What are your opinions on the employability of homeschoolers vs. public schoolers?

Question

Are homeschooled kids more polite? Do they work harder? Do they not have as much experience as public school kids? Please explain your answers, give your honest opinions. Thanks!

Answer 1

Regardless to where a child acquires their education, they need to be well-rounded. They need to be properly socialized and need to have viable skills in order to be gainfully employed.

There are some home schooled children, who wouldn't survive outside of their small bubble of a world. Does anyone recall those little singing twins, Prussian Blue?

They are home schooled - to hate, to be racists, to be ignorant. In all reality, where are they going to get a job?

Parents shape and mold their children's perceptions towards work ethics, social tolerance and basic interactions.

I've seen children from urban backgrounds break the mold, while I've seen posh-private-school-educated kids make you wonder where they'd be without Dad's bank account.

The bottom line is, children tend to do well when they are properly equipped and being properly equipped does not always meet our own expectations.

Answer 2

Assuming the kid isn't one of the disaster cases everyone likes to bring up, I think homeschooled kids have the edge over public/private schoolers because we can work at times that are less in demand.

Assuming that the kid is normal, there won't be a much of a difference between a public schooler and a private schooler.

To the person who brought up Prussian Blue:

Those kids are homeschooling's equivalent to Columbine, or any of the many cases where teachers have raped students.

They stand out because they're so screwed up- when was the last time the local news reported that a teenager stayed faithful to his girlfriend, turned down a drink at a party, got home by his curfew and got his math homework done? It's not a good story. We want to hear about 15-year olds who have fathered nine children and are alcoholics who drive stolen cars in to walls.

You're an idiot if you think most teenagers are like that.

Answer 3

The purpose of schooling of any kind, be it public, private or homeschool, is to learn to think and solve problems. So to make a line between them is unfair to both sides. You are influenced by your family and by your teachers as well as other adults in your growing up years. You are only as polite as your parents have taught you.  You will work as hard as you want to, provided you have the motivation. And...your experience is based on what YOU choose to do, not what a teacher at home or in a school tells you what to do.  

So you see, your question has no real answer.  It all depends on YOU and what you want to get out of life.

Answer 4

I'm curious as to why you would think hs kids wouldn't have as much experience (I'm assuming you mean work experience) as ps kids.  

We have a very large population of hs'ers in our city.  Obviously more ps kids but still a larger then average hs population.    Most high school hs kids here work part-time minimum in the afternoons.  Their ps friends tend to work part time on the weekends.

That woud pretty much even out the experience part.

As for being polite - I have noticed that the ps kids tend to swear in their regular conversations a LOT more.   Not all of them of course but a lot of them.   It's just become the norm and unfortunately take that into the job with them.  

Work Harder - that depends on the child completely.   Some hs kids are lazy and will do only what it takes to get by.  Same as ps kids.   There is the opposite on both sides as well.    

I've never figured out this hs vs ps kids thing.   People saying that hs kids are socially weird or that ps kids are wild and out of control or whatever.   You get both ends of the spectrum in both worlds.

Not every child in public school is socially perfect and not every homeschooler is a perfectly behaved little child.

Answer 5

If I were an employer I'd be more than afraid of hiring a public schooler. The way kids act these days is ridiculous. No, it's not just the public school system's fault but they do play a major role in why kids act the way they do.

Half of 'em are on drugs..half of 'em drink..the other half are either pregnant or extremely "different" (to put it nicely). Sure, some turn out wonderfully..but you've got to go with the odds.

Homeschoolers on the other hand have an advantage: They know not only how to socialize with kids their own age, but with adults as well. The homeschoolers I've seen are quite mature and very polite. They've never experienced the immature and ridiculous "socialization" that happens in public schools therefore they act the total opposite.

Homeschoolers are not "unsocial". Some would look that way if compared to todays kids who go to public schools. The truth is, they aren't unsocialized--they are properly socialized.

Answer 6

I am assuming that you are looking to personal experience, not just opinions. Of the homeschoolers I know, the oldest ones are in collge right now. None are old enough to have a long employment record yet. But of what they do have, I would say they haven't had a problem and shouldn't have a problem in the future.

All but one that has graduated homeschool are in college with a scholarship and on the college's Chancellor's list (high GPA).

My own son is one of these students. He is a sophomore and the college's commtech department actually initiated and pusued him to work for them. He is a student and employee of the college.

The one that is not in college is married and selected not to go to college yet because she wanted to be a full-time homeschooling mom first. She plans to go to college and enter the work-force when her kids are grown.

A quick summary of the others: One is working for a large computer business and is working toward his MBA; another is doing his internship right now as an elementary school teacher; another has already gotten her nurses degree locally, but will be going to a college 700 miles away next year that speciallizes in preparing missionaries for the field, yet another has almost gotten her early childhood degree and plans to open her own professional daycare business (great with kids and known for her work ethic - she already has interested clients).

These early indications suggest to me that there will not be any differences in employability based on their homeschool background.

Answer 7

Homeschooled children are usually more respectful to others.  They are more easily taken advantage of by the public, so in clerk's jobs or other jobs that deal directly with the public, they back down easier to them and are more easily bullied by difficult customers. Homeschooled kids show up on time and have a better work ethic.  Public school kids dress more with the "in" style, so tend to look more professional at times.

My husband managed fastfood restaurants years ago, and learned that homeschool kids are more dependable, but more vulnerable to the public's bullying from difficult customers.

Answer 8

I think that you should repost your question in Education and Reference or Primary and Secondary Education or Other. By asking about unbiased views of Homeschooling in the Homeschooling category, you've defeated your own goal. Most of the people monitoring this category are Homeschoolers, and probably the only answers you'll get from other people are the few who happened to catch it on the home page for the few seconds it was up there.

Homeschooling teachers (parents) vehemiently defend homeschooling because it's their thing. They probably are also getting a stipend from the gov't and don't want to lose that, which could happen if more people opposed it.

Public school teachers will likely oppose home schooling because they believe in their system and worry about the HUGE amount of variables that occur with untrained teachers.

My answer to the employability question is that I have known four homeschoolers. Three went to state colleges in a state where residents are guaranteed admissions. The other chose not to go to college and now is homeschooling her own kids, which I think is deplorable. She works as a manager at a Kmart.

The other three went to and graduated from state colleges. Two majored in business are working in sales jobs for respectable companies and making about $40K a year in small cities. The other is a secretary making $22K also in a small city.

Those are just the facts about the experiences I know of. I won't skew them with my opinions of the people themselves, except to say they came from upper-middle class homes as kids, and now all live in poor communities and have precious few friends. None are married. One of the salesmen does have a girlfriend and they've been together for three years. They don't live together so I don't know if they are thinking about marriage.

I know I'll get thumbs down from the homeschool advocates, but I'm just telling you the facts as I know them.

Answer 9

My dad employs upwards of 40 people and reckons he'd employ a homeschooler over someone who went to public/private school every time.

Answer 10

I definitely believe that a child that is homeschooled properly is definitely as employable as a public schooler.  If you consider that school basically consists of building knowledge and an understanding of the world and society, homeschooling gives students no disadvantage compared to public schooling.  Also, despite what people tell you about the antisocial tendencies of a homeschool student, I can tell you that these "obstacles" are much easier to overcome than a tendency toward lazy or rude behaviors.

Of course, any talk about the potential of one method of schooling against another can simply become a harsh generalization.  The truth is that the good a schooling does depends solely on the student's motivation and the parents' involvement, and not as much on the type of schooling itself.

I can offer you my own experience.  I was homeschooled with my cousins for the entirety of my education before college.  At the same time, my parents worked actively to involve me in the world and give me a good perspective of how things work.  I and my brothers often traveled with them in their business, and they taught us things about the business world at home.  After I finished my 12th year of homeschooling, I received a 1320 on the SAT and a 33 on the MCAT.  In addition, I was named one of the top ten male students of approximately 12,000 students, and I am now applying to medical school.

Hope this helps :)

Answer 11

It 100% depends on the person.

If they were homeschooled because the parents ran out of schools which would take their spoiled little brat, and spent their homeschool years messing about because there was nobody there to make them work, then they're probably not going to be as employable as the average school-educated person.

If they were homeschooled because they found school way too easy for them and needed more of a challenge, and spent their homeschool years working hard, then they're likely to be highly employable.

As an employer, what would put me off would be if someone assumed they were superior because they had been homeschooled. At the point that they're applying for an adult job, I simply don't care whether someone was homeschooled. I want to know if they will be an asset to the company.

Answer 12

It is going to depend entirely on the child.

Is there a *tendency* for homeschooled kids to be more polite? I would say so. At least among the homeschooled and public schooled kids I know. They tend to be more respectful of a variety of people, and respect comes out in politeness.

Is there a *tendency* for homescholed kids to work harder? I would have to say that in general, yes. I was going to say no because I know some unschooling families where the kids don't seem to work as hard as others, yet I've known a couple of those kids to take on jobs and they were highly lauded for being such good workers at their job place.

Do they not have as much experience? What type of experience???? Work experience? Homeschooled kids can often end up having more work experience than public schooled kids due to their flexible and not-so-filled schedules. They also have more time to volunteer. They tend to have experience interacting with a greater variety of ages and people than do public schooled kids because they have more opportunity for it--group homeschooling events are never the same people exactly and they are of various ages and both genders, they have more time to do other things and often do (there are studies out there supporting this).

One person's point about simply not showing up is a good one. How many kids skip school because they just don't feel like going? How many of those are likely to not show up for work or to be late (just as they are late for class)? Homeschooled kids develop no notion of 'skipping school' and therefore I'd say aren't likely to skip out on work, either. If they get jobs, they take them seriously.

Now, if you mean as adults, are they as employable, I don't see why not. If they have the experience, education and personality needed, a respectable employer is not going to turn them away just because they were homeschooled.

Answer 13

IMO, homeschooling, unless absolutely necessary for some reason, is terrible for any child as it deprives them of valuable interaction with their contemporaries, and the homeschooled kids only mingle with other homeschooled kids so it's a bit incestuous and does nothing to ameliorate the lack of social skills they will have in the business world. The first time they encounter a problem at work, they will be unable to resolve it; no social skills and they won't be mollycoddled in the work world either.

The rarified atmosphere of homeschooling is very poor education for the real world, and the education level of the parent who teaches is always up for question too. Are they qualified? Doubtful, in most cases.

Answer 14

I hire teenaged kids for part time jobs and we have a lot of kids from all school backgrounds working in a large call center environment.

Home school kids are more polite and seem comfortable with adults. They have no peer social skills and are often the quiet outcasts that sit in the corner by themselves in the center, doing their work. They lack leadership or group dynamic skills. Not one stands out as outstanding. They are boring and need constant attention.

Public school kids are rude and arrogant. They talk loud even when they don't know what they are talking about. They tend to be followers and troublemakers, but many are hard workers and follow instructions and rules well.

Private school kids are the leaders. They are often as polte and dutiful as home school kids. They may not work as hard, but they get others to work harder.

Answer 15

From experience home schooled students have a mature work ethic, are available, have a positive attitude, are dependable independent workers, on time, are willing to learn, and goal oriented.

They do not quit at a moments notice, or simply decide not to show up.

Answer 16

I would not hire a homeschooler over a public educated child. I have encountered many homeschooled children in my life both as a child and as a business person. They all share some of the same traits. . socially awkward and inept, unable to deal with competitive situations and unable to work in groups. These days the business world is about working in teams, just ask anyone in an MBA program, all they do are group projects. Homeschooled children have very stunted social skills. Education isn't just about the I.Q. The school environment also works on the E.Q.

Answer 17

As a rule they are more responsible, adult and self-motivated.

As for the experience that comes from tools and unschooling sources, which SOME not all schools provide.  That can be a deficite in some areas.

At my high school we had those big, American made drill presses in our metal, electronics and plastic shops.

No homeschooler would have that unless their parents owned a manufacturing business.

They'd have a Skill Drill.

But not every high school has a fully equipped shop!

Generally, however, homeschoolers are better at math, better readers, have more comprehension and write better.

Those are skills hot in demand.

If you want to go to work for J C Penny you have to take a computer test of basic math without pencil and paper or calculator.

They have you compute sales tax the old fashioned way and to be frank the average Public School graduate can't do that very well!

Most homeschoolers are Calclus ready.