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• Homeschooling (Score:2)

  by ziggy (25) on 2003.07.15 16:30 (#22127) Journal

  The biggest argument for homeschooling is that the US public school system is almost totally inept at challenging students. The goal is to babysit and hopefully impart basic skills, not to educate.

  Case in point: In the US in the 50s and 60s, civics was a basic part of high school education. Being civic minded was important, as was a basic understanding of how government works. Today, civic mindedness is no longer part of the standard curriculum, and many if not most high school graduates don't know how the US Government (or their state / local government) operates.

  The biggest argument against homeschooling is the ability of parents to teach their kids. Part of it is that some parents who want to homeschool are the product of a mediocre public school system, and part of it is that many parents aren't good teachers.

  If I had kids, it would be a very difficult decision for me to make. My mother was a public school teacher for something like 30 years, and the state of education has only gotten worse. (I still remember stories about how much better it was when she was in school in the 50s / 60s.) But at the same time, I remember how beneficial extra curricular activities were in high school -- especially with journalism, forensics and science competitions.

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  • Re:Homeschooling (Score:2)

    by pudge (1)

    We are homeschooling. Primary reason: we can offer better educational opportunities for our children that way. Second reason: most schools, public and private, are filled with undisciplined children and an overall unsafe, emotionally and psychologically, and sometimes physically, environment. Tertiary reason: I don't trust people I don't know with what they will try to tell my children (and even some people I *do* know).
    
    The primary reason might need some explanation: it is not so much that there are not