Home Schooling, Anyone doing it?

[Amby 490]

The whole home schooling thing strikes me as odd. I've never anyone in my life who admitting being home schooled. I'm not saying it's automatically a bad thing but when did it start? The first I'd heard of the idea was when a professor told me he wanted to homeschool his son in 1999.

Given the low numbers, you wouldn't expect to see so many people on this thread claiming to have been raised that way or planning to do so for their kids.

I think it takes a very disciplined person to be able to do it well and get the most out of it. You really only get as much as you put into it. I know it worked well for me but I am a bit of a nazi when it comes to getting things done at a certain time and following a schedule and such. My sister tried the same program and failed miserably. I wanted to do it because I was really bored with regular school...it didn't move fast enough for me. She wanted to do it because she just didn't want to go to school. My mom didn't want me to do it because she thought I would fall behind so she said we could try it one semester and see if it worked for me. I loved it and ended up finishing classes quickly and graduating a lot earlier than my classmates. Since I did so well she let my sister try the same thing and ended up putting her back in regular school after 6 weeks.

I've seen a program where younger kids do it and it seemed strange. It was almost like structured playtime for 1st-3rd graders. I'm not sure if they were learning much.

Edited August 12, 2009 by Amby

[BabyBlueSusie 1]

Here in my corner of academia 2 quarters of mandatory TAing are required of all grad students. Not enough IMO. Luckily, many here like to teach, and readily surpass the requirement by several quarters, research permitting.

TAing is required, but does anyone actually instruct the graduate students how to teach? At my school they don't, other than watching your professors in action, and doing what they tell you to do. There is actually no formal classroom instruction on the subject. It is odd that in order to be an elementary school teacher you need this sort of training but to become a college professor you do not. It seems a bit counter-intuitive. As someone said before, I guess it is different in the UK, and good for them. Maybe we should take a hint from them and require some formal education training for our future professors. Teaching is required here for hiring, tenure and such, but the actual quality of your teacher is not a very high priority with respect to such promotions.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Here in my corner of academia 2 quarters of mandatory TAing are required of all grad students. Not enough IMO. Luckily, many here like to teach, and readily surpass the requirement by several quarters, research permitting.

TAing is required, but does anyone actually instruct the graduate students how to teach? At my school they don't, other than watching your professors in action, and doing what they tell you to do. There is actually no formal classroom instruction on the subject. It is odd that in order to be an elementary school teacher you need this sort of training but to become a college professor you do not. It seems a bit counter-intuitive. As someone said before, I guess it is different in the UK, and good for them. Maybe we should take a hint from them and require some formal education training for our future professors. Teaching is required here for hiring, tenure and such, but the actual quality of your teacher is not a very high priority with respect to such promotions.

It is counter intuitive indeed... specially when you consider that new PhDs will spend a loooooooooooooooooot of time teaching with the demand for accountability in undergraduate education centering a lot on teaching. Most TA training programs are an effing joke: I had to completely redo the one at my campus and it was a fuzz I tell you: because profs did not want to get involved, the egotistical pr1cks. The good thing is, like I said earlier, that for HTP we are seeing much more emphasis on teaching, teaching evals, etc.

Oh, and did I mention I would not home school my non-existing kids???

[HAL 9000 96]

Here in my corner of academia 2 quarters of mandatory TAing are required of all grad students. Not enough IMO. Luckily, many here like to teach, and readily surpass the requirement by several quarters, research permitting.

TAing is required, but does anyone actually instruct the graduate students how to teach? At my school they don't, other than watching your professors in action, and doing what they tell you to do. There is actually no formal classroom instruction on the subject. It is odd that in order to be an elementary school teacher you need this sort of training but to become a college professor you do not. It seems a bit counter-intuitive. As someone said before, I guess it is different in the UK, and good for them. Maybe we should take a hint from them and require some formal education training for our future professors. Teaching is required here for hiring, tenure and such, but the actual quality of your teacher is not a very high priority with respect to such promotions.

I agree. Sometimes its discipline-specific though. When a horde of college classes (advanced ones) rely on the faculty going over topics they are themselves experts on (as was the case in my grad courses), the pedagogical component takes a bit of a back seat to the content being covered in very minute detail. Classes in such regards are topic-based and become organized in that manner.

For undergraduates though, the faculty members usually are specifically trained educators. At least that has been my experience with very good instructors. The times I've TA'd in the past involved small discussion and lab sessions where we prepared everything before hand and all questions were very much a part of the lessons. I also did benefit from several ongoing training exercises that actually tested my ability as a TA. Then again, such were my personal experiences. At other places the experience could be different for others.

Here in my corner of academia 2 quarters of mandatory TAing are required of all grad students. Not enough IMO. Luckily, many here like to teach, and readily surpass the requirement by several quarters, research permitting.

TAing is required, but does anyone actually instruct the graduate students how to teach? At my school they don't, other than watching your professors in action, and doing what they tell you to do. There is actually no formal classroom instruction on the subject. It is odd that in order to be an elementary school teacher you need this sort of training but to become a college professor you do not. It seems a bit counter-intuitive. As someone said before, I guess it is different in the UK, and good for them. Maybe we should take a hint from them and require some formal education training for our future professors. Teaching is required here for hiring, tenure and such, but the actual quality of your teacher is not a very high priority with respect to such promotions.

It is counter intuitive indeed... specially when you consider that new PhDs will spend a loooooooooooooooooot of time teaching with the demand for accountability in undergraduate education centering a lot on teaching. Most TA training programs are an effing joke: I had to completely redo the one at my campus and it was a fuzz I tell you: because profs did not want to get involved, the egotistical pr1cks. The good thing is, like I said earlier, that for HTP we are seeing much more emphasis on teaching, teaching evals, etc.

Oh, and did I mention I would not home school my non-existing kids???

I love being in a place where even undergrads can first name their professors.

[chri'stina 190]

I was home schooled k-3rd. Why? Because some people we knew were trying it so my mom gave it a try too. I actually learned a lot and everything I needed to know for those grades. Every year we had to take SAT's at a local school like kids in regular school have to. I always got very high marks on those tests while my sister struggled. Me and my younger sister had differences in schooling...I was really into it, she wasn't. My mom was not really into teaching, she got a bit frazzled by it all(great mom, just not meant to be a teacher hehe). Some people are just quick learners and some aren't. We had a lot of friends through church and some family so we got to still be around kids a lot even though we were home schooled.

I don't like homeschooling when it makes a kid isolated from other kids and they can sometimes lack social skills. I have seen it. There are also crazy families who are really into homeschooling and will say it's evil to go to regular school. Also some parents don't teach their kids much past reading and simple math b/c of laziness or they are too busy. I know a family where the kids have had a very hard time education wise b/c their mom didn't make them do their work even into high school. It was a joke. I don't know how she got away with that when the kids were supposed to take yearly tests that would have shown their lack of learning. I also knew very very smart kids who were home schooled.

Anyway whoever wants to do it, more power to them, as long as they are putting good effort into it and the kids are doing well on their aptitude tests and not isolated.

[almaty 19]

home-schooling was over-rated and a fad...in the end, parents are too lazy to invest the time on their children

[pedroh 21]

There are lots of crappy professors out there who are very smart people. This is because in order to become a professor you don't get much training in how to actually teach. It is a really stupid system, and yes, people who are good researchers but poor instructors will almost always get tenure, because tenure is given with MUCH more emphasis towards publications and research than it is to teaching. Even before tenure though, there is not much incentive to improve ones teaching, and it is often seen as a time burden when they could be spending their time working on more important things like research.

But yeah, I wouldn't home school my kids (that are not yet born) either. Although something interesting that I learned by watching 18 Kids and Counting is that home schoolers can now use computer based programs as a tool, so the education is not 100% limited based on the parents' knowledge. It is still not the same as having a teacher there to answer your questions, but is a step in the right direction.

tru dat. Although nowadays teaching philosophies and portfolios are becoming pretty central to hiring, tenure and promotion , as are graduate level seminars on teaching and learning as a requirement for PhD granting (if I am not mistaken, in the UK this is a whole compulsory year in discipline related pedagogical techniques); which is awesome!

NOw that you mention it... isn't that also a growing movement with all these herbs and "naturally healing" products?

That and not vaccinating kids. #######.

It's like kids paying for the beliefs of their parents.... crazy #######.

oh yea they do that dumb sh!t too no?

[Danno 1,228]

home-schooling was over-rated and a fad...in the end, parents are too lazy to invest the time on their children

NOt sure I follow, are you speaking in general?

A fad is something that"was" popular and dies off, home Schooling is growing by leaps and bounds (according to reports).

Takes lots more effort to home school.

[Danno 1,228]

The thing that never seemed to hold water for me was the "Lack of socializing" argument.

I did way more socializing out of school than I did in school..... any of your kids have trouble socializing over the summer?

It seems most home schooled kids are involved in church groups and sports teams too.

While I am against the Federal Gov having anything to do with it, I think states should have a "end of year" test, ALL students should have to take.

As it sits now, it is the State schools with low scoring or failing kids so maybe they need to solve that problem first before they expend too much time on the few home schoolers who tend to score pretty good.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I was home schooled k-3rd. Why? Because some people we knew were trying it so my mom gave it a try too. I actually learned a lot and everything I needed to know for those grades. Every year we had to take SAT's at a local school like kids in regular school have to. I always got very high marks on those tests while my sister struggled. Me and my younger sister had differences in schooling...I was really into it, she wasn't. My mom was not really into teaching, she got a bit frazzled by it all(great mom, just not meant to be a teacher hehe). Some people are just quick learners and some aren't. We had a lot of friends through church and some family so we got to still be around kids a lot even though we were home schooled.

I don't like homeschooling when it makes a kid isolated from other kids and they can sometimes lack social skills. I have seen it. There are also crazy families who are really into homeschooling and will say it's evil to go to regular school. Also some parents don't teach their kids much past reading and simple math b/c of laziness or they are too busy. I know a family where the kids have had a very hard time education wise b/c their mom didn't make them do their work even into high school. It was a joke. I don't know how she got away with that when the kids were supposed to take yearly tests that would have shown their lack of learning. I also knew very very smart kids who were home schooled.

Anyway whoever wants to do it, more power to them, as long as they are putting good effort into it and the kids are doing well on their aptitude tests and not isolated.

Thank you for sharing

I think states should have a "end of year" test, ALL students should have to take.

And the test should be hard!

[Danno 1,228]

I was home schooled k-3rd. Why? Because some people we knew were trying it so my mom gave it a try too. I actually learned a lot and everything I needed to know for those grades. Every year we had to take SAT's at a local school like kids in regular school have to. I always got very high marks on those tests while my sister struggled. Me and my younger sister had differences in schooling...I was really into it, she wasn't. My mom was not really into teaching, she got a bit frazzled by it all(great mom, just not meant to be a teacher hehe). Some people are just quick learners and some aren't. We had a lot of friends through church and some family so we got to still be around kids a lot even though we were home schooled.

I don't like homeschooling when it makes a kid isolated from other kids and they can sometimes lack social skills. I have seen it. There are also crazy families who are really into homeschooling and will say it's evil to go to regular school. Also some parents don't teach their kids much past reading and simple math b/c of laziness or they are too busy. I know a family where the kids have had a very hard time education wise b/c their mom didn't make them do their work even into high school. It was a joke. I don't know how she got away with that when the kids were supposed to take yearly tests that would have shown their lack of learning. I also knew very very smart kids who were home schooled.

Anyway whoever wants to do it, more power to them, as long as they are putting good effort into it and the kids are doing well on their aptitude tests and not isolated.

Thank you for sharing

I think states should have a "end of year" test, ALL students should have to take.

And the test should be hard!

But that would mean kids would fail .... do we really want kids being stigmatized?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

There should be no stigma to failure. Failure just means you have to study harder and try again!

[Amby 490]

I had to take those tests. I remember it was a huge deal when they changed it so you couldn't finish high school without passing this test they give you in 10th grade

[HAL 9000 96]

I had to take those tests. I remember it was a huge deal when they changed it so you couldn't finish high school without passing this test they give you in 10th grade

Yet you still passed it.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

There should be no stigma to failure. Failure just means you have to study harder and try again!

Bullsh1t. If you fail, you should be stripped nekkid and exposed to blow flies in the public square.