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Originally Posted by MathGeek
Lots of interesting feedback. Sure, there probably are still some good schools where parents can depend on their children being well prepared academically for college. But having taught at both the Air Force Academy and a big state school (physics and calculus), I can tell you that in most states, the majority of students with ACT scores near and below average are poorly prepared for these college courses both in their study habits and in their skills and knowledge in science and math.
Sure, students also need to be well prepared for the onslaught of temptations that await them in college. An 18 year old college student should be better prepared to face temptations to common excesses of college years. However, in many public schools direct exposure to these destructive behaviors can become very common in middle and high school. Home school provides a way to reduce exposures to destructive behaviors and related temptations until the student is sufficiently prepared to resist them. Having taught in several public schools, my wife and I have seen that these schools' efforts and abilities to provide learning environments with manageable levels of these destructive behaviors and temptations is far, far less than it was when we attended public schools 30-40 years ago.
The view of home schooling that assumes that parents and siblings are the only peers is skewed and demonstrates that those commenting did not even read the original article. One wonders if public school advocates and graduates have a habit of commenting before actually reading. Most home school students have increasing amounts of peer interactions through middle school and high school. 10-20 hours per week is typical for high schoolers, including sports, youth groups, college classes, high school coursework, clubs, and other extracurriculars. In addition to lots of extracurriculars and sports, our approach is for our students to gradually acclimate to college work and life starting with at least one college course in 10th grade and increasing to five college courses in the 12th grade.
Having taught both high school and college, I am surprised at the high esteem many posters have for the socialization skills of public school students. Public schools are churning out vast numbers of graduates today with an entitlement mentality and woefully inadequate comprehension of personal responsibility as well as woefully inadequate communication skills. Even now, nearly every time I drop my students off at a local college campus, I see tons of public school products walking around with their heads buried in a cell phone. Is that the social diversity and skill set my home schooled students are supposedly lacking? No thanks.
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I'm sure you're a great parent and it sounds like you're raising some wonderful kids, but I can't weigh the pros and cons of homeschooling vs public or private school and give homeschooling the win. There are simply too many life lessons to be learned in middle/high school that I feel can't be replicated by sheltering children from society. At some point, these children are going to be thrown out in society, and yes, some will be fine, but others will be faced with situations that they may not be able to cope with as easily as someone else who has faced these types of situations while growing up in school.
I was fortunate enough to go to Catholic schools growing up, but I have just as many friends who went to public schools. I'm halfway through my second college degree (mechanical engineering) and I can tell you that student's schooling background means very little at this point. Some of the best students I know were not great student's in high school and did not make above average grades on ACT tests. Parenting and one's own determination to get through school are the two most important factors.
You seem to put an emphasis on math and science, but in all honesty, 90% of real world jobs are not going to require vast knowledge of either subject. I hear that people interviewing engineers for jobs and internships would rather have someone with average grades and great personalities/people skills than a brainiac who is socially akward. To me, this is the point where attending regular school over homeschool comes into play.
Like many have previously posted, there were just too many good times and too many lessons I learned growing up going to school and playing sports. I couldn't imagine having it any other way. Bottom line is that if parents do a good enough job, sending their children to public or private schools should not be an issue whatsoever.