On one hand, I think that a kid would get a much better education being schooled at home, and you can control what you want to teach them…..you don’t have to worry about them getting all of the crazy liberal SJW stuff force fed to them. Nothing holds them back except the parent who is teaching.   But that’s about the only benefit I can see.

On the other hand, I’ve never met anyone who was home schooled that wasn’t socially awkward, and a little on the weird side. I think it’s an important part of a kids life to be in “real world” scenarios and learn how to deal with them.  Being around bullies, meeting nice kids and mean kids, learning how to make new friends, and dump ones you don’t like anymore, having to do assignments and projects that you might not like, working on group assignments…and realizing that most people don’t really help, learning that there are rich kids, poor kids, normal kids, weird kids….just like the real world. Getting picked on, and realizing why it’s wrong….yep, you get the point.  Etc, Etc, Etc.  Sure, the “book” education probably won’t be as good, but the “life” education is priceless.

You don’t get much “real life” experience when you are schooled at home by your mother your entire childhood.  And you surly don’t have much of a social life.  Kids need those good, and bad experiences that come with going to public school.

Like I said…..I’ve never met a home schooled person that wasn’t a bit on the odd side……and I think it’s just because they have been so sheltered their entire life, when they get out of school…..they just don’t know how to act around others.

Thoughts?

With committed and involved parents, who truly care about their kids' education and preparation for the real world, it is amazing.

I've thought about home schooling as well and I agree with your two main points. There are ways to help develop social skills in home school kids though. I know a guy who has kids that are home schooled. Both are heavily involved in sports. One is in a "university model" that basically has some classes at home and others in a classroom. Both are pretty normal kids.

Edit: Also, I've noticed the "weird" kids are usually the ones with very religious parents. Their goal in homeschooling is not a better education but sheltering their child.

I work with a guy that home schools his kids three days a week, the other two they go to a private school. Kind of a cool program....best of both works I would guess.  His kids are a little awkward, but not nearly as bad as the 100% home schooled kids I've met.  Not to say that some public schooled kids aren't ever socially awkward....

Don't mistake correlation with causation on the awkwardness part.

You probably have a decent amount of odd ducks who homeschool their kids for whatever reason (like fear of govt mind control devices, doomsday preppers, whatever), but in my experience "normal" families who homeschooled for better education purposes turn out some top-notch kids.

Also depends on your support structure. Some areas have strong homeschool associations with sports teams and cheerleaders, along with parent-led classes, say once per week.  Plenty of socialization for kids and the potential benefits of a superior education IF the parents put in the work.

Home school these days isn't like what it was 20 years ago.  Plenty of opportunities for social activities through things like band and team sports at the public school, home school collectives, etc.

Yep...I agree with all what you said.

This is a case of doing the right thing for the wrong reason.

All of the home schooled kids that I know are more than a little wonky.

I know people who homeschool and have smart and well adapted kids. I also know a family who homeschools and 90% of their “academics” is watching movies and playing with LEGO’s. My 7 year old grandson can do math better than their 12 year old.

Not all homeschooled kids turn out weird, but a disturbing number of weird people were homeschooled.

We have co-ops in our area where they all get together to do stuff and do group classes.

Most everybody I know who does it has a degree. A couple are engineers that work part time.

People always talk about "awkward kids" but I met so many fuck ups in public school that I don't see it as a real issue.

I agree that it is all about how capable the parents are.

I grew up in a poor rural area. Those who were homeschooled always talked about how easy their school day was. Most of them were socially inept, entitled and did not end up going to college. For the vast majority, they probably would have been much better off going to school.

Our education system at large is in the shitter and getting worse. Homeschooling can be done right, with the right parents. I know a few families doing it well, it takes a lot of work, but is worth it in my opinion.

Better education, but to balance them out, get the kids involved in scouting (or equivalent),  4H, soccer or something to help them with their social skills.

This. I was homeschooled. I know I have a better education than my peers by a significant margin. My parents also ensured I participated in social activities- many rec sports (soccer, swim team, baseball) boy scouts (Eagle Scout) as well as volunteering and church activities.  I can say I have more close and trusted friends than any other person I know.

I believe homeschooling can result in socially awkward people. I also believe a disproportionate number of people who choose to homeschool have; a. More extreme social views that can manifest as awkward or antisocial behavior or, b. Parents have identified early traits in their child which indicate existing antisocial behavior and choose to homeschool to save them from awkward or harmful public situations.

Inbreeding. But some populations self-select for that. Like the folks on that island off india who speared the missionary.

I think it's fine, if it's done correctly.  And a great many don't.

I'm actually more fearful of what the public schools are doing to our children.

So no one has met “weird” or “social awkward” public school students?  And what kind of society is public schools preparing kids for?  Maybe I don’t want my kids part of that society.

A kid left to figure out everything on their own would still get a better education than being brainwashed with wrong info. Public school is there to teach kids how to behave in a non threatening way towards authority

Several of our friends have or do home school and their kids turned out very well educated and socially adept. Some of the kids are out on their own and doing very well in life.

I did it through high school and I turned out ok.  Most of the weirdos were that way before they started homeschooling. Sometimes that's why they were started on homeschooling.

It's pretty close to college in a way.  Get your assignment, learn it, take a test, repeat.

I am a teacher in a public high school.

My second job is a teacher and department chair for the largest International Baccalaureate online company/school in the world.

I have a daughter in third grade.  She went to public school for K--2nd grade.  She is gifted.  She was not getting the educational rigor she needed.

Now she is enrolled in an online school full-time.  She is already doing algebra, writes five paragraph essays, and conducting physics experiments.

Her writing is better than 85% of the essays I see coming from 9-10th graders.  Without being tasked with rigorous assignments, she would probably assimilate to the average public school student and meet lower school expectations.

I believe that homeschooling, coupled with parent support, can truly work--if there is quality instruction and content delivery.

Unfortunately you can't shield them from society for their entire lives.......they are going to have to learn how to deal with it at some point. When you are not around to shield them anymore...,....well, that's how you get those socially awkward kids who are not tooled up to deal with the real world.

I know homeschooling is a hot topic on arfcom, but let me take my own high school as an example. I graduated with 34 kids in my class. 1 was a sociopath, who we’re lucky didn’t shoot up the school. 1 was mentally damaged from his mother murdering his father. 1 was born with some kind of brain clot, which partially paralyzed him and made him slow learning. The rest mostly grew up to be well adjusted, normal people.

Now let’s look at the homeschooled kids. Almost exclusively, they were rural, and heavily religious. One girl around my age ended up in a nunnery, where they forbade her to have contact with her family. She speaks with a horrible screeching pitch, as do all her siblings. It’s impossible to have a conversation with her. Her entire family speaks the same way, with an awkward high voice. And another girl, who got ‘straight A’s all through her homeschool edication, and then ended up scoring a 17 on her ACTs. Almost all homeschooled people I know have awkward social tics, and the best they can hope for is to work on their family farm. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, that’s the same decisison I made. But those kids never had a chance.

Yep.....that is a very good point.

Yes, there are plenty. I was one myself although I'm not sure if I actually ever grew out of it

May I ask what your motivation is? Religious or otherwise?

My wife and her siblings were all homeschooled and now that they are all out on their own with families my Mom-in-law teaches at a public school.
None of them are socially awkward. Her older brother is a bit geeky and introverted but no more than a ton of the geeky introverts Ive seen at public schools.
There is homeschooling groups and such that allows the kids to still get socialization on field trips to the same places that public schools go too and even playing on sports teams together.
Sure there are weirdos that lock there kids away from the world but not all of them are like that. You just notice those types because they obviously stick out.

One  child is on the city council.
Another, a nurse.
Third plays guitar on stage.
Fourth worked retail sales.

Your set of anecdotal observations is skewed to only seeing those children who don't interact with the mass of dumbed down social opportunists who are constantly trolling for sex. IE check your frame of reference.

Homeschoolers are not about to interact with everyone they meet, and certainly aren't going to start chatting up the dope smoking liberals around them who constantly advocate SJW causes and celebrate Satan's control over America today.

Do you visit White Power rallies to know who is in them? A Homeschooler lives in a world of oppositional views, for the most part they ARE a stranger in a strange land. I can't say the American public is something I care to embrace and deal with. But, then again, I only see people who are clueless about technical matters, demand free services we can't possibly perform, who want cash refunds on parts they didn't buy and which didn't fix the car. In other words, the general public is an ass. Don't believe it? Ask any retail clerk with over a year's experience. Any retail job. Retail workers touch base now and again across the counter, it's the same everywhere. Ugly Americans have earned their reputation world wide. Need more confirmation? Read threads on the expectations demanded of Palmetto State Armory.

Homeschoolers do just fine, considering they are scoring much higher in testing, are the preferred hire in a number of industries, have fewer issues that plague HR with harrassment claims, and generally work at their entire 8 hour shift productively. Unlike the average American worker, who barely gets anything done in the 6 hours they bother to appear busy.

A bit of deeper investigation would point out that most of our Founding Fathers were not "public school" educated - they didn't exist then. It was an outreach program to the poor who had both parents working and who were roaming the streets ferally during the day, or exploited in factories. Putting them in school gave them a foundation in the Three R's AND a moral and ethical education.

Just because the public education system was subverted and is now a honeypot for "educators" who manipulate our perceptions of it's worth should be no baseline of comparison. Other than as a game of chance - we are lucky to survive it. Many are not adept at the construct of public schooling, and frankly, the idea that everyone should have a college degree doesn't really work out. Hence, Venezuela, Europe, and America, in that order. Look at the progression of indoctrination and tell me how there wasn't a definite trend to create a socialist Paradise in every country.

Not now, and never again. Christian Americans aren't socially backward - they simply reject the current conversation of people who are promoting much of what they refuse to engage in, sexually laced banter mixed with social ladder climbing ego contests.

I supposed if the average suburbanite walked into a smocking party with John and Valerie sipping luminous drinks they would be awkward, too. Or, at least, I hope so. Dunno these days ...

I guess with everything methods vary, I know someone that does it and their kid is very awkward, rude, ignorant and an overall "look at me" type kid.

What I'm saying is it totally depends on the parents, kid may have turned out the same either way so who knows.

When a parent home schools for the main purpose of shielding their children from society......its the wrong reason. You just end up turning your kid into a socially awkward recluse who can't interact with others once they finally leave their parents house.......and enter this new world they have never experienced before.

Define awkward...

My 11 yr old yelled " Cry havoc, and release the dogs or war" (yes the quote is wrong, but it's from No fear Shakespeare) at a snow ball fight this Monday.  Is that weird?

Exhibit A for homeschoolers who are socially awkward weirdos.

Could be that the normal homeschooled kids you know don't advertise as being homeschooled?

Also, all mass school shooters went to public schools, soooo..Also most of the weirdos and dumbasses and criminals and guys dressing up in women's underwear, well, they went to public schools

I just think the whole narrative here is a false premise with a lot of confirmation bias.  Most homeschoolers that you know about are probably the religious extremists, in guessing? If so it's not surprising people would attribute odd traits to homeschoolers.

Also, homeschooled kids score significantly better than public schoolers on standardized tests, which may translate to a little of the nerd thing?  Dunno.

I know a little about it, being homeschooled.  It was good for me, no doubt. I came out way ahead on the education side, played sports the whole way through, and my 3 closest friends from that time are great friends to this day. All three of then have been extremely successful in their professional careers (I'd say I've been modestly successful myself), and no one would ever know we'd been homeschooled.  No one asks, because none of us are weird I guess?

In any case, I'm not saying do it, just throwing out some alternative thoughts on the subject. So much depends on the parents commitment to educate and socialize, but if you do it right there are benefits. All that said, there were some serious weirdo families in my group growing up so I fully understand where the stereotype comes from.

Sounds like you are an example of someone who home schooled their kids in order to shield them from society......and wanted to shape them to have your views on everything.  Your kids....your rules.

Home schooling is like the militia movement.

It sounds awesome until you meet the participants.

Both can be done correctly, but most who are drawn to them will not.

Glad someone else came out and said it.....

As opposed to all the 'Normal' kids going to public/traditional schools trying to decide what gender they are, as well as being fully indoctrinated in the virtues of Socialism?

I'm pretty sure that's the exact reason they home schooled, to keep their precious baby away from the world. She is so unprepared for the real world it isn't even funny, it's quite sad. I almost home schooled my kid and after what I've seen I'm glad I didn't.

OP hasn't met my kids.  They seem pretty normal to me--but then, maybe I'm weird?

Yeah, I have met socially awkward homeschooled kids.  Mostly because the parents are socially awkward and kids follow the example.

My kids were all home schooled, but I don't buy the social stuff.  They played with all the same kids after school and on weekends.  They only thing they missed was the school house drama.

OTOH, I may have had a best-case situation.   Wife is a navy brat.  That made her socially brilliant (always having to make new friends every time they moved.). And she has a degree in elementary education.   She always did the homeschool group thing, so the kids were always interacting with other homeschooled kids, too.

But now they're all grown up and successful.  I think the best thing about homeschool, for them, is they learned how to TEACH THEMSELVES.  So they have done well in college and their professions.

I am not going to shield my kids from society but they won’t spend 75% of their first 18 years of life being corrupted by shitty teachers and students.  But again are there not socially awkward public school students and if there are how did they become awkward??
Off topic but one of the main things I do enjoy about homeschooling is the amount of time my kids can spend with their grandparents and other family members.

That doesn't happen in the real world. People who declare a gender transition are exceedingly rare, and teachers don't really indoctrinate their students in the virtues of socialism. That's a pair of strawmen.

As others have said, it is all about the parents.  If the parents are fairly normal, the kids will be too.  If they are socially awkward, than , more than likely, the kids will be as well.

There are lots of opportunities for socialization these days.

Quality education and flexibility, if my dad wants to take the kids fishing on a Wednesday then he can.

I'd rather my kid be smart and not know how to act around DaVonTyronius than the opposite.

Even then, I've met a lot of adults that were homeschooled and you can't tell. Maybe at 15, but that's an awkward age anyway.

I agree with most of what you have said (kids aren't school aged yet btw). Most home schooled kids I have met are socially odd even as adults. However, I have a guy on shift with me who was home schooled and his brother works for the department too, neither one of them is odd at all (other than wanting to go in burning buildings odd). I  would hang out with either one and they are both a decade or more younger than me. Some of it has to do with what they do outside of "school". I think a lot of people associate home schooling with producing odd kids because up until now mainly oddball parents homeschooled. A lot of those kids would have been odd no matter what. More and more "normal" parents are doing it now and more normal homeschooled kids are being produced. So, in conclusion, I have no idea.

We homeschool.
As such we network with other homeschool parents. There are some weird ones for sure, but it’s fairly easy to avoid.
Our kids do lots of extracurricular activities with kids who are not homeschooled and 3 of the 4 are very social. The 3rd has been a loaner since before we started homeschooling them.

Like many things in life it can be done well or it can be screwed up if you have retards in the parenting roll.

Our kids have been to public school, private school, and homeschooled.
At this point we plan to homeschool through high school and send them to the public high school here as it is a pretty good school from all we have seen.

The problem with the “weird ones” is that they are so memorable that many people use that as a representation of what homeschooling produces.

Besides, by schooling at home, we can teach our kids the real truths of the world (example: that we live on a flat disk as opposed to the government indoctrination that is the spherical earth model that is taught in the public schools!)

This ^^^^^^

I hope your kids aren't in charge of designing my bridge if they were supposed to learn Newton's Laws on Wednesday.

I attended public school k-8
Home schooled 9-12

Because I was home schooled, I was able to get a job at a grocery store when I was 16, and work during day time hours.
I was also in a very large youth group at a church.

Being home schooled was very good for me. I was socially awkward and constantly on the bottom rung of the social hierarchy. I was able to focus more on school work and less on being picked on and pushed around.
I got my social interaction in church and work.
My parents and I could focus one on one with my learning issues.
When I went to community college, I was much better adjusted socially. I was also able to overcome learning issues and do well.  
When I moved to a 4 year college I finally lost my social awkwardness.

So it worked FOR ME. That being said, we met up frequently with other home schoolers and a LOT of them were fucking weird! There was a big difference between the kids home schooled from the beginning, vs those who had some public and some home. Those who had large families where the majority of social interaction came from their siblings, vs ones like me, with 0-1 siblings and active in a lot of out of home activities.

Just like with anything in this world, it CAN work. But it depends on the parents. Depends on the kids, depends on the family life and depends on the approach.

THIS....I love how it is automatically assumed that home schooled kids are 'socially awkward' based on a few examples, respectively over the years, however, the continuous stream of complete crap that is puked from the public school system across this country is accepted as 'normal' readily by GD.

*I do not have kids, but I would have NEVER sent them to a Public school as I consider that tantamount to child abuse.