Home schooling vs. Conventional Schooling

[wolf]

I've given this issue a lot of thought.

Most of my opinions had been formed before I ever met any homeschooled children.

I believed most of the conventional wisdom regarding home-schooled children, undersocialized, isolated, etc.

That turns out not to be the case. Unlike the kids we see yearly on the National Spelling Bee (who can forget the little girl who hoarsely shouted her responses and clapped in a bizarre manner so accurately parodied by South Park), the homeschooled children I have interacted with tend to be bright, inquisitive, more highly achieving and better socialized than their conventionally schooled peers.

I'm interested to see what happens with the kids I know now as elementary school age children when they reach high school age.

People homeschool for a lot of different reasons. I know that the right-fringe is seen to be big into homeschooling, largely because of their stand on religious instruction, as well as the apparent agenda on the part of the NEA and other organizations/agencies that control the curriculum in the schools. I can't say as I disagree. The public school system has a lot of faults, both with respect to the 'indoctrination rather than education' issue, as well as the safety and security of our most precious assets.

I've also started to meet/converse with pagan homeschoolers ... they are out there.

I'm for it, so long as the parents are willing to invest the time and attention that is required to do it right.