anyway, hope that helps!  And good luck with your project - now get to work :-)

Edit - Kate, actually I'm not going to give you a thumbs-down.  You presented your reasons as *possible* cons, which they are, rather than "homeschooling is evil", as so many do.  As with any schooling option, homeschooling is open to cons - but they are not inherent to homeschooling.  They depend on the individual child and family.

See?  Tolerance :-)

If you present your viewpoint respectfully, many of us here will respect it.  It's when it takes the form of a rant or stereotypical generalization that we give it a thumbs-down.

Answer 8

I think unschooling is the best environment for children to thrive. You get to choose what you want to learn about and when you learn it.

There are so many opportunities available to homeschoolers that traditionally schooled kids miss out on. There is more time to do things in the real world. Places to go and people to meet, much more diversity than in traditional school.

The main thing is that you have time when you homeschool to focus on your own interests. You can do the things that you think are important and you aren't stuck in a classroom so much of the time.

Good luck trying to come up with a realistic negative, I've been looking for 16 years and have found nary a one :D

Answer 9

You want your project to actually be logically sound?

The only "against" stuff that could come up that is reasonable would be to cite specific cases where people shouldn't homeschool: abuse, neglect, serious mental illness... There's no way you can properly defend that nobody in Toronto should homeschool any more than you could properly defend a stance that nobody in Toronto should go to private school.

There is actually a LOT of information on the net about the advantages of homeschooling. You won't find much proper stuff on the disadvantages because it's 99.9% opinion or it only applies to some families, not to homeschooling as a whole.

Answer 10

Kate's answer is very right on....

=)

Answer 11

I wasn't home schooled, but some of the people I know at my college that were seemed to be slightly socially inept.  They lack much younger than their age and I feel it might be due to the limited social interaction that they had growing up.

I also worry about home schooling because the parents can really give a skewed perception of the world, and not share certain aspects of it - both sides of the coin.  The two people I know are both biology majors, but believe very firmly against evolution.  Outside of that, they are still very close minded about certain things, and unwilling to listen to other views.