Why homeschool?

[TeachCatechism]

You are right. It doesn’t effect their future job.

It only effects where they will spend eternity. I find that much more important. Don’t you?

It has no effect on where they spend eternity. However if they are illiterate they will end up in eternity sooner due to poor medical care if any at all or stress or other things.

 

[TeachCatechism]

Do you monitor their work?

I proctor some tests.

 

[EasterJoy]

Generally speaking, I’d say people home-school for one of four reasons:

1. Parents decide that their local options are not a good fit for their children or for their families. They may have a child who has a learning style that doesn’t fit the local educational models, needing something faster, slower, or different. They may have local school options that are culturally or spiritually inappropriate for their children. These are parents who would at least be willing to send their child to a formal school, if the right one were available. Some even homeschool temporarily, because their child is on the waiting list for the only acceptable local school.
2. The family has a schedule that requires more flexibility than a formal school can typically accommodate. Families who travel a lot would be an example. Families who want time with their children during normal school hours is another. These are families who don’t object to having other people teach their children, but don’t want to be limited by the time restrictions that typically involves.
3. The student or the family have special needs that are far easier to accommodate with home-schooling–a special diet, only one parent who drives, et cetera. Even though formal schools may bend over backwards to make accommodations, that accommodation is sometimes something the student or the family just doesn’t want to deal with. Homeschooling is another way to accommodate a special situation. If the special situation didn’t exist, however, these again are families that would at least consider a formal school.
4. The parents don’t want anybody else teaching their child. For some, this means that as much as possible, they want total control over their child’s entire formation. For others, it means they value time spent with their child and don’t want to give it up when they don’t have to. Some are, to put it bluntly, control freaks, but not all. Some even want to give their child more autonomy than a teacher at a formal school would ever be allowed to give to a student.

The big problem, of course, comes when the parent belongs on the list of inappropriate teaching options. The child may have a learning disorder or a psychiatric disorder that the parent is not trained to recognize or doesn’t understand how to accommodate. (I have seen this happen.) The parent may not be a good teacher, or at least not for their child’s grade level. The parent and child may have interpersonal issues that are a barrier to learning. The parent may have other work that is too time-consuming to add this one on. That isn’t an exhaustive list, but you get the idea. Wanting to teach your child and being able to do it are hardly the same thing. When the parent is not the right teacher, and especially when other formal options have been tried and found wanting, it is hard to admit “defeat.” I have not known anyone in homeschooling who doesn’t know of a case like this. They are as saddened by it as anyone else, and perhaps more so.

 

[bitterhope]

It has no effect on where they spend eternity. However if they are illiterate they will end up in eternity sooner due to poor medical care if any at all or stress or other things.

If that is how you see teaching catechism I am very thankful you do not teach my kids. You really shouldn’t be teaching if that’s how you view things.

Many jobs do not require college degrees, not just fast food. Many people without college at all make more money than college graduates with advanced degrees. What’s more, God didn’t intend for everyone to be lawyers and businessmen. What would happen if suddenly there were no more construction workers or welders or plumbers or pharmacy techs or nurse aides? What if trucker drivers stopped delivering? Manual laborers don’t necessarily mean poor and illiterate. Some make a lot of money and nearly all can read just fine.

 

[TeachCatechism]

If that is how you see teaching catechism I am very thankful you do not teach my kids. You really shouldn’t be teaching if that’s how you view things.

Many jobs do not require college degrees, not just fast food. Many people without college at all make more money than college graduates with advanced degrees. What’s more, God didn’t intend for everyone to be lawyers and businessmen. What would happen if suddenly there were no more construction workers or welders or plumbers or pharmacy techs or nurse aides? What if trucker drivers stopped delivering? Manual laborers don’t necessarily mean poor and illiterate. Some make a lot of money and nearly all can read just fine.

Wow I can believe people think it’s fine to be illiterate. Some parents shouldn’t be teaching. If they can’t write, read and do math then nope they are actually abusing their kids. Not sure how me teaching has anything to do with it, but a year of it is not the same thing as parents who are illiterate. Btw I have been a college professor so I am qualified to teach. No not everyone should go to college but not fair to deny a child if that’s what they choose.

 

[bitterhope]

Wow I can believe people think it’s fine to be illiterate. Some parents shouldn’t be teaching. If they can’t write, read and do math then nope they are actually abusing their kids. Not sure how me teaching has anything to do with it, but a year of it is not the same thing as parents who are illiterate. Btw I have been a college professor so I am qualified to teach. No not everyone should go to college but not fair to deny a child if that’s what they choose.

Nobody said it’s fine to be illiterate. That’s why I took my son out of school–he was not reading in fourth grade. The school failed him. He reads now because I taught him. Apparently I am qualified to teach as well

 

[TeachCatechism]

Nobody said it’s fine to be illiterate. That’s why I took my son out of school–he was not reading in fourth grade. The school failed him. He reads now because I taught him. Apparently I am qualified to teach as well

Maybe you are, I don’t know. However many parents aren’t. That’s not to say all teachers are qualified either but one would hope they were. However they have degrees so if a parent has one that is different.

 

[EasterJoy]

Maybe you are, I don’t know. However many parents aren’t. That’s not to say all teachers are qualified either but one would hope they were. However they have degrees so if a parent has one that is different.

If you are concerned about academic excellence on the grounds that it is far harder to learn theology when you can’t read, realize that the averaged outcome of homeschooled students, corrected for income level and the educational attainment of the parents, is in the 65th to 80th percentile range. (Obviously, because most students are in public schools, their averaged outcome pretty much defines the 50th percentile.) On average, homeschooled students do better on SAT and ACT exams and are more likely than their formally-educated peers to prove to have been well-prepared for college, too.

Every educational model has its tragedy stories. Don’t let the one home-school tragedy that you are aware of prejudice you against homeschooling as a whole. That would be a hasty generalization, since research comparing statistically significant samples shows that homeschooling is the most likely to lead a superior education. Practically speaking, homeschooling can easily be the most sensible alternative available for students with college aspirations. You might think that this depends on the parents having advanced degrees, but the research does not show that.

Oh, and did we homeschool our children? No. They had a speech delay and hearing loss that required professional intervention that could be provided conveniently at an excellent local school specializing in teaching speech and language to hard-of-hearing students. Would I have homeschooled them if they hadn’t gone there? Probably not. I could have done it, but we have local schools available that are excellent. I’m only saying that research does not support a blanket dismissal of homeschooling as a lesser educational method. That is simply not true.

 

[EasterJoy]

But **what I teach doesn’t have much impact **on their future jobs. If they want to do something they usually need college and if they are subpar won’t get into the best colleges. This is why the parents need to be educated if they homeschool. Otherwise they are ensuring middle aged illiterate fast food workers.

It [referring to what you teach] has no effect on where they spend eternity. However if they are illiterate they will end up in eternity sooner due to poor medical care if any at all or stress or other things.

Wow I can believe people think it’s fine to be illiterate. Some parents shouldn’t be teaching. If they can’t write, read and do math then nope they are actually abusing their kids. Not sure how me teaching has anything to do with it, but a year of it is not the same thing as parents who are illiterate. Btw I have been a college professor so I am qualified to teach. No not everyone should go to college but not fair to deny a child if that’s what they choose.

Not everyone who has taught in a college is an appropriate choice to teach K-12. As a parent, I would certainly be disturbed by your repeated insistence that your subject is not particularly important to a student’s future. I don’t care what the subject is, that is not the attitude I want to find in a teacher. If your subject isn’t that important, then quit teaching it.

As for illiteracy, it truly is an evil, since it isolates the one who cannot read from such a vast amount of what the rest of humankind feels, knows, and believes. You have that absolutely right. Eradicating that evil, however, will not automatically eradicate low-skilled jobs. Someone has to do them, those people and their labor have intrinsic dignity, and I hope we don’t teach our children that they’re going to college primarily so that they won’t have to share the poor lot of those who do the manual labor that keeps society running quite as much as the labor of the educated. If we do, we’re flunking them in religion.

 

[bitterhope]

Not everyone who has taught in a college is an appropriate choice to teach K-12. As a parent, I would certainly be disturbed by your repeated insistence that your subject is not particularly important to a student’s future. I don’t care what the subject is, that is not the attitude I want to find in a teacher. If your subject isn’t that important, then quit teaching it.

As for illiteracy, it truly is an evil, since it isolates the one who cannot read from such a vast amount of what the rest of humankind feels, knows, and believes. You have that absolutely right. Eradicating that evil, however, will not automatically eradicate low-skilled jobs. Someone has to do them, those people and their labor have intrinsic dignity, and I hope we don’t teach our children that they’re going to college primarily so that they won’t have to share the poor lot of those who do the manual labor that keeps society running quite as much as the labor of the educated. If we do, we’re flunking them in religion.

You wrote what I meant so much better. Thank you!

 

[KnitNut]

But what I teach doesn’t have much impact on their future jobs. If they want to do something they usually need college and if they are subpar won’t get into the best colleges. This is why the parents need to be educated if they homeschool. Otherwise they are ensuring middle aged illiterate fast food workers.

Wait. Must they be smart, or must they be educated. The two are not synonymous. Let’s not shift the goalposts.

Also, if we’re going to compare end products, here’s some entertaining (okay, dismally depressing, really) reading: washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-americans-cant-write/2015/09/24/6e7f420a-6088-11e5-9757-e49273f05f65_story.html

(My homeschooled son is on scholarship at a renowned university in Boston for computer engineering, BTW.)

 

[MomaMary8]

For example if a parent can’t read, write and do math they shouldn’t be teaching. That’s why testing should be enforced.

So the poorly educated parent should return the child back to the system that failed the parent???

The problem with modern education is not the homeschool community. I suggest you dig a little deeper and find why there illiterate parents. You may discover why many of us homeschool.

 

[Kelfa28]

So the poorly educated parent should return the child back to the system that failed the parent???

The problem with modern education is not the homeschool community. I suggest you dig a little deeper and find why there illiterate parents. You may discover why many of us homeschool.

THIS.

Well stated.



In fact…kudos for a parent who recognizes where, how and why the system failed them and clearly moving mountains to be sure this doesn’t happen to their own children.

 

[Sarcelle]

But what I teach doesn’t have much impact on their future jobs. If they want to do something they usually need college and if they are subpar won’t get into the best colleges. This is why the parents need to be educated if they homeschool. Otherwise they are ensuring middle aged illiterate fast food workers.

Actually the whole point of education is to teach others to learn how to learn. The picking up of skills is actually secondary. Mastering the art of learning, which will be different for each individual according to their intellectual strengths, is invaluable especially when it comes to adapting to the fast changing job climate.

A parent who knows how to discern their child’s learning style and strengths and weaknesses, will be able to tailor a curriculum for said child. This is a skill that does not require a four year degree. All it needs is the will and desire to do what is best for the child.

 

[Sarcelle]

So the poorly educated parent should return the child back to the system that failed the parent???

The problem with modern education is not the homeschool community. I suggest you dig a little deeper and find why there illiterate parents. You may discover why many of us homeschool.

Yeah, remember the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing and expecting different results?

 

[pianistclare]

Wait. Must they be smart, or must they be educated. The two are not synonymous. Let’s not shift the goalposts.

Also, if we’re going to compare end products, here’s some entertaining (okay, dismally depressing, really) reading: washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-americans-cant-write/2015/09/24/6e7f420a-6088-11e5-9757-e49273f05f65_story.html

(My homeschooled son is on scholarship at a renowned university in Boston for computer engineering, BTW.)

If you don’t think living your life according to the Gospel has any impact on your students lives, education, or livelihood, then you should STOP teaching Catechism.
You are merely reading form a book, and not instilling the precepts of the Church or the love of Christ.

The goalpost is at heaven.

 

[KnitNut]

If you don’t think living your life according to the Gospel has any impact on your students lives, education, or livelihood, then you should STOP teaching Catechism.
You are merely reading form a book, and not instilling the precepts of the Church or the love of Christ.

The goalpost is at heaven.

…are you addressing me?

 

[1ke]

Okay I don’t get homeschooling. I get it if one lives in a bad area with horrible schools and the parent is say a teacher.

There are as many reasons to homeschool as there are people who do so,

What I don’t get are parents who aren’t educated homeschooling in good areas.

A big old lie perpetrate on the public by teacher’s unions is that you have to be some sort of specialist to teach your children. NO!!!

[and FYI, I am a certified high school math teacher so I know of what I speak]

My neighbor down the street “homeschools” her kids but really doesn’t. The kids are outside all the time, including in the middle of the night. She then decided to send them back to school and they were at the level much lower than they should. The so called 7th grader reads at a 4th grade and the 4th grader at 1st grade. This is wrong. The schools here are fantastic and this is a conservative area so not as much secular garbage.

It is unfortunate that a parent would do such a disservice to their children. Of course, you are not privvy go all of the details so perhaps give it the most charitable context possible.

I feel they need to be far more selective on homeschooling, like give the parents tests to see how smart they are because dumb parents are doing their kids a disservice.

I’m coming late to this party, but education of children is ALWAYS 100% the fundamental right of the parents. This is not simply an opinion, it is Church teaching. And, state education in general and compulsory education in particular, is a recent innovation of the past one hundred years.

Where there is liberty, no parent can be compelled in the manner you suggest. The state serves us, not the other way around. What was the one of first things Nazi Germany did? Outlaw that right of parents so they could pump out good little Nazis, spy on parents, and create a totalitarian state.

 

[pianistclare]

…are you addressing me?

No. TC

Sorry about that. I am responding to her assertion that religious ed classes don’t have any impact on a child’s further life.
Again, I’m sorry.

 

[heidi_storage]

A lot of good responses on this thread, but I doubt they’ll do anything to convince the OP that when homeschooling is practiced, it is usually a good move, or that parents ultimately should have the prerogative to direct their children’s education, rather than the state doing so.