I was home schooled,* and occasionally I wish I had gone to public school, because I missed out on a lot of cultural touchstones, but then I’m reminded that kids are fucking horrible to other kids at any sign of differentness, and I was a fat, nerdy, gay bookworm, so, yeah, I’m good with the way things shook out. Haha
*Got a great education, not a religious nutjob, was not raised by right wing zealots.
Considering they won’t even hold kids back a grade here anymore, I could see it. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the curve of home schooled kid intelligence has two peaks, one corresponding to parents who make their best effort and another corresponding to the ones you’re talking about.
Homeschooling: A comprehensive survey of the research, Robert Kunzman, Milton Gaither
Other Education-the journal of educational alternatives 2 (1), 4-59, 2013
"A final consistent finding in the literature on academic achievement is that parental background matters very much in homeschooler achievement. Belfield
(2005) found greater variance in SAT scores by family background among homeschoolers than among institutionally-schooled students. Boulter’s (1999) longitudinal sample of 110 students whose parents averaged only 13 years of education found a consistent pattern of gradual decline in achievement scores the
longer a child remained homeschooled, a result she attributed to the relatively low
levels of parent education in her sample. Medlin’s (1994) study of 36 homeschoolers found a significant relationship between mother’s educational level and child’s achievement score. Kunzman’s (2009a) qualitative study of several Christian homeschooling families found dramatic differences in instructional quality correlated with parent educational background. "
There’s another bias in that kids with educated parents in public school will also have higher grades on average than the average public school kid. I don’t know how much that might affect conclusions. It doesn’t seem necessary to make the point.
I have no doubt that a private tutor can outperform a public school, but it takes a number of factors, and it’s more difficult to outperform public school combined with that same personal, educated tutor.
That’s why I added all the stuff in the footnote. Haha. When I was a kid, we did home schooling because the area we were initially living had a lot of trouble of with knives and guns in the school, and then we started moving around so much it wasn’t feasible to really get a decent education at a new school ever several months.
But the books that the state of Virginia told my mom to get ended up being a beka books, creationist nonsense. When my mom realized what they were she started getting me text books from library (we had settled down to only moving within the Hampton roads area by then). That indoctrination and shitty education is so rampant within homeschooling that even the state has given up on recommending decent material.
All that said, my mom (who, just to throw it out there because of comments downstream, did not finish highschool) was an amazing teacher. She instilled a love of learning in her kids, but honestly the most important thing I got from my education was learning how to learn. I feel like other kids learned how to pass tests, I learned how to absorb information and retain it, and how to actually find the information I need.
I also didn’t take summers off, so I finished 12th at 14, which was, frankly, really fucking awesome. Lol. I used to get through an entire day’s worth of course work before noon, and then I got to what we called free research. Which was basically “you can use the computer until 5pm, but it has to be at least tangentially educational.” My God I read so much Wikipedia.
I wish I could be a proponent of homeschooling, because I know how fantastic it can be. But I can’t, because the bad parents make it so, so much worse than anything that should be acceptable.
We used to go to homeschool clubs, and even group teach (basically a class run by one of the parents with 15 or so kids, mostly as a way to get the other parents a few hours of free time), but had to stop because I would get in trouble with the other parents for saying things like “evolution” or on one occasion how condoms are a great way to prevent STDs. It sometimes felt like we were entirely alone in having a decent education in that system. We weren’t, we met many, many other families with decent homeschooling techniques and actual science classes. But the ones who weren’t? They were absolutely the loudest.
Funny story, my dad was a carnie for a brief time, and then I acted a good bit as a kid in those true crime shows from the late 90s and early 00s. On both occasions I had a tutor/teacher instead of genuine/standard homeschooling. I got a shittier education both of those times, but both times I had the fucking hottest teachers. The first I didn’t realize was a gay crush, because I was too young, but the second I was old enough to realize what the feelings were, but not out enough to myself to actually admit them to myself. But my God, so sexy. I definitely understand the “crush on teacher” thing haha
I was home schooled,* and occasionally I wish I had gone to public school, because I missed out on a lot of cultural touchstones, but then I’m reminded that kids are fucking horrible to other kids at any sign of differentness, and I was a fat, nerdy, gay bookworm, so, yeah, I’m good with the way things shook out. Haha
*Got a great education, not a religious nutjob, was not raised by right wing zealots.
As a homeschool survivor, you’re the exception not the rule
I am very aware. I’m sorry :(
Home schooled kids on average are smarter. Public schools tend to lower their standards to get a certain percentage of students to pass.
Plus I bet your teacher was hot.
Considering half the home schooled kids are kept for indoctrination and/or abuse purposes, I doubt it.
Considering they won’t even hold kids back a grade here anymore, I could see it. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the curve of home schooled kid intelligence has two peaks, one corresponding to parents who make their best effort and another corresponding to the ones you’re talking about.
Yup
Homeschooling: A comprehensive survey of the research, Robert Kunzman, Milton Gaither Other Education-the journal of educational alternatives 2 (1), 4-59, 2013
"A final consistent finding in the literature on academic achievement is that parental background matters very much in homeschooler achievement. Belfield (2005) found greater variance in SAT scores by family background among homeschoolers than among institutionally-schooled students. Boulter’s (1999) longitudinal sample of 110 students whose parents averaged only 13 years of education found a consistent pattern of gradual decline in achievement scores the longer a child remained homeschooled, a result she attributed to the relatively low levels of parent education in her sample. Medlin’s (1994) study of 36 homeschoolers found a significant relationship between mother’s educational level and child’s achievement score. Kunzman’s (2009a) qualitative study of several Christian homeschooling families found dramatic differences in instructional quality correlated with parent educational background. "
There’s another bias in that kids with educated parents in public school will also have higher grades on average than the average public school kid. I don’t know how much that might affect conclusions. It doesn’t seem necessary to make the point.
I have no doubt that a private tutor can outperform a public school, but it takes a number of factors, and it’s more difficult to outperform public school combined with that same personal, educated tutor.
That’s why I added all the stuff in the footnote. Haha. When I was a kid, we did home schooling because the area we were initially living had a lot of trouble of with knives and guns in the school, and then we started moving around so much it wasn’t feasible to really get a decent education at a new school ever several months.
But the books that the state of Virginia told my mom to get ended up being a beka books, creationist nonsense. When my mom realized what they were she started getting me text books from library (we had settled down to only moving within the Hampton roads area by then). That indoctrination and shitty education is so rampant within homeschooling that even the state has given up on recommending decent material.
All that said, my mom (who, just to throw it out there because of comments downstream, did not finish highschool) was an amazing teacher. She instilled a love of learning in her kids, but honestly the most important thing I got from my education was learning how to learn. I feel like other kids learned how to pass tests, I learned how to absorb information and retain it, and how to actually find the information I need.
I also didn’t take summers off, so I finished 12th at 14, which was, frankly, really fucking awesome. Lol. I used to get through an entire day’s worth of course work before noon, and then I got to what we called free research. Which was basically “you can use the computer until 5pm, but it has to be at least tangentially educational.” My God I read so much Wikipedia.
I wish I could be a proponent of homeschooling, because I know how fantastic it can be. But I can’t, because the bad parents make it so, so much worse than anything that should be acceptable. We used to go to homeschool clubs, and even group teach (basically a class run by one of the parents with 15 or so kids, mostly as a way to get the other parents a few hours of free time), but had to stop because I would get in trouble with the other parents for saying things like “evolution” or on one occasion how condoms are a great way to prevent STDs. It sometimes felt like we were entirely alone in having a decent education in that system. We weren’t, we met many, many other families with decent homeschooling techniques and actual science classes. But the ones who weren’t? They were absolutely the loudest.
Funny story, my dad was a carnie for a brief time, and then I acted a good bit as a kid in those true crime shows from the late 90s and early 00s. On both occasions I had a tutor/teacher instead of genuine/standard homeschooling. I got a shittier education both of those times, but both times I had the fucking hottest teachers. The first I didn’t realize was a gay crush, because I was too young, but the second I was old enough to realize what the feelings were, but not out enough to myself to actually admit them to myself. But my God, so sexy. I definitely understand the “crush on teacher” thing haha