What do you guys think about homeschooling? Why is it that a huge portion of homeschooled kids place in the top percentages for placement tests? Shouldn't school teachers be given the freedom to teach the way they want to so that we may have more kids scoring highly on placement tests?

Even though homeschooled children rank higher than most public school children, I think it's the responsibility of the teacher to make sure that all students understand the material that is being taught. With homeschooling, the parents or tutors can focus on what the children learns. Because of standardized testing, I think the public school system is at a disadvantage.

sorry everyone, the above reply from km53033 is from me. I am not too technological savey and I think I forgot to log in. Hope this doesn't mess anyone up!

I have mixed emotions about homeschooling. It is apparent that children who are homeschooled as a whole, score highly on placement tests. I attribute this to personalized education programs. Weather a child's homeschool teacher be a parent or other family member, guardian, or tutor, the teacher will know exactly how the child learns best and will be able to teach the child in the most benificial way. I deffinitly agree with the article "What's Wrong with American Teachers" when Gatto comments that "great parents are the greatest teachers of all. Parents don't communicate with their offspring through drills, blackboard notes, or worksheets, but through dynamic illustrations of who they are and why it is important to them." (page 7) However, I feel that some children that are homeschooled are at a disadvantage by not being mainstreamed in school. Many children learn some of the most valuable life lessons in the classroom with their peers like social interaction, respect, working together, sharing, ect. If a student is homeschooled either in a very small group, with their siblings, or by theirselves, I feel that they miss out on these important life lessons.

I actually have a number of people at my church back home that were homeschooled. I actually asked them the advantages and disadvantages of homoschooling once. There were two families one with two boys and one with one boy and one girl. This is what they told me. While the home school does give children a highly personalized education plan, the numerous friends that I talked to said that they missed not having the interaction with other people. Additionally, in the system that my friends were in, the workload was such that if they wanted to get all their work done in a couple of days and spend the rest of the time not doing anything it could happen. This could lead to an enormous amount of the student not being able to comprehend the lesson and thus failing to remember it for a test. Even further, the home school system that my friends participated in was such that gaining an unfair advantage for a quiz or a test was highly likely, even though my friends knew that in their heart it was wrong. On the flip side, the honor system taught family values and morals through this lesson. The teacher/parent could tell when their children had or had not studied and if the score on the test represented that. To put my own opinion in, I believe that home schoolers test better because their are in their comfort zone when taking a test. I know that I would take a test in a more relaxed setting if it were on my own kitchen table than in a silent classroom. The pressure, at least to me, increases tenfold when I am in a testing situation in a classroom. However, when talking about the standardized testing I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, if teachers taught what they wanted, you could have one history teacher teach nothing but World War II and another teacher teach nothing but colonial America. This surely does not give any enrichment to the students. However, standardized testing does prove to be quite painful when looking at what has to be taught and what has to be left out. I know as a history major that if I could spend all year long talking about the Civil War, I would do it because I am that fascinated by it. However, if I only talked about the Civil War my students would leave my classroom with questions about why America is the way it is today. The testing gives a standard that applies to every student. No teacher teaches the same way. We are all different, but maybe, just maybe if the content is the same we can have some common ground to build upon.

I agree on homeschooling only to one effect, the parent knows that their child will not or is not successfully doing well in school and the parent knows how to make the difference. I somewhat though contradict myself by saying that the importance of education is to reach out to every child and make sure that every childs needs are met therefore children need to be in public schools. As an example my next door neighbor has a little girl who is working on a second grade level but should really be in the fourth grade. The reason for this is that she has a learning disorder. She is not to the extent to where she needs to be in a special classroom but she does require extra attention and motivation. Her mother felt as though she was not getting enough attention and that she could teach Amanda so much more than what she was learning in school. Amandas mom pulled her out and began to homeschool her. Due to the fact that the mother knew nothing about teaching and had little dicipline to do so, Amanda spent two years doing really little schooling and more playing. When the tasks of homeschooling got to much, Amanda was sent back to public schools and placed in the fourth grade. HERE IS WHERE I DISAGREE WITH HOMESCHOOLING. Yes it is ok if you are able to teach your child and have them live up to the standards that are required by North Carolina law but to drop them back into the classroom onto a teacher who has got to get them caught up is totally outrageous.

In my four years teaching in the public schools, I have seen several kids transfer in from home schools. I believe that overall, these kids have better critical thinking and problem solving skills than their public school peers. However, I would argue that many of them are socially inept. They don't understand the codes associated with the classroom and in their peer groups. Many of them have difficulty assimilating, especially in high school. Some of them, however, excel in all areas.

I have two children, 11 and 8, in public schools, and I have often thought of homeschooling them myself. However, when I think of all the work I would have to do to teach them correctly and to provide appropriate and stimulating social activities, I find it to be the easier (not necessarily better) alternative to keep them in public school. Not to mention that I need my paycheck....

Some people can truly devote themselves to homeschooling their children and are quite successful in it, but I agree with the above posting. If it is to be done, it needs to be done with quite a bit of forethought and commitment, not just for religious reasons or out of fear.

Public schools have their benefits, if only in socialization. There is no real substitute for the peer interaction that takes place in schools. I can't imagine being thrown into a university of over 20,000 students having never been around lots of kids my own age. While the social lessons of childhood can be brutal, they do in some ways prepare us for the realities of adulthood.

The biggest drawback, in my opinion, regarding homeschooling is that those kids often lack the social aptitude that public school kids encode and adapt to on a daily basis.

I agree with Robin in that a person can properly teach their kids at home, but the problem I have dealt with in the ABA program I work in is that a lot of the children I deal with are socially inept because their parents tend to keep them at home and away from the 'dangers' of society. Part of the program we use is to take these children away from thier home and put them in a social setting. We take every precaution and if the child is having a hard time, we go outside or into another room away from the other people. I have learned that if the children I work with see me interacting on a regular basis with the people around me, to include cashiers, attendates, servers, and people on the street, then they are more likely to talk themselves to others.

I realize I ramble on a bit there, but the premise of education is the educate children so that they can make it in today's society and culture. This can only be done if the children are taught mentally, physically, and socially.

I think that homeschooling is an option that should be open to any parents and their children. The public school setting is not always the right setting for every child because each and every child is different. The only suggestion I have about homeschooling is that the parents should schedule different times for their children to be in social situations with others their age.

I think that homeschooling can be a positive or a negative thing. Homeschooling can be good for parents that stay home and want to spend the time educating their child. I think that it is an option for a parent to consider if they are not happy with the schools their child is in. I do think that it has its draw backs though. The child does not get to socially interact with other children and this could cause problems in their life. I think that it is crucial that children interact with others and learn how to belong in society. I think that homeschooled students place higher because they are recieving more one on one teaching and they can cover more material this way. I think that maybe if we had more one on one teaching in the schools that maybe this could help raise grades on placement tests.

The above post is mine.... I forgot to log in