Comments on: The case against homeschooling

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 06:12:31 +0000

Didn’t want to read through all the comments at this point, but may I point out, Ms. Thang with all the English degrees, that you made a grammatical error? “Do you think you can teach English as well as ME?” Should be Do you think you can teach…as well as I. So, there you go! And I don’t even have an English degree! Learned that one in about 7th grade, I think.

By: lisa

lisa — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:34:24 +0000

As a certified teacher who homeschools her children, I agree with you on many of your points, however, it is my understanding that snakes are not slimy. They also probably don’t appreciate you disparaging them in your effort to make your point about public school.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:01:42 +0000

Ha Ha at least it was worth a laugh. The reason teacher’s despise homeschoolers is for several reasons, and here is my list why:

1: We prove you wrong every single day that we can in fact teach English, Math, Science, History, Art and all the others which only makes you look incompetent.

2: If you have all those degrees you are a geek just as much as any homeschooler ever aspired to be.

3: You have the personality of a rock and the sliminess of a snake. This probably was because you went to public schools.

We threaten you because without schools you wouldn’t have a job. Good thing your blogging skills are quite good. You might need them in the future.

By: peanut

peanut — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:34:11 +0000

homeschooling sucks

By: John

John — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:11:37 +0000

I am a homeschooled kid all my life, minus one good year in a public school.

befor that one year I didn’t know anything, I was very generic you could say. I couldn’t make friends and I didn’t care. without going to a public school for that one year, my future would be ruined. I am in 8th grade and desperately want to go back and have a real life. but I am forced to stay homeschooled. being a homeschoolers is not easy, and everything you said explained how I feel. and homeschooling is sadly ruining my relationship with my family: I despise the fact that my mother doesn’t trust me to go to a public school, and it affects the way I act around my family, also after being with my family 24/7 I’d much rather run-away, I have no privacy, I get the privileges of an 8 year old.
homeschooling ruined my life. I’m trying to figure out a way to go to a public school without hurting there feelings, I may use some of what you have said.

By: Noyb

Noyb — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:44:11 +0000

I am terribly sorry and very saddened to hear about your brother. Unfortunately, this sounds like it was failure in parenting rather than homeschooling. I have known, and still know, adults who are much like this; none of them were homeschooled, rather they had parents who were in denial or who were too narcissistic to see outside of themselves. In this case, I’m not sure if you can blame homeschooling so much as the people who were supposed to be implementing a curriculum and seeking socialization for their son, as well as utilizing any psychological help he might have needed along the way. Intentions can be wonderful things, but they can fail short when people have trouble setting those intentions aside to see the bigger picture. Would a brick and mortar school have been best for your brother? We’ll never know; maybe yes, or maybe he would have suffered more. Every single child is different, just as every adult is different. Many have been permanently scarred by their time in public school; many have the same issues as your brother because of mistreatment behind school doors. Would they have been better served homeschooled? Possibly, but again, we’ll never know. Please don’t judge an entire movement based solely on one person, however broken that person might be, because I personally know at least six examples of well adjusted, well educated, very happy individuals who were homeschooled. Homeschooling is not right for everyone. All the homeschooling families I’ve been associated with, and there have been quite a few, fight more for the right of families to decide an educational route for their children than to demand everyone take the same path. What was right for your neighbor’s children might not be right for yours, and your advanced school system with caring, motivated teachers may not be the same lackluster, careless, scandal plagued system the next county is enduring. I’m very sorry to know that you’ve had such a terrible example of homeschooling gone bad. I hope your family gets the help they need soon.

By: Tina Cook

Tina Cook — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:10:24 +0000

I disagree with homeschooling based on my 29 year old brother that is nothing more than a real life monster. Me? Mom and Dad sent me to regular school and I am okay. I have social skills, I can write and do math. Monster, he cant write, he cant do math, and has almost no social skills at all. He is violent, he beats on our parents, he is now seeing a shrink for anger issues and his resentment for not being normal, not having any friends, not ever having dated. He wants the things that men his age want, but he cant get a job because he cant write and he looks horrible. He looks like he was raised by a pack of animals, smells like a pack of animals and wants to wear clothing that looks like something an 8 year old might wear for Halloween. This poor man cant help the way he is. Mom and Dad, both having attended college, simply were not very successful at teaching Jon much of anything, other than to be afraid of everything and everyone. He has almost no hygiene, will not clean or pick up a single thing, and his whole life rotates around the house and games. He will most likely end up killing our parents because he is so very sad, depressed and geeky, and the few little game groups he has been involved with outside of home , he is banished from. The poor man, nobody wants to hang out with him. He is a 29 year old balding , unemployable, flat broke, geeky, smelly, virgin. Chances are greater that he’s going to end up incarcerated or institutionalized than employed. Homeschooling , in this particular case, was a horrible idea. The K-12 public school system is not so much about the classes you take but the social skills you develop and the routine and schedule of your day. It trains you for life skills, as well as learning, hopefully, some reading, writing and arithmetic too. But mostly what you learn, is to get up everyday, and clean yourself up as best you can, and make it through your day and all the peer pressure that goes with it. Peers are a very important thing in childhood development . Without peers kids grow up to be crazy, useless, psychopathic nutcases, just like my brother.

By: pekoponian

pekoponian — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:39:32 +0000

First, let me say that I am not a homeschooler. With that out of the way, I am the product of both church and public school and have always been, as you say, “geeky.” I was ostracized by my peers for being different (more bookish, not enjoying the same pop-culture nonsense, etc.) in both settings and my social awkwardness has been driven to a very large degree by *their* behavior. I see nothing wrong with my differences from others and also nothing wrong with being geeky. Group dynamics in schools can do very ugly things to kids, see the bullying epidemic. You seem to have an overly positive view of children’s social interactions.

By: dynaboyj

dynaboyj — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 23:50:28 +0000

Maybe you could’ve just scolded your kid.

By: KateS

KateS — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 08:15:27 +0000

May 30, 2009.
I LOVE that this article was released on the 30th May, 2009 and is still capturing peoples attentions with the last post (to this date at least), being posted on the 28th November, 2011.

I Think it might be time to let this one go guys. The original poster has no doubt moved on with his/her life, being a good 2.5 years later and all. Probably has a new car, had several fights with family members over Christmas/Easter things (sorry, I was raised with those holidays, so that is what I will use), and just generally enjoyed her/his life.
Actually he/she is probably still enjoying the furor that has been created with a single article, just enjoying the never ending passions s/he was able to evoke.

I disagree with the article, but I also disagree with many posts.

We “homeschool” because we travel for my Husbands work, and putting the children into different schools every 2 – 8 months was just too hard on them. We tried, but it didn’t work for the kids.