ALERT : All homeschoolers, or people who plan to do homeschooling...

[noxibox]

Not just formal schooling, but also formal homeschooling - i.e. not using a strict curriculum as a lot of homeschoolers do (we currently use a curriculum). It's completely self-directed learning; basically giving the child access to any resources they want and letting their curiosity dictate what they learn.

I've seen cases where it can go quite badly as well, for instance some young people we know are getting to the age of matric/GCSE, and incapable of passing the standard needed, and basically at a point of dropping out of further education because they never learned how to study. That's what has made us more nervous about taking an unschooled approach. On the other hand I believe it can work wonderfully in other cases like in a worldschooled situation where they have so much environmental stimulation and opportunity.

I think it would require a fair amount of discipline on the part of the parents. There are always going to be children who would, given the chance, sit around all day doing nothing worthwhile.

On the other hand in my experience the standard method of schooling typically also fails to teach how to study and, because school level education essentially involves support and spoon feeding all the way to the final year, university is a huge shift that leaves many floundering.

Montessori seems to take a bit of a middle ground. There's guidance and direction to make sure the various areas required are covered, but even four year olds are expected to take some initiative and from an early age they engage in teaching what they know to those younger or less knowledgeable.

 

[The_Librarian]

What I can tell is that educators don't know what policy changes are being discussed, and want access to that.

That.

 

[Candystore]

If the parent is no good, surely homeschooling can go badly wrong?

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

If the parent is no good, surely homeschooling can go badly wrong?

Very true.

I know more parents that homeschool for the wrong reason than the right reasons.

Religion is the most common wrong reason and that includes atheists. Protect the young ones against what goes against your personal belief system instead of giving them the choice.

Other reasons are financial where the parent is trying to save a quick buck by dodging school fees and don't invest in home schooling with that money. You end up with teenagers spending their entire days playing online and entering the job market with only a primary school education.

You also then get the parent that don't agree with the education system and will decide what their kids will learn and not learn, very much like the religious crowd. Then when they try to get their kids back into public school system, their kids are so far behind even at junior grades that no good public or private school will take them.

My eldest was home schooled by my ex for the wrong reasons, won't say in public why, and thank goodness that only lasted a short while.

 

[The_Librarian]

If the parent is no good, surely homeschooling can go badly wrong?

Very true.

I know more parents that homeschool for the wrong reason than the right reasons.

Religion is the most common wrong reason and that includes atheists. Protect the young ones against what goes against your personal belief system instead of giving them the choice.

Other reasons are financial where the parent is trying to save a quick buck by dodging school fees and don't invest in home schooling with that money. You end up with teenagers spending their entire days playing online and entering the job market with only a primary school education.

You also then get the parent that don't agree with the education system and will decide what their kids will learn and not learn, very much like the religious crowd. Then when they try to get their kids back into public school system, their kids are so far behind even at junior grades that no good public or private school will take them.

My eldest was home schooled by my ex for the wrong reasons, won't say in public why, and thank goodness that only lasted a short while.

And then you get the good parents, unfortunately it is the few bad apples that tarnish homeschooling.

 

[Sepeng]

If the parent is no good, surely homeschooling can go badly wrong?

If the parent is no good, any type of schooling - home, public, private - can go badly wrong.
Alternatively, one bad teacher can ruin a subject for a kid.

 

[ArtyLoop]

Yes, basically that is what they want. And to fill the schools that are already incapable of handling the number of students with even more children who were doing much better at home.

They want votahs
They want people starving and poor to secure their power over them

 

[ArtyLoop]

I am homeschooling for the following reasons:

1. My son has autism and time and again normal schools have ended up with him in tears because of bullying, and other factors
2. The CAPS curriculum in particular is full of this SJW pro-ANC crap every second page is about how superior the one is to the other.
3. Schools are a political playground for parents who have political aspirations but are too slapgat to even join the ANC/DA and make it a reality
4. Religious BS being forced down the throat of my child

 

[SlinkyMike]

Not just formal schooling, but also formal homeschooling - i.e. not using a strict curriculum as a lot of homeschoolers do (we currently use a curriculum). It's completely self-directed learning; basically giving the child access to any resources they want and letting their curiosity dictate what they learn.

I've seen cases where it can go quite badly as well, for instance some young people we know are getting to the age of matric/GCSE, and incapable of passing the standard needed, and basically at a point of dropping out of further education because they never learned how to study. That's what has made us more nervous about taking an unschooled approach. On the other hand I believe it can work wonderfully in other cases like in a worldschooled situation where they have so much environmental stimulation and opportunity.

Why is this a binary issue?

My children are in dead normal public schools (like, suburb Primary/suburb High)they also have interests that they pursue in their free time.

The eldest is deeply interested in biology (pathogens specifically) and the youngest is more art/craft inspired and comes up with little projects from time to time as she finds them online (she's six and can navigate the internet reliably with her reading/writing skills) and she's now becoming interested in Arduino (can I make a light go on whenever my locker door is open?)

I'm not trying to be contrarian but I just can't understand why visiting a black sand beach and learning about magnetism must replace formal schooling, why can't kids have both?

Several members of my family are education professionals so I understand that large swaths of the population expect schools to teach their kids 80% of what they need and only undertake 20% or less at home when in fact they should do the bulk of teaching at home, but aren't these home/worldschoolers doing the same thing albeit the other way round?

I can't help but think that a parent who is attentive enough to home school would be able to capitalise on formal schooling and take their child to amazing levels of advancement in a very short time.

 

[RMTaylor]

And yet...and yet...
You cannot apply apostrophes correctly in a sentence.

/runs

Lol never said that I was perfect, texting has made me super lazy, I must admit lol

My wife is always complaining about my lack of punctuation

 

[cerebus]

Why is this a binary issue?

I don't think it's a binary issue at all. We aren't unschooling, we homeschool with the best curriculum we could find, and we have a fairly structured 'classroom' type environment. Then we also allow for lots more unstructured time to free learn - they do Cubs and choir/guitar, woodworking, sports, drama, ballet, and group visits - for instance the last couple of weeks they went to the science center in Hermanus and the aquarium, visited the beach and went hiking.

I've also seen cases of homeschooling going very badly, where we've felt that the authorities should even be called in to intervene because children are being raised without outside supervision and with clear developmental problems that weren't being addressed.

In our case, the public school system was not a good environment for any of our children to thrive in. They all hated it and they've made a lot of progress since coming home. Particularly I think the CAPS curriculum promulgated in SA's public schools isn't conducive to good learning. But having tasted what homeschooling can offer I'd be hard persuaded to return them back into the system.

 

[Zoomzoom]

Why is this a binary issue?

My children are in dead normal public schools (like, suburb Primary/suburb High)they also have interests that they pursue in their free time.

The eldest is deeply interested in biology (pathogens specifically) and the youngest is more art/craft inspired and comes up with little projects from time to time as she finds them online (she's six and can navigate the internet reliably with her reading/writing skills) and she's now becoming interested in Arduino (can I make a light go on whenever my locker door is open?)

I'm not trying to be contrarian but I just can't understand why visiting a black sand beach and learning about magnetism must replace formal schooling, why can't kids have both?

Several members of my family are education professionals so I understand that large swaths of the population expect schools to teach their kids 80% of what they need and only undertake 20% or less at home when in fact they should do the bulk of teaching at home, but aren't these home/worldschoolers doing the same thing albeit the other way round?

I can't help but think that a parent who is attentive enough to home school would be able to capitalise on formal schooling and take their child to amazing levels of advancement in a very short time.

because school crushes independent thinking. because school indoctrinates. because school creates worker drones. because teachers largely s-ck. because bullying. because 8 hours a day leaves little time for independent study. because the standard of education in SA is largely horrific. because OBE blows. because mixing with your peer group is not what it is made out to be. kids in formal education are incapable of thinking independently or interacting with anyone outside of their age group, because have you actually looked at what your kids are being taught?

 

[ArtyLoop]

because school crushes independent thinking. because school indoctrinates. because school creates worker drones. because teachers largely s-ck. because bullying. because 8 hours a day leaves little time for independent study. because the standard of education in SA is largely horrific. because OBE blows. because mixing with your peer group is not what it is made out to be. kids in formal education are incapable of thinking independently or interacting with anyone outside of their age group, because have you actually looked at what your kids are being taught?

I am with this- school crushes independent thinking by miles... like someone once said to me "School is designed to churn out yes men, voters and civil servants"

 

[The_Librarian]

If the parent is no good, any type of schooling - home, public, private - can go badly wrong.
Alternatively, one bad teacher can ruin a subject for dozens of children.

FTFY

 

[SlinkyMike]

because school crushes independent thinking. because school indoctrinates. because school creates worker drones. because teachers largely s-ck. because bullying. because 8 hours a day leaves little time for independent study. because the standard of education in SA is largely horrific. because OBE blows. because mixing with your peer group is not what it is made out to be. kids in formal education are incapable of thinking independently or interacting with anyone outside of their age group, because have you actually looked at what your kids are being taught?

Maybe a bit strong but I get it.

I truly believe you are looking in the wrong place for this. Independant/critical thinking is something one learns at home, you absolutely can attend a public school and be capable of thinking for yourself.

I don't think that schools are responsible for this so I'm not angry that they don't do it. I think you might be blaming public schools for not doing something that you're supposed to be doing anyway ...which you clearly are.

Again: the parents who are capable of teaching this are the ones like you who are able to think this way to begin with - you're not seeing many of these in the system, unfortunately - but that isn't because of the system it's because parents are failing at home.

 

[cerebus]

Again: the parents who are capable of teaching this are the ones like you who are able to think this way to begin with - you're not seeing many of these in the system, unfortunately - but that isn't because of the system it's because parents are failing at home.

Why do you think it isn't because of the system? South Africa has a badly overstressed, falling apart public school system. Our science and maths standards are among the worst in the world. That is a systemic failure. Perhaps you can pick and choose where to put your kids into school - and so can we to an extent - but we were very dissatisfied with the quality and approach to schooling that they were getting through CAPS.

By the time we took them out of school individually, our eldest son was developing nervous tics, our middle son hated to read, and our youngest child was being disciplined for an ongoing bladder problem. Since coming home they're all flourishing, socially and educationally. And it's all very well to say that parents should be doing these things anyway - but then why not just do it yourself and stuff the school system?

 

[RMTaylor]

Unschooling is not unparenting, we just don't want our kid to spend 12 years learning useless stuff, to keep him busy and then enter the job market at the lowest rung.

School doesn't prepare you for the real world, so we have taken it upon ourselves to in our opinion give our boy the best start possible.

Our first priority is to ensure that he can function more independently on a global scale, therefore he has equal input on where we go, where we stay etc.

He helps us book air tickets and accommodation, exchange money, work out exchange rates etc.

We keep the explanations simple since he is only 5, but he has been doing it for 2 years now and at times has told us that he wants to travel, if he is over where we are.

He can converse with people from any nationality and age, and has mastered the art of reading body language to communicate with kids from different countries.

We are not anti structured education, but studies have shown that boys learn different to girls for example, and are more hands-on.

He taught himself colors and how to count watching YouTube videos.

We let him self regulate his sweets, game playing, youtube etc.

If you where into wood work and instead of only being allowed 40min a day to absorb it, you where given tools and unlimited time to spend on your interest, you will start hitting walls that you will need to overcome to carry on.

At some stage you will need to learn maths and how to read and write to carry on, that is where our boy is now, he wants to learn to read, his own choice and he gives it his full attention.

His reason is that every night we read a story and then we all three have to create a story to encourage some free thinking, before going to bed.

He wants to read more stories to himself lol.

Busy writing this on my mobile and very lazy with punctuation, my apologies for that.

1.Our boy actively learns vs passive learning.
2.Has time to master his chosen subjects.
3. Is learning to think for himself with no limits put on him.
4. retains the information since it is by choice.

The benefits out way the negatives, and if he decides that he wants to go to school, he is welcome to give it a try and stay if that is what he wants.

The only negative is when parents basically use it as an excuse to stop parenting and it can lead to social isolation.

We had that when we started our world travels 2 years ago, staying in hotels isolate you.

We have for the past year, been living as local as possible.

This let's us experience the people and country first hand and our boy has kids to interact with.

Playing with older Georgian kids.

You do not need to be anti structured education to chose alternatives, we just want our boy to be independent, since we could be gone tomorrow.

We spent 2 weeks in a commune in Siberia, where he was given free access to a bands equipment.

After a week, 4 kids started a band it was really bad but the experience and tine that they put into it was brilliant to see.

We tend to forget that our kids are their own people and we cannot put our issues and fears on them and the best that we can do is prepare then to be able to navigate life on their own terms.

Damn that was a long post, with crappy punctuation

 

[buka001]

With regards to homeschooling something that I have always wondered about is does the over riding instinct that one has, as a parent for your child not affect ones judgement of your child's scholastic abilities and perhaps allow for bias to cloud the assessment of your child?

Are there independent checks and balances that negate this?

I don't get the point with regards to schools limiting independent thought. Some of the greatest independent thinkers of our time all went to traditional schools - Elon Musk, Marck Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Richard Branson for example.

Just curious on what the view is on this.

 

[cerebus]

With regards to homeschooling something that I have always wondered about is does the over riding instinct that one has, as a parent for your child not affect ones judgement of your child's scholastic abilities and perhaps allow for bias to cloud the assessment of your child?

Are there independent checks and balances that negate this?

I don't get the point with regards to schools limiting independent thought. Some of the greatest independent thinkers of our time all went to traditional schools - Elon Musk, Marck Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Richard Branson for example.

Just curious on what the view is on this.

Who's providing the checks and balances on the millions of school kids that fail every year? There are successes and failures on either side but it's very easy to just slip through the system, failing or barely passing at the lowest possible level in school.

 

[RMTaylor]

With regards to homeschooling something that I have always wondered about is does the over riding instinct that one has, as a parent for your child not affect ones judgement of your child's scholastic abilities and perhaps allow for bias to cloud the assessment of your child?

Are there independent checks and balances that negate this?

I don't get the point with regards to schools limiting independent thought. Some of the greatest independent thinkers of our time all went to traditional schools - Elon Musk, Marck Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Richard Branson for example.

Just curious on what the view is on this.

Elon musk pulled his kids out of school and started a secretive unschooling style school.

I remember reading about it, no grades and based on navigating real life scenarios that his kids will face in real life.

Never did much research on that but sounds interesting.

His kids where all in prestigious schools

Google Ad Astra and musk.

For every freethinker you mentioned there are thousands of cutouts.

Times have changed but the industrial age schooling system has not.

There is no wrong and right, and it boils down to personal choice.