Homeschooling takes off in a post pandemic world.

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Little Raven
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Homeschooling takes off in a post pandemic world.

Post by Little Raven »

Wow.
Although the pandemic disrupted family life across the U.S. since taking hold in spring 2020, some parents are grateful for one consequence: They’re now opting to homeschool their children, even as schools plan to resume in-person classes.

The specific reasons vary widely. Some families who spoke with The Associated Press have children with special educational needs; others seek a faith-based curriculum or say their local schools are flawed. The common denominator: They tried homeschooling on what they thought was a temporary basis and found it beneficial to their children.

“That’s one of the silver linings of the pandemic — I don’t think we would have chosen to homeschool otherwise,” said Danielle King of Randolph, Vermont, whose 7-year-old daughter Zoë thrived with the flexible, one-on-one instruction. Her curriculum has included literature, anatomy, even archaeology, enlivened by outdoor excursions to search for fossils.

The surge has been confirmed by the U.S. Census Bureau, which reported in March that the rate of households homeschooling their children rose to 11% by September 2020, more than doubling from 5.4% just six months earlier.

Black households saw the largest jump; their homeschooling rate rose from 3.3% in the spring of 2020 to 16.1% in the fall.
Props to these families. My wife homeschooled my daughter for most of the elementary/middle school. It was a good choice, but man, it was hard work.
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Jaymon
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Re: Homeschooling takes off in a post pandemic world.

Post by Jaymon »

Our 11 is about to enter middle school, which is the worst of the schools. he has special needs, which makes him emotionally vulnerable, and I have serious concerns. There are some programs and such we have him enrolled in, but, some old white men just staged a coup on the local school board, and we have serious concerns about what that means for the special programs in the coming year.
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Jaymann
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Re: Homeschooling takes off in a post pandemic world.

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My daughter has been homeschooling her girl and boy since the pandemic started. She asked them if they wanted to go back to school and they both said yes.
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Smoove_B
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Re: Homeschooling takes off in a post pandemic world.

Post by Smoove_B »

In truth, I honestly questioned the idea of home schooling, mainly because I know it had been traditionally used to indoctrinate children with misinformation and to shield them from hearing "liberal" instructors that would challenge their parents religious teachings.

But in 2021? I completely understand why parents are seriously considering home schooling as a viable option based on whatever is happening locally. If my daughter was under the age of 12 and/or had chronic health issues I'm honestly not sure we'd be sending her in to a classroom. I can't even imagine trying to grapple with that decision right now, but I'm genuinely empathetic for those that are.
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Holman
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Re: Homeschooling takes off in a post pandemic world.

Post by Holman »

Smoove_B wrote: Mon Jul 26, 2021 11:13 am In truth, I honestly questioned the idea of home schooling, mainly because I know it had been traditionally used to indoctrinate children with misinformation and to shield them from hearing "liberal" instructors that would challenge their parents religious teachings.
There's that, and there's also the fact that teaching is complicated. It takes skill, training, and practice to do well.

I've been in the classroom teaching English for 25 years, but I can't imagine teaching math or science any better than an amateur.
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Smoove_B
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Re: Homeschooling takes off in a post pandemic world.

Post by Smoove_B »

Oh yeah, that too. I'm now in my 12th year of college instruction and wouldn't represent in any way that I'd be able to teach K-12 in any capacity (even what I know); I honestly have no idea how K-12 teachers do it. I've been asked to give a presentation to 6-8th graders and I'm in a panic. I can't traumatize these kids with the ways I'm comfortable in speaking with adults. :lol:

And of course none of this addresses the socialization issues for home schooling. I know home-schooling groups do make an effort to try and figure out how to have it, but if they're home schooling now because of the pandemic, they're really need to trust other people to risk socialization.

I keep thinking back to comments Dr Fauci just made about polio - if it appeared in 2020 he's not convinced we'd now be able to eliminate it. That's beyond depressing.
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dbt1949
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Re: Homeschooling takes off in a post pandemic world.

Post by dbt1949 »

When I first moved to New Orleans the schools down there were segregated by sex. Real middle ages stuff.
The schools were so bad that everybody who could afford it put their children in private schools. Then they would vote down taxes and funding for public schools. Catch 22.
Hopefully they've changed since then but probably not.
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Montag
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Re: Homeschooling takes off in a post pandemic world.

Post by Montag »

The high schools in Indianapolis Public Schools have a math proficiency of 5 to 7% and they only report the bottom as <5%. You cannot solve racial equity issues with this education result.
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Madmarcus
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Re: Homeschooling takes off in a post pandemic world.

Post by Madmarcus »

Holman wrote: Mon Jul 26, 2021 12:23 pm I've been in the classroom teaching English for 25 years, but I can't imagine teaching math or science any better than an amateur.
I don't feel quite as strongly but in general I agree. I've taught 23 years of high school science so I feel I could do that. Having seen what my kids did in various social studies classes I feel I could do an adequate job in that area because the one on one tailoring that homeschooling would allow would cover my weaknesses. Math is a toss up; for my kids my wife and I (she's better with teaching algebra and below while I'm better at teaching geometry, trig, and the beginnings of calculus) could have done ok with math schooling but their teachers did it better then we would have I'm sure. English, foreign languages, music, art are all right out!
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gbasden
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Re: Homeschooling takes off in a post pandemic world.

Post by gbasden »

Madmarcus wrote: Mon Jul 26, 2021 7:41 pm
Holman wrote: Mon Jul 26, 2021 12:23 pm I've been in the classroom teaching English for 25 years, but I can't imagine teaching math or science any better than an amateur.
I don't feel quite as strongly but in general I agree. I've taught 23 years of high school science so I feel I could do that. Having seen what my kids did in various social studies classes I feel I could do an adequate job in that area because the one on one tailoring that homeschooling would allow would cover my weaknesses. Math is a toss up; for my kids my wife and I (she's better with teaching algebra and below while I'm better at teaching geometry, trig, and the beginnings of calculus) could have done ok with math schooling but their teachers did it better then we would have I'm sure. English, foreign languages, music, art are all right out!
I've substitute taught and my wife was a high school science teacher. I absolutely think the average family is going to have a much poorer learning environment home schooling. We could cover a few subjects pretty well, but not the majority of them.
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