Home schooling

[Snowreap]

I don't think that K-12 education needs to be a place that makes an effort to weed kids out. That's going to happen anyways. What public education can't do is take the time to understand each and every kid that goes through the system. A homeschooled kid gets what every public school teacher would love to be able to accomplish in their classroom, the kind of personalized experience that allows every kid to have the best possible chance for success.

public school teachers with this desire have probably seen enough kids to be able to effectively personalize a curriculum for each kid. that is, being a public school teacher teaches you things about education that a "regular parent" won't really be aware of.

so while I heartily approve of teachers deciding to home-school their own children, I suspect that many parents are woefully underqualified for the job, and do their children a disservice by attempting it.

home-schooling because you believe your child will get a better education is one thing, but home-schooling because the other children are a bad influence on your little angel is probably unwise.

the fact that both happen muddies the water when discussing whether home schooling is, in general, a good thing or not. I think we can agree that home-schooling is a good thing when the parents know what they're doing. the question is, how often does that happen?

-ken