Most people assume that I homeschooled my kids for religious reasons.

[Hela]

They then make all kind of other assumptions about us. Those assumptions are a lot different here in Indiana than they were in Illinois. It's always fun to set that record straight, whether I'm flying a BLM or Pride flag, or putting a Biden placard in my yard.

We're solidly democratic atheists, or at best, agnostics with a dash of Pastafarianism.

However, the two school shootings so far this week (oh, you didn't hear about the second one yet? https://www.wreg.com/news/1-dead-multiple-injured-at-humboldt-high/) remind me of the choices we made twenty years ago and the primary reasons we made them. Being active in the PTA and living next to the 3rd-5th grade elementary school in our district and it's adjacent playground and park, I was privy to a lot of what when on in our "blue-ribbon," top-performing school district, and I didn't like it much.

My oldest son was fortunate to have the kind of principal and teacher in his K-2 school who loved and cared for their students, and saw the bigger picture of their life experiences. When we took our son out of first grade for two weeks in the middle of the school year for a family trip to Florida and Disney World, while other teachers and parents tsk-tsk'ed us, the principal made it a point to see him on the day before we left to say goodbye and wish him a fun and memory-filled trip. When I told her a year later that he wouldn't be moving on to third grade, but would be homeschooled, she didn't try to talk us out of it as many others did.

The 3rd-5th grade school behind us didn't have that kind of principal, and I didn't find any teachers with that empathy, either. It was like second grade was the last year of childhood, and all of a sudden third-graders were supposed to act like adults. I can't count the number of times that I heard 8-10 year old children being yelled at through a bullhorn on the playground, or being punished during recess by having to stand in line over the slightly restless behavior of one other child, or some other ridiculous expectation by a particular teacher.

Our oldest finished second grade and never went back. Other than a play-based preschool, our second never went to school at all. We gave up a lot financially by me being a stay-at-home mom, and I will always be very thankful for the sacrifices my husband made that enabled me to do so. We were privileged to be able to make it work on one average middle-class salary.

I commented to my husband this morning that no matter what else we did or didn't do, at least our kids (now 22 and 26) never had to walk through a metal detector or participate in an active shooter drill (or escape through a classroom window), and I never had to wonder if they or their friends were dead or alive. For that peace of mind, I will always be grateful.

[Demsrule86]

1. Interesting but I remain opposed to homeschooling as it is practiced now...for every child

like yours and I assume your kids are thriving, there are kids whose parent were not capable of educating them and these kids will pay a high price for the rest of their lives with mediocre jobs and poverty. Also, some abusive parents hide behind homeschooling. There should be testing to make sure kids are learning appropriately and there should be some sort of universal minimum curriculum (meaning you have to do the minimum but can provide more than the minimum if you so choose). Also, if both parents work...elementary kids should not be left home alone with a computer IMHO.

[Hortensis]

8. Yes. Some parents do a very good job and can be proud of it.

I'm sure Hela's children benefited from far, far more from improved education and cultural exposure than not being bored by emergency drills.

Others, not so much.

Agree entirely with the need for careful monitoring and adherence to an agreed set of basic standards, though I think the content and rigor should be allowed to vary significantly from those for professional learning environments to accommodate parental beliefs, within limits.

I'm no longer as impressed with the ability of education per se to improve thinking and judgement as I once was. But keep opportunities available for those who want them as they grow older.

[Jilly_in_VA]

3. I known several people who homeschooled their kids

for other than religious reasons. Two of the kids were obvious "square pegs"--one off-the-charts bright, the other probably a mild Asperger's but also very bright; both are in college now. Another was a military brat whose mom was absolutely not thrilled with the idea of her kids switching schools every couple of years. I only knew the younger daughter, but she was very intelligent and thoughtful. She's also now in college and confided to me that the hardest thing for her was learning to do things under deadlines as her mother had never enforced that with her or her sister. Another family I knew only online. They lived in a western state and started homeschooling after their local school closed and consolidated. It meant a long bus ride and their kids getting on the bus before dark and getting home near dark on winter. The younger ones were tired and cranky all the time, sometimes actually sleepy when they got off the bus. That decided them on homeschooling.

There was a family in Tennessee who lived not that far from where I did who ended up homeschooling their daughter for religious reasons, but not the ones you might think. They were pagan, and when the kids in that small town found out, they made the girl's life a literal hell. The parents sued the school system because of the bullying, but didn't get very far. Some places you just can't buck the system.

[MarcA]

4. So much of what happens in schools, public and private,

is an antithesis to actual learning/education. Don't think there is only one
"true" way to do it. Resources for families, parental accountability and it
takes a community, whatever that community may be.

[AllaN01Bear]

5. many started home schooling because they didnt want their kids to mx

w blacks , and others and along religious lines . ie hate . like your reasoning for your childeren though

[Farmer-Rick]

6. Homeschoolers contribute to the failure of our education system

Yeah, you would rather homeschool, cut down on true socialization of your children, to keep them alive.

If Covid doesn't kill them the school shootings might. Why is that? Why have we turned our children's schools into death centers? I would not send my kids to school today. They are tragically unsafe and death sites for out of control gun culture.

I understand that decision. But because rational people like you decide against sending their kids to schools, they have become a bastions of misinformation and deadly behavior.

We have abandoned our schools and home schooling assures they continue to decline.

We need to take back control of kids schooling.

But the rich are making billions off your choices and they are not going to stop.

[TexasBushwhacker]

7. But home schooling just isn't an option for most people

Far too many families need 2 incomes to survive and then there are the kids being raised by single parents. What do we say? Sucks to be them? A child should not have to be homeschooled to be safe and a parent (usually the mother) should not have to give up their career to homeschool their children.

Add to that the fact that most states have ZERO requirements for home schooling parents. I was a secondary public school teacher for 9 years. I had to have more hours in my major and minor than normally required for a Bachelor's degree in order to get my teaching certificate. I had to take adolescent psychology and 15 hours of education courses, plus a semester of student teaching. Once I was teaching, there was plenty of pressure to get my Master's degree, at my expense. I did, and was rewarded with a $500 bump in my annual salary.

[Laurelin]

9. My home schooled kids did well too

I actually home schooled in part because I'm liberal and didn't want them being brainwashed in Alabama, but mostly I did it because they're dyslexic. We were in the worst school district in the state that was ranked 49th in the country. First grade classes had 50 students to one teacher, and no special education.

I believe in public schools but I'm not going to sacrifice my children in the vain hope that their presence will improve things for everyone else.

[Dorian Gray]

10. Oh my gosh

there is no way kids with the learning needs that come with dyslexia could learn in an environment like that.