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Comment by undreren | Hacker News Reader

Why?

I’m Danish, and homeschooling is imcredibly rare in Denmark, and I frankly can’t see the appeal.

What is it that makes it so compelling?

It's funny how people want a quick and easy answer to this question like every culture is the same and there's a secret to this. I think it's pretty clear his method of education is something that is not for everybody right?. Not all families have the same dynamics, time and desire to teach kids. For some it works and it's great for some others it's crazy. I know several families who do homeschooling/unschooling successfully. If you want a better answer go chatGPT it, google it, whatever, but yet you want me to surprise you with a "compelling" answer, like it's a yes or no answer.

You were completely at liberty to not join this conversation that you are clearly not interested in having.

Yet here you are.

Because a lot of people in America can't get over the fact that living in a society is messy. Sure, there are bad kids at a school that may influence your child. But one day your child will be 18 without mommy and daddy and drug dealers exist. Also, kids going away to school allows them to establish their own personality outside of home life a lot more. Rather my kids do it young and learn rather than wait until they are 18 and moving out.

Although having grown up in the south and from having neighbors who home school, it is more about, "they teach evolution in school and not 6,000 year old earth."

I don't think the dichotomy you're presenting is fair? You can have bad kids, teachers, etc. bully your kid at school. For the most part, you're not going to get bullied in most office jobs (though I do not want to downplay its existence in the workplace). At the very least, given enough privilege, you can change jobs. You can homeschool children and still have them socialize (in more controlled environments until you loosen your level of paranoia).

Why is school the only place to establish a personality or develop socialization? There are plenty of communities outside of school where kids and adults can engage and grow.

If you have enough resources I don't see why homeschooling would be an invalid option. The public school system is terrible for a multitude of reasons.

I see your point, but there is a line and maybe America is actually worse. There are a lot of countries I am very familiar with where if I lived there I would not have a problem sending my kids to public schools. Here I live in a good district and am still on the fence. I am an atheist and plenty of people here are now homeschooling for nonreligious reasons, but yes that has and still does make up a lot of the homeschooling.

School can be awful for kids in america. Schools can't keep kids safe. Bullying is rampant. Extremist political groups campaign to get history rewritten to match their agenda. It can be insanely grueling.

Certainly homeschooling isn't the only answer, but I also think most people are handwaving how terrible the school system can be for kids here.

> Certainly homeschooling isn't the only answer

Can you list a few "other answers"? This is a serious question. The public schools around here are terrible and the private schools (which are by no means guaranteed to be much better,) are absolute highway robbery.

With the educational resources that are available to everybody at the push of a button, homeschooling seems compelling, to me. I'd even spring for private tutors. What other options are there?

With homeschooling, extremist political groups can rewrite history to match their agenda? No wait...

> School can be awful for kids in america. Schools can't keep kids safe. Bullying is rampant. Extremist political groups campaign to get history rewritten to match their agenda. It can be insanely grueling.

Good thing life outside of school isn't like that.

. . .

Huge packed terrible public schools. Peer groups that I would prefer my kid not being a part of (or sex/drug culture in the US right now). etc

If you don't like American culture overall why not move to another country?

You seem to have accidentally inserted the word "overall" into what you thought the above poster said and gotten angry about it

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