Homeschool vs Private school?

I chose public schools in a decent (not brilliant) school district for my kids because I believe in supporting the public school system. However, if I had to choose between your two options I would choose private school because I don’t have the hubris to believe that I should be the only teaching influence in my children’s lives.

Like @janbb, my children were educated in the public system. The schools they went to were fine and I don’t believe they would have achieved more in the private system. As to home schooling, I think school provides much more than simply education. Attending school is about learning to socialise, working in teams, dealing with conflict and I also believe my children gained from being taught by a range of different teachers.

Of the two options you present, I would choose private school, too. I wouldn’t want to homeschool my child for several reasons. I don’t think I would do a good a job as a professional teacher. I have a degree but am not as educated or enthusiastic and energetic as the teachers at school. Two, I think it’s good for kids to get out and socialize. Three, I think it’s good for kids to experience all that a school can offer – including conflicts which may arise with staff or other children. In my opinion, it’s by experiencing and working through issues that children learn about conflict resolution.

I also feel another danger of homeschooling is if the parent(s) are weird or abusive, the child gets no break from that and also doesn’t get to see that there’s a different world other than what they are experiencing at home. If the child goes out to school (public or private), it could be a welcome break and also could be a chance for the child to get help if it’s warranted.

In my last job doing child protective work, we had a few families who homeschooled and had terribly filthy houses and really weird parents. The children were stuck with that craziness all day.

I chose public school for my daughter, who is now in 3rd grade. I live in a great district. #69 of about 750 districts in my state. It’s a small, nurturing district. It’s not perfect, as there is no such thing. There’s a lot of money in my area, and we’re very middle class. Still, it’s a great place to live (horse country) and I’m very happy we’re here.

I live where there are pretty decent schools that overall do a better job educating my kids than my wife or I could provide. Kids also learn to advocate for themselves in school in many other ways than I could provide them in a home school setting which IMO is one of the bigger learing experiences that prepare a child for life in the real world. Plus our High School has one of the best Autos programs in the state.

Both. I would homeschool until grade 6 and private school till grade 12. I would help with homework.

Depends on the child. Why is public school not a choice? Do the parents have college degrees? What grade are we talking about.

I don’t think badly or favor private over homeschool or over public education, except to say that parents should pay attention to what is best for the child. Also, I think kids can move from one to the other as personalities and interests grow.

Large public schools tend to offer many more electives and free access to sports and the arts that often aren’t available at private or cost more in a homeschool setting.

If neither parent has a college degree, I’m very reluctant about homeschooling.

If the child is harassed in school, homeschool might be a good option, or just changing schools.

I am homeschooling my child. Private school is not an option for us, and I had serious philosophical differences with the local public school. Crazy things like wanting my kid to learn stuff, and have that stuff be factually accurate. And don’t get me started on how they treat the kids AND the parents.

@Seek LOL. I love your answer.

For me it would really depend upon the quality of the public schools where we lived.

I would also have concerns about how they handle bullying and what the situation is regarding drugs and their prevalence.

Drugs and alcohol are what I’m most concerned about due to family history. They’ve done enough research now to establish that genetics play a role here in terms of predisposition. I would be keeping an eye out for problems in that area both with my child as well as the school system.

If necessary, I wouldn’t hesitate to homeschool my child. After all, I managed to educate around 30+ kids a year professionally so educating my own to protect them from becoming early drug/alcohol addicts wouldn’t be a problem for me.

But I’d far prefer that they get a good well-rounded public school education.

But regarding homeschooling, many people are unaware of how much opportunity there is for socialization and learning for homeschoolers in many areas of the country.

There are really good networks for homeschoolers to participate in.

I regularly watch The Pioneer Woman on Food Network. In addition to the recipes and such, there are usually glimpses into their everyday lives in rural Oklahoma. All her kids are homeschooled and the variation of activities with other homeschoolers (even in a rural area like that are impressive.

Pro home-schoolers why does multiplying two negative numbers result in a positive number?

No google allowed….

Ha ha. I would definitely be outsourcing any Math teaching
beyond 3rd grade level :)

I do know my strengths and weaknesses and Math is def. my absolute weakest. I’m sure I could find someone willing to teach my kid Marh if I would teach theirs English (usually the most hated subject.)

But that, among other things is why I’d rather they get a good well-rounded public school education.

But if it came with too heavy a price tag (addiction) I would not hesitate to act preemptively at the first sign that my kid had any kind of drug/alcohol involvement no matter how many excuses about how “minor” the case.

The earlier someone becomes an addict, the more it totally messes up the entire rest of their lives. If genetics rules the day and I end up with an addicted kid, let it be at 17 or eighteen rather than Middle school years. By then, the key maturation aspects of someone’s personality have pretty much been formed.

If someone starts down the road of addiction at 11, 12, 13 that’s where they are when they finally get sober later on.

So you have a 20–30 yr. old newly sober with the emotional and intellectual maturity level of a 13 yr. old. They’re in an adult body so people naturally expect an adult. Not good.

And private school is no guarantee either. They generally have as much of a problem with drugs and alcohol as any public schools (sometimes more so because of the affluence).

Anyhow, finding a Math teacher for my kid would be pretty small potatoes if push came to shove.

Homeschooling is better. I had my kids homeschooled. This method increased their performance and safety (physically, health wise, and emotionally). It allowed me to control what my kids study and learn. There was more time available for my kids to develop new skills. It allowed me to incorporate my values and beliefs into my kid’s learning on a daily basis. This consequently built a stronger sense of self-identity, cultural-identity, self-esteem, and self-reliance for my kids. It also strengthened family ties. Simultaneously, this method ensured that the teachers couldn’t indoctrinate my children with their own values, beliefs, and incompetence, or the peers, with their misguidedness/misinformation. It prevents the influence of corrupt ideologies and cultural/behavioral decadence from peers or staff.

This isn’t to say private school students perform poorly. On the contrary, private school students and homeschooled students outperform public school students by 30%, but homeschoolers have an edge in performance over private school because of the individual one-on-one attention rather than sharing a teacher among dozens of students.

Bible-studies won’t get your kids into Stanford.

@johnpowell – this was the video my son and I watched on just that topic, last week.

Because, like most teachers, I don’t know everything, but I know where to find what we need.

As much as I like Salman Khan’s videos, he does not always give the most elegant solution. Going for the intuitive over the elegant is understandable, but in this case you can do both. Here is my variation on Khan’s video.

As a preliminary,
We define -x for any x to be such that x + (-x) = 0
From the definition, it follows that -(-x) = x

Now we can say:
1 + (-1) = 0
Therefore x(1 + (-1)) = 0
After distribution and some simple algebraic manipulation we get the key result:
(-1)x = -x.

The general results follow easily.
(-p)q = ((-1)p)q = (-1)(pq) = -pq
(-p)(-q) = ((-1)p)((-1)q) = (-1)((-1)pq) = -(-pq) = pq

Great. Now say that in a way that I can explain to a seven year old, because all I see there is alphabet soup.

I did not realize that this was for a seven year old. I am surprised that someone so young could follow Khan’s explanation. I have to give credit to both Khan and your son. The explanation that I gave could be given later after algebra is taught.

Private school. They have so many highly qualified instructors, in so many areas of expertise, how could you compete?

I would have preferred to send my daughter to public school, but we purchased a house in a town with a mediocre public school system loonnngg before we decided to become parents. And, sadly, moving is not an economically viable choice.

My wife and I agree that learning to working with others is important, so home schooling was out.

So we went with an affordable private school and have been pretty happy with the results.

Depends on the home, the school, the child and the situation. Either choice can be great, or awful, in so many different ways.

It depends on where you live. There are some places where public schools are basically warehouses where kids are put while their parents work rather than any sort of educational institution, and others where they push religion on kids harder than any private Catholic school.

According to many school boards, Earth is only 6,000 years old, and humanity came from a divinely-sculpted lump of clay and a rib taken from that lump. In too many places, that is actually what kids are taught as Science. Evolution? Liberal poppycock! The Bible is science!

Not all places are like that, but enough are that this question cannot get any answer that doesn’t have all sorts of conditional statements.

[Mod say] Moved to Social with OP’s permission.