Should homeschooling be banned? And why are college students depressed?

[Raze]

Recently there has been a lot of hostility towards homeschooling from the left. See here:

 

There was even a somewhat viral article from a liberal Harvard law professor calling for a ban on homeschooling: https://arizonalawreview.org/homeschooling-parent-rights-absolutism-vs-child-rights-to-education-protection/

Despite home schooling has actually become more popular and seems to overall be effective

https://reason.org/commentary/homeschooling-is-on-the-rise-even-as-the-pandemic-recedes/

Quote

Research published by the Urban Institute supports a surge, finding that homeschooling increased by 30% between the 2019-20 and 2021-22

https://www.nheri.org/research-facts-on-homeschooling/

Quote

78% of peer-reviewed studies on academic achievement show homeschool students perform statistically significantly better than those in institutional schools

The main argument seems to be that without public school influence in crafting the child’s beliefs and what they’re exposed to, the child is potentially being harmed with ideas from their parents that aren’t validated by the educational system.

This is an example of some such instruction that the child may not receive if homeschooled: 

 

There is some truth to this, we do now have evidence public schools can expose students to belief systems and alter their behavior

https://manhattan.institute/article/school-choice-is-not-enough-the-impact-of-critical-social-justice-ideology-in-american-education

Quote

Results of a representative survey of more than 1,500 Americans aged 18 to 20 suggest that Critical Race Theory (CRT) and radical gender ideology, together known as Critical Social Justice (CSJ), is widespread in American schools. Ninety-three percent of American 18- to 20-year-olds said that they had heard about at least one of eight CSJ concepts from a teacher or other adult at school, including “white privilege,” “systemic racism,” “patriarchy,” or the idea that gender is a choice unrelated to biological sex. Additionally, 90% of respondents had heard about at least one CRT concept and 74% about at least one radical gender concept.

In partisan terms, those exposed to no CSJ concepts break 27% to 20% for the Republican Party, while those who have been taught the maximum of eight CSJ concepts lean a whopping 53% to 7% toward the Democratic Party. In strongly Republican counties, young people taught no CSJ concepts lean Republican 38% to 20%, whereas in the same counties, those taught the maximum number of CSJ concepts lean Democratic by a stunning 46% to 14%. Parents also have less influence on their children than one might think. For instance, young people with a Republican mother who are taught no CSJ lean 61% Republican to 14% Democratic, while individuals with a Republican mother who are taught a high number of CSJ concepts in school are more balanced, at 25% Republican and 30% Democratic.

Thirty-eight percent of those who were not taught CSJ reported that they were afraid of being punished, shamed, or expelled for voicing opinions on controversial subjects, rising to between 62% and 68% among those taught at least two CSJ concepts. Among Republican young people, fear levels jump from 31% to 74% after exposure to CSJ. As a likely consequence of this fear, those exposed to CRT become less willing to criticize a black schoolmate, preventing black pupils from hearing useful feedback from classmates. Recalled discomfort with criticizing a black schoolmate at school rose from 32% of those not exposed to CRT to 50% among young people who were taught at least some CRT in school.

Leading to the next point,

https://bhacjournal.org/index.php/BHAC/article/view/9332/7893

This is from a Self-report study of 778 graduate students (71% female):

• 32% met depression threshold

• 47% anxious

• 54% PTSD symptoms

General population, per the authors:

• 8.4% depressed

• 19.1% anxious

• 3.6% PTSD symptoms

This is strange because:

1) Graduate students have many advantages over the general population, they are more likely to come from higher income families and have more opportunities for networking and future career advancement 

2) The vast majority of these students should not have been homeschooled, so they should have had influence on ideas vetted from the public school system such as on social justice 

So what is your opinion, is homeschooling a good or bad choice, and should it be allowed? Why do these graduate students report these issues, do you think this data is false or misleading, if not what is the solution?

Edited September 5, 2023 by Raze

[sholomar]

Personally I think parents should choose with vouchers that let them pick whatever public and private school they want is best. Let the schools compete with each other and let students go to the ones where they can excel the most academically. I don't believe in telling parents their kids must go to a public school. If they want to home school them, the kid will probably turn out better than a sizable percentage of public schools in the United States.

We are depressed and anxious because our DNA isn't adapted to modern life in this planet yet. I still love this series of posts I found:

It only worsens as you coddle people, give them safe spaces, and try to shelter them from everything. Emotional resilience requires discomfort, facing fears, and the like.  Even then, our DNA wires us with high levels of neuroticism, and most people feel comfortable around strong leadership that is competent and ethical, something greatly lacking in society today. Then again, if you look back at history with an unbiased lens, you'll see it's almost always lacking. The nature of being an animal, and evolution itself. DNA cares about propagation. Everything else is fluff. The world has always "been a hell" or "been perfect" it really depends on context and perspective.

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by sholomar

[Danioover9000]

@Raze

On 2023-09-05 at 8:09 PM, Raze said:

Recently there has been a lot of hostility towards homeschooling from the left. See here:

 

There was even a somewhat viral article from a liberal Harvard law professor calling for a ban on homeschooling: https://arizonalawreview.org/homeschooling-parent-rights-absolutism-vs-child-rights-to-education-protection/

Despite home schooling has actually become more popular and seems to overall be effective

https://reason.org/commentary/homeschooling-is-on-the-rise-even-as-the-pandemic-recedes/

https://www.nheri.org/research-facts-on-homeschooling/

The main argument seems to be that without public school influence in crafting the child’s beliefs and what they’re exposed to, the child is potentially being harmed with ideas from their parents that aren’t validated by the educational system.

This is an example of some such instruction that the child may not receive if homeschooled: 

 

There is some truth to this, we do now have evidence public schools can expose students to belief systems and alter their behavior

https://manhattan.institute/article/school-choice-is-not-enough-the-impact-of-critical-social-justice-ideology-in-american-education

Leading to the next point,

https://bhacjournal.org/index.php/BHAC/article/view/9332/7893

This is from a Self-report study of 778 graduate students (71% female):

• 32% met depression threshold

• 47% anxious

• 54% PTSD symptoms

General population, per the authors:

• 8.4% depressed

• 19.1% anxious

• 3.6% PTSD symptoms

This is strange because:

1) Graduate students have many advantages over the general population, they are more likely to come from higher income families and have more opportunities for networking and future career advancement 

2) The vast majority of these students should not have been homeschooled, so they should have had influence on ideas vetted from the public school system such as on social justice 

So what is your opinion, is homeschooling a good or bad choice, and should it be allowed? Why do these graduate students report these issues, do you think this data is false or misleading, if not what is the solution?

   I don't know, you'll have to ask Daniel Schmachtenberger, as he was homeschooled by parents and turned out fine. Maybe it depends on if the parents know and can set up a nice learning environment or the children, then homeschooling is much better, but that all depends on if the parents know and can do that.

   Traditional public schooling, and maybe bording, military, or private schooling has it's pros and cons.

[Artsu]

Homeschooling should be the norm. Fuck school.

[Danioover9000]

@Artsu

On 2023-09-06 at 10:44 PM, Artsu said:

Homeschooling should be the norm. Fuck school.

   Not quite, that's a huge increase in parental responsibility, and an assumption that most parents can also take on the educational roles that teachers provide instead, even if most are regurgitated information it's unrealistic to expect and assume most parents can teach multiple education topics to their Children.

[Ulax]

Given the prevalence of bullying and repeated school shootings I think homeschooling should be an option.

Being homeschooled beats getting capped in the head, by your classmate, every time, imo.

[Basman]

Homeschooling is more expensive and a bigger commitment-load on parents. It is not realistic for most parents to home school and I'm not sure if that is even desirable. I think ideally public schooling should be improved, then most people would benefit. 

School shooting is an America issue. Access to guns leads to guns being used. 

[toasty7718]

Daniel Schmactenberger was homeschooled

 

That speaks enough volume

[Danioover9000]

@toasty7718

1 hour ago, toasty7718 said:

Daniel Schmactenberger was homeschooled

 

That speaks enough volume

   Thanks to high quality parenting, they know how to lead Daniel into curiosity and allowed him to learn meanings of words.

[MarkKol]

Home schooling is ineffective and depressing

You get no bitches by homeschooling

[bmcnicho]

I would support increasing standards on homeschooling to make sure that actual education was taking place.  But regulations shouldn’t be so strict to prevent meaningful alternatives to the public system.  Religious homeschooling is a large problem that unfortunately I don’t see good ways of preventing.  The public system also has lots of problems, but of course any attempts to substantively improve education would result in giant culture war backlash.  The best solution I can see is that at some point Artificial Intelligence could take over education.

But because we have compulsory schooling, homeschool can’t be banned.  Otherwise children would effectively be enslaved to the state.

[Bobby_2021]