Homeschooling . Are you for or against? (page 3)

MinisterAmos

AGAINST!

Even though I am of the "bussing" generation.

MAN! Did I get hosed!

As you may know, we hs our kids. I went out of the way to make it interesting, made sure they learned how to study, how to think critically (logic/foreign languages), did lots of field trips to museums, have the philosophy that "life is school", therefore we are learning and discussing stuff all the time, not just between certain hours, have set a model for them by continuing to learn and study myself (current topic: cults)

Kid #1--went back for Grade 12 to public school: At graduation received 4 awards--academic and leadership/social.

Kid #2-In college this year, 4.0 GPA, organized a study group for friends to help them do better, busy social life.

Kid #3-excelling in the many areas of interest, involved in many extra-curricular activities, might end up famous one day for talent.

Don't throw out this excellent form of education just because of JW failures. They are the exception not the norm, as in so many other things in life.

TS

ajwnm

FOR

GermanXJW

Against

penny2

Against. It's almost unheard of in my part of Australia.

jgnat

I have reservations. Too many parents use it to protect their children from conflicting DOCTRINE. I see a few parents used it to protect their children from bullying. That's OK.

I think my reservations are justified. Now there are self-help books out there to help parents recover from homeschooling burnout!

Balsam

AGAINST

I home schooled my oldest son and he's 23 now and socially challenged and learned almost nothing from being home schooled. He would have had a tough time in public school but because of his learning disabilities I though I could do better. I deeply regret I ever home schooled him.

mouthy

against

Fangorn

I would say that while I'm against home schooling in general, there are certainly exceptions that have done very well. For instance I know of one very bright family, father with a Doctorate, mother with a Masters in Education a motivated kids, boy was doing Calculus at 10. But that is certainly not the rule. I have also noticed a tendency on the part of home schoolers to think that they're considerably better than they actually are.

lovelylil

I am for it in some circumstances.

For instance, when my daughter was in 5th grade, she was out of school due to a lot of health issues. She also had some slight depression and anxiety issues and was having headaches every day in regular school. On top of that she is a bright kid, who always read and spoke on a grade level well above her own, but she struggles with Math a lot. She fell really behind in Math due to her absences and needed one on one help the school could not give. Plus she became bored in other areas of school were she was well ahead. And these issues affected her anxiety even more.

Due to the large gap in abilitites between Math and the other areas of study, and due to the other issues. I took her out of 6th grade to teach her at home for that year. (my son stayed in regular school). I am glad I did it. She was more challenged at home in some areas and was able to spend more time in private art and music. She also learned to speak and write Japanese, which was not offered at regular school. And I helped her bring up her Math by three grades so that now she is on level. this boosted her confidence in that area. And during that year we left the Witnesses, so I was able to get her counciling for her anxiety (much of which was due to being a Witness) and she soon recovered well. She needed that year at home to decompress and work out her issues.

I only did it one year and then placed her back into regular school. My decision was based on what I thought was right for my daughter at the time but you could say she had special circumstances. I'm glad to say that now she is excelling in regular school, is an A/B student who is very popular and in many clubs. She startes Vocational High School next fall where she will be studying Graphic Arts.

For my son, homeschooling would never had been an option. He did not have the same issues as my daughter. And for most kids, regular school is fine. One more thing, homeschooling is a really big endeavor to take on. You have to be very disciplined as the parent/teacher and the kids need to be disciplined too. My son is not disciplined at all so it would never have worked for him anyway. I feel parents need to decide what they feel is right depending on the individual child. Overall my experience with my daughter was good. Lilly

Homeschooling . Are you for or against?