[newfeatureok]

Is homeschooling actually better once you control for the types of people who are capable of doing it? I would imagine a good chunk of people who homeschool their children are incredibly active in their children's education, by definition. These children I would argue, would be fine with or without homeschooling.

Homeschooling also just seems unsustainable. Modern society generally requires two parents to be working. Can an average family afford to homeschool their children? At least in the USA, most indications give a pretty firm "no."

That being said, I really enjoyed this article. People definitely should have more control over their education and how it relates to their own children's needs.

[vslira]

Yeah, it seems like an anti-pattern. Also, it's supposedly better for children to be educated by a great educator and most parents, like most people, are not.

The fact of the matter is that the implicit assumption of many pro-homeschoolers is that most professional educators - either for individual or systemic reasons - are also not good educators, and would rather take their chances. I can't entirely blame them.

[AnimalMuppet]

Well... If a child is "different" (Aspie, say), or bullied, or had serious health issues, or even just really gifted, homeschooling might be the best answer.

But even if none of those things is true, I keep hearing about classroom size as one of the key determinants of educational outcomes. Well, what's the classroom size for a homeschool? It's however many kids you have. Let's use the standard family size, 2.3 kids. The average school classroom size is around 20 in the US. Well, how much does 2.3 vs. 20 make up for the parent not being a great educator? And what if the person with 20 isn't a great educator either?

[ksdale]

I think this point is underappreciated. The key question isn't "Is a parent a better teacher than a professional teacher?", the key question is "Can a parent teach 1 or 2 or 3 of their own children, better than a professional teacher can teach 25?"

It seems like it should be a close call for the vast majority of parents, so at the very least, the question of whether to homeschool should hinge on other considerations.

[barry-cotter]

> Also, it's supposedly better for children to be educated by a great educator and most parents, like most people, are not.

Most teachers aren’t great educators either, speaking as someone who did it for five years. Homeschooling parents have fewer students and care much, much more about them.

[flyingfences]

In some cases it will not be better. In some cases it will be better. It is important that homeschooling remains an option for those cases.

[DavidVoid]

Is it though?

I feel like this is a strong case of "what is best for society is not best for each and every individual".

If allowing homeschooling will help 100 kids to learn faster and be happier, while at the same time causing another 1000 kids become socially isolated by giving their parents the authority to more easily cut them off from the rest of society and indoctrinate them, then is that trade-off really worth it?

[ksdale]

I believe if you think that 91% of parents are going to indoctrinate their children in a way that harms society, that society is probably doomed, as that 91% should theoretically have control of the government already...

[DavidVoid]

> I believe if you think that 91% of parents are going to indoctrinate their children in a way that harms society

The numbers were just chosen to give a counter-point and are purely hypothetical, but even then I think you are misrepresenting them with your 91% statistic.

The 100 good and 1000 bad experiences only represent home-schooled kids in my example, they do not represent all kids (as I presume most kids would still attend normal schools).

[ksdale]

I'm sorry, I misunderstood what you meant for the numbers to represent.

But I think if you're going to assume that most homeschooled kids are going to have a bad experience, you have to confront the fact that a ridiculously large number of public school students end up functionally illiterate, or innumerate, or mentally ill or traumatized as well.

I think far too often, it's the crappiest homeschool outcomes being compared to ideal public school outcomes, though I'm not accusing you of this.