So right before our eyes we have seen very recently the perception shift of homeschooling, which was for decades considered even more “elite” than catholic or private schools. To 2023 where anyone who dares homeschooling is “a religious nut”, “depriving their children of a real education”, and on an on. As homeschooling became more prevalent with conservatives it became less of a “gold standard” in education to an “Alex Jones Q anon indoctrination camp”.
Semi related: this all came about because I’m watching old South Park and season 3 episode 12 showed perfectly how “homeschooling” kids were perceived, all intellectual and no social skills.
My best friend was in homeschool till highschool. He said the biggest thing he had to learn was to pretend to be stupid to get along.
Stupidity is the most valued commodity in society.
We went to rival high schools. Mine was the diverse one, his was the preppy clique upper middle class one. His parents thought the school had a gifted program. AP is not gifted BTW. Especially the way they did it.
So his highschool experience was trying to get along in a world that demanded you have status not smarts. The classes were entirely about setting status and not education. It was demanded by teachers. I knew what he meant because I had just been in one.
I just realized he had to be their most diverse guy because he was a 6 foot tall vietnamese guy.
Me and all of my brothers were homeschooled, and we were part of a homeschool group of families who would do yours and activities together, so I know a number of other homeschool families. Everyone is different, but generally homeschool kids are gonna be smarter than average, and more socially awkward than average. I personally think my brothers and I were more normal because we all played multiple youth sports, so we interacted with more kids our age.
The quality of your homeschool education is gonna come down to how smart your parents are and how involved they are. Almost all of the parents who want to homeschool their kids are involved, which is good, but not all of them are smart.
On the whole though homeschooling produces better citizens and results in better education.
Public education is specifically designed for factory work—smart enough to press buttons, but not understand why they're pressing them. It's a great environment to produce drones that won't think too hard and will Just Follow Orders™ when told.
And when those people get into some power or good money they think they're superior to all the others that came off the same production line
I've been seeing all those things you just described as about homeschooling since the 90s at the least. Its always been "antisocial wierdo" or "religious zealot."
And having known a few, the social problem isn't always "awkward shyness of a major intellectual" but also just as often "massive ego who thinks he is smarter than literally everyone, despite being a chronic failure."
Because you can bring a kid to groups to get interaction and teamworking skills, but you can't undo the horrible coddling effect that is having your Mom's attention all day, every day rarely divided. Exacerbated by the lack of hazing, bullying and other guy to guy rituals that help us shed our worst elements.
Traditionally lots of siblings will fix that problem, especially if there are 3 or more boys. But yeah, 1-2 child homes homeschooling presents social problems, and that is more common nowadays.
Gonna have to disagree; Homeschooling has been seen on the left as just shy of 'cult indoctrination' for, well, decades. They've always pushed against it, mumbling something about 'poor socialization outcomes' and drooling on about 'interacting with other kids' while somehow ignoring all the abuse most nerds and geeks suffer when in the typical high school.
Funny. Almost as if they were never part of that group to begin with...
What changed was the ease and availability of home schooling. For all it's ills, the internet and electronic communication means there's a plethora of teaching resources on-hand that are easy to get and often more superior than what you'll learn in-class as most schools as long as you apply yourself. (Both parent-wise and kid-wise).
The moment this tool becomes something valuable more conservative-leaning parents can utilize to get away from government indoctrination cued the more outspoken and virulent screeching from the typical leftists. It's just more obvious and vocal now because it's now a lot easier to pull off.
Which is a good thing. If I ever have kids, I know I'm going to be very hesitant to put them in any public school.
American Schools never were great, but at least they represented some kind of standard. Now they're absolutely garbage so they have to lie about the alternatives to stay relevant.