This whole concept of homeschooling is fantastic to me. In fact, I wonder if I were to explore homeschooling for subjects I never quite mastered, if that wouldn't be the answer. I always had a mental block with math and tried numerous times to correct that problem by auditing classes. Maybe I should try the homeschool class? I have relatives who homeschool and their students excell in the public HS. I give them great credit. It's another version of the unlimited possibilities of being self-taught. Lilla

How do homeschooled children learn how to get along with people who don't believe or act the way they do?

This is a concern that the homeschooling community does address. Parents rarely homeschool completely on their own - they usually get help from the organizations that provide the materials and other resources.

Very often, these organizations help create social opportunities that the parents are encouraged to take advantage of.

There are also things like sports, dance, music, church, etc..., where kids can be around other kids.

As for kids learning to get along with those who don't "believe or act the way they do," I don't think any school, public, private, or home, can really address that.

I would suspect there are advantages and disadvantages in both homeschooling and the traditional public school situation. While homeschooling can give the student more individualized attention, they are missing the opportunity to develop the independence of learning in an environment away from home. At the same time, the public school system fails to offer the kind of one-on-one attention the child can receive at home. And of course, in both circumstances, it really comes down to the abilities of the teacher. We've all heard of public school teachers who don't make the grade, and I can only imagine the wide variety of teaching abilities involved in homeschooling. Wasn't that lady who drowned her children a homeschooler?

Just curious...what kinds of credentials does a parent need to attain before given the license to teach their children?

Surely, you're not saying the fact that she homeschooled her kids contributed to her killing them? I can't imagine that.

There is no set of "credentials" one must have to homeschool their kids. As a mom, I was my child's first teacher until he went off to kindergarten. I could have chosen to continue being his teacher, but instead sent him to Christian school. I have friends who have no degree, no real "training" to teach, yet they homeschool their kids, and quite successfully, I might add. Almost every town has a homeschool organization where parents can meet and get ideas for teaching, set up field trips for groups of homeschoolers, etc... In one group I know of, kids from 5 different families would meet each week or so to study science, and one of the moms taught the class, as she had a degree in biology. Studies have shown that kids that are homeschooled make better grades and score higher on standardized tests than kids that are in public school. So, someone's definitely doing something right. Again.... that college degree and 5-year-teacher-credential-program (in California) doesn't always mean one is qualified to teach.

Parents choose to homeschool for a variety of reasons. Some live in not-so-good school districts that have overcrowded classrooms and they feel their kids won't receive quality instruction. Others (myself included), are disgusted with the secular humanistic agenda that is so prevelent in many public schools today; where the rights of parents are being trampled on, and where morality is determined by what is "politically correct" at the time.

I'm sure Eric would never insinuate anthing so absurd.....
However, most parents who choose to homeschool are quite religious.

The mother in question killed her children to save them from **** .

Anything good can be distorted if one is not healthy spiritually or mentally. Balance, folks, balance!

I didn't mean to suggest that the lady who murdered her kids is indicative of all homeschoolers....only that there seems to be no safeguards in place to insure that kids in that type of hostile environment have refuge. Many abused children find a sanctuary in an atmosphere away from the home.

If anyone can choose homeschooling, does this mean if a pair of illiterate parents wish to teach their children, they can? If parents decide that Shakespeare, Keats, and Shelley should not be taught, but instead insist that their children should read only from the Koran, is that really okay with everyone?

The book A Child Called "It" by David Pelzer is a truly horrific story which has a positive ending only thanks to the observant eyes of public school teachers who were able to rescue him from his parents.

I believe in the freedom to choose how one's children are educated. Yet at the same time, I am for the freedom of children to have access to a good well-rounded education. Sometimes those two desires can be in conflict.

Alidoremi, what is the "secular humanism agenda" you mentioned? What is on their agenda?

It doesn't have to be "addressed." Kids that go to public school are forced, just by attending school, to be around other people who may have different values than their parents teach them at home. My girls have to be around nice kids, mean kids, Christian kids, Jewish kids, Muslim kids, etc. It could be argued that they're exposed to a lot of negative influences that might cause them to do things that Dr. Pepper & I consider to be bad. On the other hand, it could be argued that we Christians are "in the world, not of it," meaning that we must learn how to navigate our way through this earthly life & live peacefully with all people, even those who don't share our beliefs & convictions. If we shelter our kids, how are they going to handle it when they finish school & get out into the real world? At some time or another, unless they choose to live a life of solitude (i.e., live as hermits) or join a religious cult, they're going to have to learn to socially interact with people who may or may not be like them, & to respect the rights of other people to believe the way they want to believe & live the way they want to live. Those are the principles upon which our country was founded, but some religious fanatics seem to forget that.

Wow, what a discussion!

Eric is actually correct in his statement that homeschooling contributed to Andrea Yate's murders of her children. I was living in Houston at the time and followed it every day when we moved here like an obsessed person. There was, of course, more to it than that, but the lack of boundaries (meaning far-out-Christian religious mind control of the so-called Biblically-defined inferior female gender) in the home contributed to the sicko inducing atmosphere.

alidoremi, I would beg to differ with you on the test scores, etc. of homeschoolers. It depends on the state, and I would argue that perhaps at least some of those statistics have been messed with to support the "homeschool agenda." At least the Kansas scores, that is. A retired former schoolteacher and I had a fascinating discussion of this at a tea just last Saturday. She recounted a conversation she had with an townie home schooler (uber Christian, btw, Vivace) who had exclaimed to her how much better it was to homeschool in Kansas vs. her former state of Missouri. Why, in Kansas, the state department of education has no requirements or minimum standards for homeschooled children. In Missouri the state department of education has the audacity to require standardized testing of some sort. :rolleyes:

You are correct in stating that there are many excellent homeschooler and many excellent support communities. I have known many fabulous mother/teachers who are 100% committed to a quality education for their children. There are also many religious wackos who use it as an excuse to keep their children away from apparently evil secular humanists such as myself. Personally, I feel teaching children to segregate because they're better than other people or groups will not teach them the skills needed to thrive in an increasingly global environment. Unless they convert to Mormonism and move to Utah, that is...