Homeschooling should be banned

[LesCanadiens]

Homeschooling should be banned.

Homeschooling makes it far more difficult for children to succeed in life academically and financially. It is next to impossible for homeschooled children to get into a good university, since universities do not trust homeschooling. It's simple: it's impossible for Mummy and Daddy to be impartial teachers. Mummy and Daddy will not fail their own children, even when their children deserve to fail. Sure, they might fail their own kid on the odd exam or essay, but they will never hold back their own child and make him take the same course twice. Sure, teachers in public schools aren't always impartial. Some public school teachers will pick favourites and reward those favourites, but never even close to the degree that homeschooling parents will. Because of this, universities do not view success at homeschooling as a reliable indicator of actual academic ability, certainly far less so than at a public school. Your homeschooled child will be stuck in crappy community or career colleges.

Most parents who elect to homeschool their children do so because they have a problem with something that public schools teach. I grant that in remote, rural areas, public or private schools are not an option and homeschooling must be done. But in urban areas, and hell most rural areas too, children still have access to public or private schools. In such occasions, homeschooling amounts to nothing more than indoctrination. You know, religious fundamentalists who think that biology textbooks are the spawn of Satan, or historical revisionists who think that history taught in public schools is a nefarious conspiracy to suppress the truth. The primary motivation is to control what their child learns at the expense of the child's well being, and this is child abuse.

How are most parents even capable of educating their child anyways? I grant you, the average parent might be capable of teaching elementary school. After all, elementary school is little more than a glorified daycare, and the only thing of value learned in elementary school are social skills. But when the kid gets to the high school level, how is it possible for the average parent to effectively teach? How many parents have the level of knowledge required to teach high school physics? Algebra? Calculus? Biology? Etc. Either you send your kids to public schools once they hit high school after you feel they've been sufficiently indoctrinated, or to a homeschooling cooperative and render the sole motive for homeschooling (controlling your child) null and void, or refuse to allow your kid to study what he wants.

No fair minded person will deny that the public education system has problems, nor that it is in need of reform. But the solution to these problems is not to scrap it altogether and replace it with your own crappy version of an education.

Please discuss.

 

[Kraznaya]

Rather, homeschooling should be properly licensed to teach the curriculum, making it essentially more difficult to weasel out of proper standards (along with standardized tests). Also, religion should never be accepted as a reason for allowing homeschooling; if the guardians wish to give supplemental religious education, it should be done outside of the time teaching school curriculum.

 

[LesCanadiens]

Rather, homeschooling should be properly licensed to teach the curriculum, making it essentially more difficult to weasel out of proper standards (along with standardized tests). Also, religion should never be accepted as a reason for allowing homeschooling; if the guardians wish to give supplemental religious education, it should be done outside of the time teaching school curriculum.

...which would effectively ban homeschooling. If you deny people the ability to homeschool their children unless they A) are sufficiently qualfied, B) agree to teach a state-designed curriculum that is at least comparable to that taught in public schools, and C) are not motivated by the desire to indoctrinate their children, at least 90% of homeschooling will disappear overnight.

 

[Kraznaya]

...which would effectively ban homeschooling. If you deny people the ability to homeschool their children unless they A) are sufficiently qualfied, B) agree to teach a state-designed curriculum that is at least comparable to that taught in public schools, and C) are not motivated by the desire to indoctrinate their children, at least 90% of homeschooling will disappear overnight.

It'll be easier to pass that way politically

 

[Mise]

I largely agree, though homeschooling simply isn't a problem in the UK, because we have better school coverage. In America, as I understand it, most homeschooled kids are done so because they live so far from school that it's practically impossible to send them to a state school. In an ideal world, parents would supplement their children's state education with further help at home. Sometimes, one of those isn't possible, and while that's deeply regrettable, I don't think any specific law would help.

 

[Bill3000]

Homeschooling is child abuse. The indoctrination is necessarily part of it from the very fact that you are teaching your child; whether it is conscious or not.

Homeschooling has a massive grading bias, because mommy and daddy will never fail you. It's impossible to be an impartial teacher. And as a result of this, it's much harder to get into good colleges as colleges distrust homeschooling and put it under much greater scrutiny. You have guaranteed the loss of the child going to a good college - merely community college at the very most, which isn't special.

There is no need for homeschooling. If you distrust public education (which there is no need to unless you live in a horsehockey community, of which you should move out anyway) then you can do private schooling. If you're doing it simply because they're teaching something that you disagree with, such as evolution, sexual education, or fallacious nutrition, then that is child abuse.

What's important is what is best for the child, not the rights of the parents. There are a lot of crappy parents in the world - that's part of the problem of crap today, and the last thing that needs to be done is to give those parents the right to destroy their children.

 

[sysyphus]

I don't know about other jurisdictions, but home schooling in Ontario is quite well run and effective. Curriculums are well established and certain criteria have to be met in order to receive a diploma. As well, there are supplementary programmes which home schooled children take part in to help with material that cannot be taught at home.

Home schooled children, at least here, have just as good a chance to get into university as publicly schooled children. It has also been shown that home schooled children relate to adults better.

Note also that not all children are home schooled for religious purposes.

 

[El_Machinae]

The OP is wrong. Kids can thrive in homeschool. The main risk, as we've seen with homeschooled kids on CFC, is Creationism. This mainly limits their ability to understand biology and anthropology (maybe physics, but probably not). People can succeed without understanding these fields.

 

[Tenochtitlan]

Are you basing your claims on a statistic, or first hand experience? Or do you just assume things?

 

[classical_hero]

You are such a Nazi. Did you know that was the very first thing Hitler did when he came into office was to ban home-schooling? The reason is simple is so that he could control what was taught. The parent should be the one who control what there kids are taught due to the fact that they are their kids and they are there responsibility. That is the problem with modern society is that we have taken away the responsibilities of parents and then expect the children to do the right thing when so often what they are taught is contradictory to what there parents want and you want to force this upon those parents. Ironically those who say it is child abuse are in fact abusing children by indoctrinating them with there beliefs and forcing them a certain view, but they think it is normal for them to do it, but "immoral" for their parents to teach them.

Moderator Action: Trolling / flaming - warned.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[REDY]

I cant find anything wrong about homeschooling. If the children will do all exams, I dont see problem here. But its not widespread here.

 

[Kennigit]

As I understand it, most homeschooling in the United States is based partially/mainly on religious grounds, which we should not outlaw outright.

I do not think that the idea of homeschooling a kid leads to worse performance. Colleges will accept homeschooled kids if they perform well on standardized tests, but the main problem with homeschooling comes out of high school. It should not be illegal, but it should be made much more difficult to home school a child of high school age than of elementary or middle school age: parents can prove they are qualified to teach middle school fairly easily, although not many could do well in high school level calculus, science, history, etc.

The OP says this too, as I now have read it, but there is also no reason to particularly believe that a parent could not sufficiently teach his or her child if they are required by the state to buy the same textbooks used in the state. Children can still take AP tests, use AP textbooks, do well on SAT's, or even get National Merit on the PSAT, but they have to pay for the books themselves. There is no reason why a college would (and I'd say they probably don't unless some stats are coughed up) take preference over any home schooled kid if the home schooled kid has proven success on standardized tests (which is the whole purpose of standardized tests: to compare everyone on the exact same test and conditions). Just because someone is homeschooled does not mean they cannot get into a good university.

 

[LesCanadiens]

You are such a Nazi. Did you know that was the very first thing Hitler did when he came into office was to ban home-schooling? The reason is simple is so that he could control what was taught.

Source?

Fact: in Nazi Germany, there existed speed limits on public roads. Therefore, speed limits are fascist and immoral.

The parent should be the one who control what there kids are taught due to the fact that they are their kids and they are there responsibility.

Absolutely not. The child should be the ultimate master of what he/she learns, and although public schools do not allow for total academic freedom, they allow for far more than homeschooling does.

That is the problem with modern society is that we have taken away the responsibilities of parents and then expect the children to do the right thing when so often what they are taught is contradictory to what there parents want and you want to force this upon those parents.

What the parents want is not always best for the child. Parents wanting to take their child out of school so that they may indoctrinate their child is not acceptable.

Ironically those who say it is child abuse are in fact abusing children by indoctrinating them with there beliefs and forcing them a certain view, but they think it is normal for them to do it, but "immoral" for their parents to teach them.

Public school is not indoctrination, no matter what nutty conspiracy theorists claim. If you'd read my post, you'd see that my main problem with homeschooling is that it amounts to little more than indoctrination and denies the child freedom of academic choice, and ultimately freedom of thought. Most parents who choose to homeschool their children do so because they want total control over what their children learn. It is absolutely immoral to deliberately handicap your child so that they may be imbued with your completely ass-backwards beliefs.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I generally agree with the OP.

 

[SeleucusNicator]

Homeschooling is not just "mom and dad teach the kid everything". Many people who home school actually pool several kids together and either hire private tutors or have a division of labor between which parent teaches what, allowing for specialization and greater attention to the details of a given subject.

Moreover, your critique of "mom and dad cannot be impartial teachers" is meaningless, as the same can be said for virtually any human being, including public school teachers.

 

[SeleucusNicator]

Public school is not indoctrination, no matter what nutty conspiracy theorists claim. If you'd read my post, you'd see that my main problem with homeschooling is that it amounts to little more than indoctrination and denies the child freedom of academic choice, and ultimately freedom of thought. Most parents who choose to homeschool their children do so because they want total control over what their children learn. It is absolutely immoral to deliberately handicap your child so that they may be imbued with your completely ass-backwards beliefs.

I've actually heard that in Canada, there is a fair amount of indoctrination in public elementary schools. Your arguments of "freedom of thought" and "academic choice" are strange, because there is not much of that in elementary school. I don't know about Canada, but in the United States you are generally not allowed to pick your own classes and teachers until high school, and not really until college (which is where true academic freedom begins).

 

[Lillefix]

Homeschooling on religious or other ideological grounds should be banned.

 

[El_Machinae]

Until they make their kids a danger to themselves or others, no way it should be banned. Parents taking an active role in their kids' lives is a good thing. And we're lucky that we live in a wealthy enough society that some people can afford to do this.

 

[LesCanadiens]

I've actually heard that in Canada, there is a fair amount of indoctrination in public elementary schools. Your arguments of "freedom of thought" and "academic choice" are strange, because there is not much of that in elementary school. I don't know about Canada, but in the United States you are generally not allowed to pick your own classes and teachers until high school, and not really until college (which is where true academic freedom begins).

I'm sure you've heard this from the same people that think the Bush administration engineered 9/11. In Canada once you reach high school there is substantial freedom to pick your courses. Like I said, there could be more, but it's far more enabling academically than homeschooling.

 

[bhsup]

It's anecdotal, but I'd stack up my cousin's kids who were homeschooled by her against pretty much any student around. The home schooling 'movement' is quite strong around here. Upper level subjects that cannot be handled by the parents have classrooms available to them by other home schoolers that ARE qualified to teach the subjects. They had athletics programs available, dances, etc. Oh, and did I mention she home schooled due to her religious beliefs? Yep, just one of those whacko religious right nutters who damanged their kids by ensuring they were taught Latin, pre-calc, biology, chemisty, literature, music.

Home schooling is a heck of a lot more than Ma Kettle teaching her kids out of the Good Book and nothing else.