Quote:
Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
FWIW, there's a bestselling book out that came out last year written by a homeschooled kid named Christopher Paolini. (Go look it up on the Amazon link.) It's very well written, and it's currently number one on the NYT children's bestsellers list. Kid wrote it when he was 15 years old. He's 19 years old now, and he says that he would have never been able to write it he had been in a conventional school. I don't get the impression that there's anything fucked up about this kid, other than the fact he's going to be very, very wealthy before he's in his 20s. His book is a fantasy book, so SD probably will put him in the dorks and losers category, though.
I have a colleague whose husband homeschools their three children. She and I have very similar political philosophies, and her kids don't seem particularly maladjusted.
|
Probably whatever school those kids went to -- public, private, homeschooled -- they would be well-adjusted and above average because their parents take a strong interest in their educations. I went to shitty, shitty, shitty public schools for several years but nonetheless stayed way ahead of things because my parents/sibling/friends of parents/pretty much everyone I was exposed to outside of school were well-educated, interested in engaging kids in things, and invested in making me think.
I'm just saying. Home-schooling is not a panacea and, like charter schools or whatever, the stellar examples of home schooling are also examples of cherry picking the kids most likely to be creative and smart etc. out of other schools where they might just expose kids who aren't surrounded by creative smart people to such people.
On the other hand, I think the world is going to hell in a handbasket and therefore don't really go for the whole procreation thing. So several grains of salt are in order.
