Exactly. Most of us did dual credit courses at local colleges when we hit high school. The university that I graduated from has actually started a full on homeschooling program where parents send their kids for all of their upper level classes and they get small classes with actual professors, the university has also…

Exactly. That’s why the majority of us growing up transitioned to mostly outside classes once we hit junior high/high school

This. Homeschooled my entire life, and every class I took in high school was with a professor level instructor. One of those classes had a huge impact on my life and I can directly point to it (and the guy who taught it) as a life changing experience that played a huge roll in getting me where I am today.

At any age? You can’t even teach your grade school kids grade school level material? That’s ridiculous.

The majority of that stuff can be taught by most parents at an early level. Once you get to junior high/high school there are loads of classes and resources available for students who don’t have parents qualified to instruct them in those areas. Everyone I knew in high school growing up took outside classes for those…

What an uninformed opinion. Very few homeschoolers are being taught high school level courses by their parents (excluding the weird fringe families). Growing up, we all took external classes either at local colleges or from subject matter experts (usually people with masters or doctorates in their fields). Most…

I was home schooled, my post referenced what I have heard from friends who teach in local high schools. The conversations were random and casual though, so I’m going to be following up with them to explain more.

I will definitely chat with them about it more specifically, this is based off of casual conversations had in the past.

My understanding is that they all wish they had more time to devote to growing their own knowledge to be better teachers, but the grind of the job just really doesn’t allow for it. Two of them are at inner city high schools and the other is at one of the brand new schools in the more affluent white suburb, but their…

This is why kinja really sucks. My follow up reply to the original comment was that my friends have explained that they have to pass state mandated certification, but there’s a big difference between passing certification and being truly trained and equipped to teach a subject as a subject matter expert.

As I said in my reply above (or below, Kinja is stupid), I am only passing along what I was told by friends. They’ve said that they do have to pass certification, but that there’s a big difference between passing certification and being a subject matter expert that is able to do a significantly better job at teaching…

What makes an American public education normal or well rounded? Normal because we’ve been doing it forever? Well rounded because a lot of classes are crammed into every day of the week? The public school system is built around accommodating the parent’s 40+ hour work week, so right off the bat what’s “normal” isn’t…

Isn’t the US near the bottom in most major academic disciplines, making average quality something to be questioned and avoided? I had classes on my major subjects once a week, then homework throughout the week, and 10 years later I probably still remember and understand more about those subjects than most people my…

Man, I thought I longed for the “normal” experience when I got to high school, but it only took me a week at the school I was zoned to to realize that I wasn’t missing out on anything by being homeschooled and told my mom I was done with that experiment. Everyone is different though.

My understanding is that they had to pass certifications to teach their classes, but the general consensus from the friends I’ve spoken with about it is that there’s a big difference between passing the certification and actually being equipped to educated kids on a subject.

Excellent points, I think we actually pretty much agree. I’m definitely on board with the idea that the article could have been more intentionally written as an informative post instead of just a mommy blog.

Especially considering that none of my friends who are public high school teachers have any specialized training in the classes they teach, it’s just the subjects they were assigned. If they’re lucky, it’s something they majored or minored in in high school, if not, they just read the books and study up before they…

She literally has a section in the article titled “Curriculum” where she lists multiple types as well as advocating external classes, so I’m not sure where you’re getting the “curriculum-less” freestyle bit from.

Your assumptions are all pretty flawed and based on a lot of preconceptions that probably wouldn’t hold up in actual practice. You’re assuming that kids who would be good students in a homeschooling environment would be equally as good students in a public school situation (which, by the way, is rather demeaning to…

My lower middle class, single mom of 4, who homeschooled me and my siblings would like to know where she falls in your blanket judgement.