"How could you possibly have an opinion about PS or know the difference if youve never done it."?

Question

Taking this quote from a response to an earlier question about whether to homeschool a gifted child.

Curious as to how many homeschooling parents were homeschooled themselves or did most of you go to public school?

That is where my opinion about the PS comes from - personal experience both as a student and as a teacher.

Everyone else?

Answer 1

I was public schooled.

My wife went to Catholic school and became a public school teacher.

She knew she could do better than she saw in three different school districts.

I believed her.

I'm glad I did.

Answer 2

My parents went to public school and I went to public school until I was six. I went back to public school in 9th grade but didn't like it. The other kids learned slower than me and I am so not into all that highschool drama stuff! So I went back to being homeschooled. I'm in 10th grade now and love it! I have millions of friends (most people think homeschoolers are loners).

Answer 3

I went to public schools for K-12 and also a public, state university.  I have one child who is HS'ed and one child who is in the PS system.  So I see, and daily live, both sides.  My HS'ed child also sees what PS is like when he visits his sister at school.  He constantly thanks me for not having him endure the "torture" (his words, not mine).

We do what's best for each child and the current situation has worked well for my son who's always been HS'ed (minus one year in the PS preschool), and my daughter who's always been in PS (since 3 y.o. preschool).

I know what you're thinking.  The PS trolls come on the HS'ing board and rant and rave about "my sister homeschools, or my neighbor, or I've had one child come from HS'ing to my PS classroom and....."  Ugh.  Broad generalizations, accusing us of not knowing what PS is like, but yet they have no idea what HS'ing is *really* like.  If they did, they'd shut up in a hurry.

I dare any anti-HS'ing naysayer to attend our HS weekly co-op, our weekly HS bowling and ice skating sessions, and any HS field trip for just ONE day.  Then compare the PS and HS kids!  ;-)

Oh, and I've said this probably 100 times here, but the PS system was who told me to HS my son when he was 4.  Then again they told me to continue at age 7.  They *knew* their system would fail him.

Answer 4

I graduated from a public high school about 11 years ago. I also sent my oldest to a public elementary for 3 years and we were all miserable. My opinions come from experience!

Answer 5

As a child, I attended a parochial school through third grade and then transferred to a public school from 4th grade through high school. I also attended college part time as a junior and senior in high school, earning dual credit for those courses (this was in the early '80's).

My own children started out in public schools, with the oldest attending from preschool through the middle of the fourth grade; the middle son until second grade and the youngest through kindergarten.

When I was a child, homeschooling was not an option my parents considered. I do not recall anyone in our area homeschooling in the '70's and early '80's.

When we started homeschooling our sons in 1999, I had certainly heard of homeschooling, but it was not common. The perception among many people was that families who homeschooled were doing it for religious reasons.

We started homeschooling for academic and social reasons. We have continued because it just seems like the lifestyle we have created is something that has made our family life very different from what it was when the boys were in the regular school. We are all more relaxed, we get along better and have more time to do things together (or separately).

Answer 6

I was educatated in public schools as well as homeschooled.  The decision to homeschool my children came from observing the school system (both personally for my children and watching our neighbors, and family).

The decision that brings a family to homeschooling is one that parents take very seriously.  Saying that all public schools are bad, or that all homeschooled children are socially inept are generalizations used in the pros and cons fights.

As a parent though, I do feel that the basic system and structure of public schools in the US have some major drawbacks, and as such, made the choice to educate my children at home.  

Is my homeschool perfect?  Nope it isn't, but for us it is the best choice.  Do I look down on or judge parents that choose public school?  No, and I would hope for the same from those parents for me.

I posted this link in an answer last night, and wanted to pass it on in case someone missed it, I think we can all use a chuckle about the stereotypes of homeschooled families.

I laughed so hard . . . a comical music video "A Homeschool Family"

http://www.timhawkins.net/

(And no, I am not affiliated with this site in any way, nor do I get any advertising clicks, I just wanted to share!)

Answer 7

I dont homeschool but I went to public school with some of the meanest kids and most abusive teachers you can imagine.Maybe thats why I have dyscalcula from being pinched,poked in the head with pencils and scratched till I bled by public school teachers.Beleive me that was in the 80s and it hasnt got any better.Homeschoolers for the most part love their kids and are protecting them from very real dangers.

Answer 8

"How could you possibly have an opinion about PS or know the difference if youve never done it."?

The same way people have an opinion about homeschooling and homeschoolers even though they've never actually done it themselves, *grin*.

Personally I don't have an opinion specifically about public school per se. I don't even know anyone who goes/went to a public school. Up here, they closed the last one down several years before I was born so our choices are restricted to home-education, distance education or going away to boarding schools.

I do know that our public school system does come out pretty high in international comparisons though so it must be doing something right; it also claims to be the world leader in comprehensive education.

I'm more than capable of reading though and I can do the research; I can contrast those aspects of the public school/private school system that are in the public domain with my own experiences of education at home; I can see the attitudes and skills and socialisation (or lack thereof!) of those conventionally schooled kids who show up here; I can open and read the US written and published library books I've currently got that, according to their covers, were written 'especially for High School Programs (sic)' and then open the books themselves and look aghast and despairingly at the simplicity of the ideas expressed and the language used therein!

If I was to openly discriminate between the standards, benefits, advantages and disadvantages of schools & education though, it would be between what is on offer in 2008 and what was considered 'the norm' (and expected as such) in the past rather than simply public vs private. To me, all schools (whether public or private) and the politics and motivation behind them are flawed.

.....And Yes, my parents were homeschooled. They were both home-educated throughout primary school (from kindie up to year 7) during the 1960s/early 1970s before both going away to private boarding schools for high school - my mum in Sydney & my dad in Bullawayo.

Answer 9

Any opinion we have on conventional schooling comes from personal experience in several area's.

A. I attended, and graduated from private/public schools/college.

B. My husband attended, and graduated from public schools/college.

He also has a Masters in Education/Counseling and teaches part-time at a local University.

We choose to home school based on these experiences, and several other criteria; including the academic decline of the school system over the past few decades, and the statistics that clearly show that more than 40% of high school graduates need remedial college classes, if they qualify at all.

Answer 10

Well, understand colleges and even the US Dept of HEW gives homeschooling high marks.

Thus it's an alternative.

Your argument can also be used for Private or Parchocial schools, but it has been WIDELY known for decades that Catholic schools give outstanding eduation as does the Montessori program.

One doesn't have to experience it to know, you hear from the buzz and try it and then learn for yourself if the buzz is true or just hype.

I recently read an essay here from a black 12 year old Catholic school girl attempting to get a scholarship and it was an excellent piece of writing worthy of a first year college student.

You don't find that kind of writing in 6th grade Public Schools

Those kids still write

Camp was fun.  I had fun at camp.  Camp was very nice.  We did all sorts of things at camp.

I know a HS graduate who thinks Denmark is a City!

The only two or three flaws I found in that Catholic school girls writing was one redudant sentence that I recomemded she compound with the previous senence to not say

CAMP

so often!

And she started a sentence with

However,

which I said in any position is a lousey tool.  You can usually dispence with a HOWEVER, unless it's a compare and contrast sentence.

However, oranges are a good souce of vitimine C

Is not a good sentence at all

Oranges, however, are a good souce of vitimine C

Can be good, but you can remove the however and it works

Oranges are a good source of vitimin C, however Apple can provide more fibre.

That is more apporpriate.

And these were her only shortcomings.

It was a sixth grader trying to explain the benefits of a Catholic School eduction and she did a very good job except for a little gramatical flub here and there.

Perhaps we need a new TV show the settle the matter

We draw lots from a jar and pick a public school, private school, homeschooler and unschooler and see who's the smarest and they win a college scholarship of up to $200,000

Be interesting to see who comes out on top in that one.

I'd be inclined to let Ben Stein devise the questions.

Answer 11

Well I would say that most, not all, but most parents that homeschool were educated in the public school system.  We obviously know the difference by experiencing home schooling through our children.  BUT, from the child's point of view, can most say they know the difference?  The fact that my kids have done both reinforces their wanting to stay homeschooled and never step another foot in the PS system.  A friend of mines daughter was HS'ed K-1st.  Her curiousity about PS was enormous.  Instead of just blowing her off, her mother decided to enroll her for 2nd gr.  She came home for Christmas vacation and decided PS was not for her.  So her curiousity was curbed and she now knows the difference.  My opinion is if your HSed child has never stepped foot in PS and really wants to try it you should let them, otherwise they'd spend life wondering what it was all about, ya know, 'that forbidden place'.

Answer 12

I was a gifted child, and went to public school and then a supercool magnet school, so I know exactly what public school is like, and then a great example of what it should be like.

My kids were actually in school for some time before I pulled them out, so I have the added bonus of knowing what kind of h**l gifted children go through. As well as those who are disabled.

Answer 13

Well, there is a difference. Most HS haters have not read up on the topic, experienced it first hand or even known many people who HSed. They only know what they have heard in anecdotal tales and what they imagine. Maybe they met a “weird homeschooled guy” in college. (Nevermind the fact that he may have thought they were the weird ones.) Some saw Jesus Camp and now think all HSers are like the people they saw in the movie. That is hardly evidence worth basing a well informed opinion on.

     I went to public school. My siblings went to public school. My parents went to public school. My husband went to public school. Most of my friends went to public school. I have been trained as a substitute teacher in the school system. Almost all of my child's friends go to public school.  I live very near a public school and talk to other parents who send their children to public school everyday. I have also read various books and articles about research done on our public schools. My foster kids went to public school. Most importantly, my child went to public school and suffered there. That is why we homeschool today.

    Now if you did not or do not HS, but you can say MOST of the things above about homeschool, I'll grant you that you MAY have a grasp of homeschool. Usually, that is not the case.

Answer 14

I not only went to public school for all my school years, I volunteered in it before becoming a teacher, I taught in it, my husband still teaches in it, I previously did after-school childcare, I am close to some homeschooled teens who are in sports filled with public schooled kids, and I know many homeschooling parents whose children were in public school and they have all kinds of stories to share. In fact, the bulk of the people I know who homeschool chose to homeschool AFTER their children had already been in school.

Answer 15

My experience comes from going to public school for 12 LONG, LONG years.  

Then from watching my kids go off to public school for 5 years.

Answer 16

Let's see...

I graduated from public school

My husband graduated from public school

Both his brother and my brother graduated from public school

All of our parents graduated from public school

My parents teach at public school (and have since before I was born)

...yeah, I know nothing about public school.  Silly me.

Answer 17

Personal experience as private, public & homeschool teacher.

Personal experience as public school graduate.

Personal experience as father of a private, public & homeschool student.

---

It is the homeschooler bashers that seem to have no direct experience on which to base their insults: just their feelings or   it is about the daughter of a sister that lives in a different state (e.g. personal family relationship problems) or they heard about how bad it is from a second cousin of a neighbor who read about a homeschooler on the back of a napkin that was left behind at Denny's.

Answer 18

Both my parents were public schooled all the way.  They both realized what a messed up system public school is and that's why they decided to home school me and my siblings.  I went to private school for one year which is pretty much the same thing and hated it!

The question I'd have for that person and people like him/her is: "How could you possibly judge us home schoolers or have an opinion about our method of learning if you don't know a thing about it?  Stop the hypocrisy!"

:)

Answer 19

Lots of homeschool parents DID go to public school, which is where we form our opinions of it.

So, I am in fact qualified to have a negative opinion of PS. However, most people who have negative opinions of homeschool are NOT qualified as they have never done it. Sure they can have opinions, but many of those are going to be based on stereotypes.

Answer 20

I went to private school, public school, and "unofficially" homeschooled after dropping out of public school...

I spent a great deal of time during college volunteering in public schools...

I have a BA in education and have taught in public schools, and worked in them in other capacities...

My daughter went to public school from grade K through 3...

I think I have an informed enough opinion of public schools.