So it's cool to keep kids under "state" control?

Question

How about kids that are home schooled perform better all around.

Answer 1

Ack!  It's so monotonous to see the same thing all the time...that homeschoolers suffer socially.  

The only kiddos that socially suffer are the ones who stand in front of their closets before school stressing about what to wear so they won't get picked on all day.  Or the ones who make good grades but get stuffed into trash cans because they're nerds.  Or the ones that are musically talented and get to play "try to get back your instrument case from the dumb jocks."  O maybe the ones that are the bullies who get shot by a kid that snapped from all their great social interaction!

Alright.  It's safe to come out again.  Rant's over.

Answer 2

Apparently some think so.  

I guess it depends on one's worldview - here are a few perspectives on the matter.

"A word as to the education of the heart. We don't believe that this can be imparted through books; it can only be imparted through the loving touch of the teacher."

—César Chávez

"When I was a boy on the Mississippi River there was a proposition in a township there to discontinue public schools because they were too expensive. An old farmer spoke up and said if they stopped building the schools they would not save anything, because every time a school was closed a jail had to be built."

—Mark Twain

"[My family] believed in the public school because they believed in a community... You became a worthwhile person and a member of the community."

—Garrison Keillor, radio humorist

"What greater gift can we offer the republic than to teach and instruct our youth?"

—Cicero

"There is a place in America to take a stand: it is public education. It is the underpinning of our cultural and political system. It is the great common ground. Public education after all is the engine that moves us as a society toward a common destiny..."

—Tom Brokaw

"It takes a village to raise a child." - African Proverb

The aim [of compulsory education] is to make 'good' citizens, which is to say, docile and uninquisitive citizens. ~ H. L. Mencken

Schools have not necessarily much to do with education ... they are mainly institutions of control, where basic habits must be inculcated in the young. Education is quite different and has little place in school. ~ Winston Churchill

A tax supported, compulsory educational system is the complete model of the totalitarian state. ~ Isabel Paterson

Let me control the textbooks and I will control the state.  ~ Adolph Hitler

The education of all children, from the moment that they can get along without a mother's care, shall be in state institutions at state expense. ~ Karl Marx, "The Communist Manifesto"

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And I'll just throw these in just because I like them...

Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.

—Leonardo da Vinci

"Ask not what your country can do for you…Ask what you can do for your country."

-- John F. Kennedy

"The efforts of the government alone will never be enough. In the end the people must choose and the people must help themselves."

-- John F. Kennedy

I do not think anyone of any age should be under state control. I believe in the freedoms and rights enumerated in the U. S. Consitution.

Answer 3

It depends on the home school setting, my son gets plenty of social interaction between sports, and field trips with other home schooled kids. I home school because the education system in California is spiraling down hill with over crowded class rooms and low test scores, lack of supervision and too much being crammed down your throat about evolution. I am the parent and I know what is best for my children and do not like the state telling me what I can and can not do

Answer 4

Why would it be "cool" to keep kids under state control? Do we not live in a "free" country? If so, then why would we have to answer to the state since our children belong to us and not the state? Socialism believes that kids (and their parents!) belong to the state, but I am assuming you are speaking of the USA and we live under a free republic.

I homeschool. I have homeschooled for the past 15 years with four of my children. We do not replicate the public schools because we do not believe in the public schools. However, this also does not mean that we are not socially out and about. In fact, we are almost always out and about socially in the community. When I go grocery shopping,  my kids go with me so they know how to shop for their future families. We look at the sales, we clip coupons, we read labels, we compare prices, and we stay on budget. Kids can learn this in a public school, too, but it is not real learning as they are not buying for anyone, and even if they have "homework" where they have to go with their parents, it is only one time and the kids do not really learn much from the experience. My kids have gone since birth.

We were able to spend large amounts of time with my grandfather, until his death a few years ago. My kids have learned to enjoy multi-generational gatherings and encounters. They are not peer-dependent like most kids in public school, and there is not a "generation gap". My kids are comfortable talking with people of all ages and they know how to be respectful and to speak up about what they think.

Homeschooling is more than just learning from text books (which we avoid like the plague!!!). It is about family, nature, friends, and life. Homeschooling is the lifestyle we live. We garden (in the city on a small plot of ground that is 123'x50', with a garage and a backyard that is off limits because of dogs and shade). We can and freeze the food we grow. We also share the bounty with family and friends.

We read all the time. Our family is a reading family and we own well over 3000 books that line shelves in every room. We read orally and privately and everyone has their own favorite authors. We know that we do not have to know it all as we can explore and find the answers we need in books, on the web, from the library, from other people, and from other resources. We know and believe that learning happens all the time, and we embrace this life-long journey with fervor.

Our kids began to cook when they were old enough to see safely over the stove, about age 5-6. My kids can cook entire meals and bake all kinds of foods from homemade breads to cakes and cookies. We rarely eat processed foods as we are conscientious of the quality of food that we ingest. We try to eat meats that are free of hormones and anti-biotics, we purchase free range farm eggs, and we eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. We are conscious of the difference between real food and processed food.

My kids all enjoy crafts. We each have our own interests that reflect who we are. My kids are all fiercely independent and secure in who they are. My kids are educated, intelligent, capable, witty, creative, and respectful. Are they perfect? Heck no! No one is perfect. But are they unique and individual? You bet! There is no herd mentality in our household. We honor and respect the differences in our children. We also honor the fact that some may struggle with higher math skills, or that one may have talent in artistic ability, while another one enjoys the accordion. No one is forced to do what everyone else is doing, or has to be on the same level as everyone else. And surely no one has to learn about things they do not care to learn about. There is a time for all things, and a lifetime to make it happen.

And, somehow with this philosophy, we have kids who know history, science, have good writing skills, and are knowledgable about many things in many areas and genres. One may love the Medievil time period, while another loves the Colonial Era. Another one thinks Ancient Egypt rocks, while another one loves the Wild West. Each knows a bit about each other's interests, but they are each plugged into their own interest and have studied it in depth.

Homeschool is how it was meant to be. Freedom to learn. Freedom to be passionate about what interests you now. Freedom to explore the world around you and to be part of the daily dynamics of your family and community. Freedom to participate in your community and to not be locked away for hours in a building with your peers, far removed from reality.

Yep!!!! Homeschooling rocks!!! And no, we aren't religious nuts, though we are bible believing Christians. And no, we aren't social misfits. We are active and alive and doing in our community, but most of all, in our family where we make strong bonds that help to create a strong community and a strong country. We are not fragmented.

How can the state do this? Why should they have control on any free people? It is an oxymoron to say that a free people must be controlled by the state. Families have the best interest of their children at heart; the state does not.

There are a few people who homeschool who abuse or neglect their children. There are lots of people who have kids in public schools who abuse and neglect their children. (Because more kids are in public schools than anywhere else). Do we stop people from homeschooling and give the state "control" of our kids? If so, then should we shut down schools because we can't control the parents who abuse and neglect their kids? You can't have it both ways. Statistically, very few people who homeschool abuse or neglect their kids.

And what about those families who "won't" teach their kids what others think they should know? So, what about them? Everyone is learning all the time and those kids will learn. They just will learn in a different way. No one lives in a vacuum, especially kids. They are like sponges who soak up all they can. We can't stop them from learning as it is an innate behavior they were born with. Just watch a baby explore his world and all he learns in the first two years of life. Who teaches him to jabber, crawl, walk, talk? Mom and dad. And mom and dad teach him his ABC's before he goes off to kindergarten. Also his colors, shapes, animals, and how to count, and how to play games and sing songs. So why can't this continue and progress to teaching reading and adding and subtracting and all the other things one needs to know? Ha!!! Homeschooling happens all the time! Even in homes where kids attend public school, but most people are too blind to recognize this.

Homeschooling is learning in a natural rhythm. Adults leave school and continue to teach themselves what they need to learn through life. This is how homeschoolers learn. And after living, learning and experiencing, this lifestyle for so long, I can tell you with certainty that I have never met a socially misfit homeschooled child. I have met many socially misfit public schooled kids. There is very little real social interaction for kids in  public school as most of a child's time is spent in classrooms with a teacher and his day is filled with work.

The myth that school is a great way to socialize people is easily dispelled. Real social learning happens when one is in the community interacting with people of all ages and walks of life, seeing how the world operates. Public schools are artificial places where people are artificially locked up and "socialized" with people of the exact age. This is not how real life works. This is how you create a "generation gap". Isolation of one generation from another is wrong.

I  have two kids who have graduated from our homeschool, and another who is graduating this year. They have all been employed since age 15, and they are all loved and appreciated at their respective jobs as they work hard and are assets to these companies. We have seen the years of relaxed/unschooling process come to fruition, and we are more than happy with the results.

We have four other kids who attended public school (all raised and older than the siblings who homeschooled) and we see major differences in how they interact and relate to the world around them. Those who attended public school are wonderful people, but they think differently than their siblings who homeschooled. Had I to do it all over again, no one in my house would have ever gone to public school. They would all have been given the same great experiences and privileges that their younger siblings have had.

The state be damned! Families are the only ones qualified to have "control" over their children.

Answer 5

I home school my grandson, whom I adopted, because the city we live in has terrible public schools.  I don't even want to let him go to the schools here because they have "dumbed down" to the lowest common denominator of education.  He does very well, has made the honor roll every time and received the President's Award for Excellence, but I still feel a great deal is lacking in his life.  The neighborhood in which we live is a rough one, and I'm reluctant to let him outside, so he has no friends.  There are too many drug dealers in the neighborhood, including the people upstairs.

I'm considering moving to a small Missouri town where I don't have to worry about letting him go to public school and have friends or let him go outside.

The schooling itself seems superficial to me, nothing really in depth.  I think he would receive a better education in a "brick and mortar" school, providing it's a decent school.  Can we say "mixed feelings"?

Answer 6

One thing that most kids lack from being home schooled is social interaction. Though it really depends on the person. Sometimes its the best way, sometimes its not.

Answer 7

i don't know if that's true.

about kids performing better all around.

i attend a christian school, and we have the highest test grades in the state.

i guess it's an opinion thing.