Ask HN: If money wasn’t an issue would you homeschool? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: If money wasn’t an issue would you homeschool?

7 pointsactfrench24 comments

Money isn’t the main issue. School serves as day care. If you don’t have your kids in school you have to sacrifice time to raise and educate them, and for many families that means one parent not working at a job, or both parents juggling work schedules. The issue is time, which is equivalent to unacceptable loss of income for a lot of families.

Now that more people work from home parents have the homeschooling option. Schools closing and going to online classes accelerates that. It’s not for every family and may impose too much financial strain. My experience was that homeschooling was a luxury enjoyed by comfortable middle class professional families.

Homeschooling is a dumb idea.

Part of child development is detaching from parents and leatning to interact with peers of the same age (and in the same age bracket in general).

Homeschooling negates this chance for development to the child.

I've actually seen the opposite, that homeschoolers (especially in large urban areas), have a ton of friends. A lot of people think of homeschooling as kid sitting in a kitchen with their parents learning math on a chalkboard. In fact, modern-day homeschoolers tend to be much more out and about in their community. They connect with others in classes led by parents or experts, in big park days where they play on the playground - or explore nature, or in co-ops where parents share skills. In places like Portland and NYC, there are large centers where homeschoolers go to take classes together. Unlike school, they don't have 30 minutes of recess to interact and are in classrooms with mixed ages, they have long periods to play and learn with kids of different ages. Being exposed to older peers is actually quite healthy for growth and development because kids learn by modeling. For example, if an older child knows how to read, it inspires them to learn. I'm doing a study on this right now and finding that homeschoolers are much more satisfied with their social life than parents with kids in public school (and this was true both before the pandemic and now with kids back in school). A large part of this is because they can curate their own social experiences. And homeschooling, unlike school has much less bullying, clicks, etcetera. And the groups are much more diverse and inclusive. Since many of the people who choose to homeschool were having unpleasant social experience in school, they tend to be quite a welcoming community. I really think a lot of this can be attributed to homeschoolers getting to curate their own social experiences as opposed to having this socially engineered for them.

> They connect with others in classes led by parents or experts

Then it's not homeschooling. Easy.

Technically, they are legally homeschooling, not in school. In this case, we're dealing with the misnomer problem. I also agree that homeschooling is the wrong word for this type of education. It's more like alloparenting, or what I like to call Modular Learning. https://manisharoses.medium.com/homeschooling-needs-a-new-na...

> Technically, they are legally homeschooling

"They're homeschooling, just not at home".

You’re giving a good example of poor social skills and poor reasoning skills. I’m guessing you weren’t homeschooled.

I don't see how these are poor reasoning skills. If a child is not enrolled in a formal school, their legal category is homeschooling, regardless of whether they are doing that primarily through study in their house with their parent or taking lots of extracurriculars. I guess haters have to hate though:)

A child not enrolled in school or something equivalent is called truant, and that’s against the law. Every state has rules that define acceptable homeschooling. Keeping children confined at home with no social interaction is not homeschooling even if the parents call it that. It does happen that parents remove their kids from society for various (usually religious) reasons but they are not mainstream homeschoolers. Analogously some people who don’t have regular jobs are criminals, but a lot of them are self-employed, independently wealthy, retired, etc., so you can’t equate no having a job with not working, or engaging in crime.

I was homeschooled for most of my schooling. Even in a small midwestern town, there were about 50 families from around the county in a local homeschooling group. Thanks to that, there were extra curricular activities and sports programs. I was in a theater class, chess club, spanish, and a programming course. My friends were in a swimming team and debate club.

For the reading, writing, and arithmetic classes, there are courses designed for homeschoolers in mind. One course was provided by a college that invited homeschooled students to a "high school" graduation ceremony.

The idea that homeschooled kids live under a rock and don't talk to others is false. Some religious nutjob parents might make headlines for doing that, but that is nowhere near the everyday reality of homeschooled kids.

Exactly. So well put.

Andrew, I'd love to connect and hear more about your experiences if you're interested in chatting. My email: manisha[at]modulo[dot]app

Yes, thanks. My three children had exactly that kind of experience, along with hundreds of other homeschooled kids in our groups. In Oregon where we lived homeschooled kids can participate in public school sports and other activities too.

This tired “homeschooled kids aren’t allowed to socialize” trope comes up over and over from people who can’t possibly have actual experience. It’s not hard to find homeschooler groups to see for yourself.

We raised five strong,independent intelligent young women without the 'help' of the public school system. They have no problem interacting with everyone from infants to adults.

You don’t know what you’re talking about. Homeschooling doesn’t mean no social interactions with other children. If anything the opposite is true.

Parents who deprive their children of social interaction are called abusive, not homeschoolers.

Exactly.

You’ll have to do your own research, maybe visit some local homeschooling groups. Read John Holt, Grace Llewelyn, John Taylor Gatto, Ivan Illich to learn more about homeschooling and unschooling. You will find that homeschooled children have active and rich social lives. Of course some parents don’t provide that for their children, but they wouldn’t let their kids socialize in any case. That’s not what homeschooling is about, and it simply isn’t true that homeschooled kids miss out on socializing, friends, peer groups, activities.

If money wasn't an issue, a high end private school seems best. You'll get multiple specialized professional teachers and a school social media environment with other nice kids.

I’m not skilled at teaching, nor am I interested in doing it. It’s hard work. So, I’d rather outsource that to a professional.

However, I would like to have a better selection of schools. Particularly, I’d like schools geared toward the intelligent and creative. Public schools in the US focus too much on the worst students and the students with loud parents.

That said, I don’t believe schools do all that much anyway. Genetics are more important to academic achievement than the school environment.

We started homeschooling our kids last year. Couldn't be happier with the decision.

Yay. Congratulations!!

I would definitely sign up for a neighborhood homeschooling group

Let me know if you want help finding one. I have a great database on local groups and am happy to help connect you (manisha[at]modulo[dot]app)

Also, check out this group. It's wonderful. And you can post and say you are looking for groups in your area. https://www.facebook.com/groups/seahomeschoolers/permalink/1...

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