Comments on: Homeschoolers “Take Profound Shift in Demographics”….again http://homeedmag.com/newscomm/articles-about-homeschooling/homeschoolers-take-profound-shift-in-demographicsagain/ Exploring homeschooling issues, ideas, and more Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:51:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: ProntoLessons http://homeedmag.com/newscomm/articles-about-homeschooling/homeschoolers-take-profound-shift-in-demographicsagain/#comment-1860 ProntoLessons Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:39:07 +0000 http://www.homeedmag.com/newscomm/?p=3388#comment-1860 Judy, I couldn't agree with you more, especially since I belong to the fastly growing group of homeschoolers that are not white. Judy,

I couldn’t agree with you more, especially since I belong to the fastly growing group of homeschoolers that are not white.

]]> By: Judy Aron http://homeedmag.com/newscomm/articles-about-homeschooling/homeschoolers-take-profound-shift-in-demographicsagain/#comment-1859 Judy Aron Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:48:26 +0000 http://www.homeedmag.com/newscomm/?p=3388#comment-1859 yeah - I contend that these statistics are meant for media sensationalism... and the need to call us all white and rich - implying we are some sort of segregationists shielding our children from government schooling's much trumpeted "diversity and tolerance" indoctrination (as if our kids live in a vacuum or are chained to the kitchen table). There are of course many factors that these statistics don't wish to expound upon, and one is the growth of non-white homeschoolers. Read more here: http://yedies.blogspot.com/2009/06/yet-another-set-of-homeschool.html yeah – I contend that these statistics are meant for media sensationalism… and the need to call us all white and rich – implying we are some sort of segregationists shielding our children from government schooling’s much trumpeted “diversity and tolerance” indoctrination (as if our kids live in a vacuum or are chained to the kitchen table). There are of course many factors that these statistics don’t wish to expound upon, and one is the growth of non-white homeschoolers.

Read more here: http://yedies.blogspot.com/2009/06/yet-another-set-of-homeschool.html

]]> By: ProntoLessons http://homeedmag.com/newscomm/articles-about-homeschooling/homeschoolers-take-profound-shift-in-demographicsagain/#comment-1858 ProntoLessons Sat, 30 May 2009 12:13:30 +0000 http://www.homeedmag.com/newscomm/?p=3388#comment-1858 Re: USA Today article - you are right about the numbers - great point. The fact that the article quotes 1.5 million students enrolled in homeschool is probably underestimated since the states mentioned above do not require that homeschooled children be registered. I also believe that some good points came out of that article, though. I mean, here’s more proof that parents can provide a (gasp!) better social environment for their homeschooled students than those available at pubic schools. As the data in the article shows, a huge reason for NOT enrolling students in public school is because homeschoolers want to AVOID the social environment at public schools. Since homeschoolers can dictate when, with whom, and how frequently their students will interact with others, not only in their own age group (i.e., Boy/Girl Scouts, after-school team sports, YMCA, etc.), but with others outside of their age group. With appropriate supervision, entire curriculums can be built around interacting with others such as your neighborhood postman, your local grocery cashier, or for older kids, the employees during a local corporate office tour. In addition, since core lessons don’t typically take 6 hours to teach (like public schools), the student has even MORE time to interact with community groups, non-profit organizations, or whatever worthy social interests the student wants to pursue. This gives the student opportunities to really build some notable accomplishments that would be tougher to achieve in a public school environment (You can just imagine this exchange from a public school student talking on the phone with her favorite charity, “What? A once-in-a-life-time series of charity events that starts at 10AM and lasts for the next 4 days? Sorry, but I don’t get out of school until 2:30PM”. Bummer). In fact, if the social environment is designed right, the parent can BETTER prepare their students for college in this respect because college is all about interacting well with people across ALL age groups (like the real world) instead of being forced to interact 99% of the time with people within 1-4 years of the student’s actual age for 12 years of the public school student’s academic career. Re: USA Today article – you are right about the numbers – great point. The fact that the article quotes 1.5 million students enrolled in homeschool is probably underestimated since the states mentioned above do not require that homeschooled children be registered.

I also believe that some good points came out of that article, though.

I mean, here’s more proof that parents can provide a (gasp!) better social environment for their homeschooled students than those available at pubic schools. As the data in the article shows, a huge reason for NOT enrolling students in public school is because homeschoolers want to AVOID the social environment at public schools.

Since homeschoolers can dictate when, with whom, and how frequently their students will interact with others, not only in their own age group (i.e., Boy/Girl Scouts, after-school team sports, YMCA, etc.), but with others outside of their age group. With appropriate supervision, entire curriculums can be built around interacting with others such as your neighborhood postman, your local grocery cashier, or for older kids, the employees during a local corporate office tour.

In addition, since core lessons don’t typically take 6 hours to teach (like public schools), the student has even MORE time to interact with community groups, non-profit organizations, or whatever worthy social interests the student wants to pursue.

This gives the student opportunities to really build some notable accomplishments that would be tougher to achieve in a public school environment (You can just imagine this exchange from a public school student talking on the phone with her favorite charity, “What? A once-in-a-life-time series of charity events that starts at 10AM and lasts for the next 4 days? Sorry, but I don’t get out of school until 2:30PM”. Bummer).

In fact, if the social environment is designed right, the parent can BETTER prepare their students for college in this respect because college is all about interacting well with people across ALL age groups (like the real world) instead of being forced to interact 99% of the time with people within 1-4 years of the student’s actual age for 12 years of the public school student’s academic career.

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