Poll: Were you/are you home-schooled?

[Verp]

No... My father taught me to read before I went to school, but I guess that doesn't count.

Edit: Also, now he's taught my attention-deficit six-year-old nephew how to play chess. What's wrong with that man? Is he a complete masochist or what? I don't get it.

 

[Kae]

I'm currently home-schooling myself, that means I'm my own teacher which is good at least it means I get a handsome charismatic teacher that is made of the purest essence of awesome! But yeah it's sort of weird to have to investigate things on my own to study for a test.

 

[Cakes]

No, and I'm glad I wasn't. I doubt that were I home-schooled, I or my parents would have been motivated enough to actually get me to pursue social interactions. I've met a few people who are completely socially incompetent, it doesn't look like much fun.

 

[Revolutionary]

I know a couple of friends that used to be home-schooled, It actually seemed to improve their social skills. Weird hoiw that works.

 

[comet5002]

I went to regular school up to 6th grade and got taken out due to bullying. Stayed homeschooled until sophmore year when I went back and then did dual credits for junior and senior year.

Yeah, I liked homeschooling.

 

[Kortney]

Nope. I loved school and I miss it dearly. Very glad I wasn't home schooled.

 

[Monkfish Acc.]

I finished primary school in the public system and then got sick and had to do the rest via homeschooling.
Only that didn't happen because the Department of Education would rather dick around for years at a time than do anything that actually fucking helps in any way.

So... I guess sorta? But also not.
I don't even fucking know.

 

[ajofflight]

One of my neighbour's kids is sorta-kinda home-schooled. I've noticed though, that he's extremely immature (even for a 14-year old), and has a hard time mixing with other people. He's very smart, but socially, he's completely inept.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

No, I wasn't, and I'm happy because I've met some good people at school.

 

[Hader]

I was home-schooled for 2 years. I didn't have a choice in the matter. But I convinced my parents to stop that so I could go to a public school. Worked out well though, I got in well before high school rolled around.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Also I find it hard to believe that a person could learn as much through homeschooling without an internet high-school. Just my belief.

A belief that's apparently not very well grounded in just what "high school" actually means I would say - your typical high school is a hostile environment to the perpetuation of knowledge; coming out of it well-educated is a minor miracle in itself.

But to indulge you, imagine for a moment that every student in your typical American high school had their own dedicated instructor - it's a pipe dream beyond the wildest expectations of educational reformers pushing for smaller class sizes: that's homeschooling in a nutshell.

-snippety-

On the other hand, there are all those students who have never been outside the public school system with crippling social awkwardness - what's their excuse exactly? That's the trouble with painting things in broad strokes - it requires you to overlook the bit where everyone isn't the same, be it their home environment, personal disposition, you name it. Without the luxury of a time machine or mirror universes, you simply have no way of knowing if that same child would not have been every bit as out of her depth had she never been homeschooled.

Attending high school by itself is certainly no panacea.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Hell Yeah!

Born and raised Home School. Best decision my parents ever made. Also, anyone who honestly thinks that being home schooled makes you socially retarded and doesn't prepare you for real life is among a group of the most naive people on the planet.

Also, Gildan Bladeborn is a genius.

 

[sneakypenguin]

I was from kindergarten on and was self taught in highschool. Its nice cause you can do school in an hour or two a day and skip what you know.

 

[Hashime]

Standard educational institutions my whole life, my parents neither had the time, money, or desire to pull us out of the perfectly fine publicly funded schools and do the schooling themselves. I am now at university in the hardest engineering program in canada.

 

[Kimarous]

Public schooled kindergarten, homeschooled in Grade 1, private school for Grades 2-6, homeschooled from Grade 7 until graduation. Currently in college and preferring in-class lessons than online courses (the one online course I took suuuuucked).

I may not have the strongest social interaction out there, but you know what? If nearly being driven to suicide constitutes "social development" (and I'm not joking there), I'd rather be a loner. I'm not devoid of social skills, though; my lack of social connections mainly stems from everybody having erratic class schedules with few recurring classmates.

 

[Kimarous]

Also I find it hard to believe that a person could learn as much through homeschooling without an internet high-school. Just my belief.

I was an A student with mail-in assignments and at-hub exams. Your belief is wrong.

 

[Cain_Zeros]

I wasn't, but I know a guy who was, and he has zero social skills. Of course, he's also a selfish fucktard in general, so maybe it's not the homeschooling that's to blame, at least not entirely.

 

[Manicotti]

No... My father taught me to read before I went to school, but I guess that doesn't count.

Edit: Also, now he's taught my attention-deficit six-year-old nephew how to play chess. What's wrong with that man? Is he a complete masochist or what? I don't get it.

Maybe, but that kid would have an amazing advantage over his peers if it's a success.

Spoiler: TLDR - Was homeschooled, would do it again, and have not suffered at all socially because of it. Sure, I am sort of an introvert, but not a cripple. The stereotype of homeschoolers as social maladroits is just that - a stereotype. And not even a particularly good stereotype considering that every homeschooler's experience is unique and has the potential to be just as socially enriching given *any* degree of ambition.

OT: Yes, I was homeschooled. I learned shit-all in public school, so my folks taught me from 5th grade through high school. HOWEVER, I also attended the local community college from sophomore to senior year, so I didn't really miss anything. If anything, the only thing I regret about homeschooling is not having done way, way more with all that free time and access to information. I could have realized my interest in electronics far sooner (what I'm in college for now, getting a *second* degree), instead of doing basically the same pointless creative writing stuff I did in school without actually getting noticeably better at it. But I digress.

The whole "what about socialization" concern is mostly bullshit. Nothing is preventing you from meeting or interacting with your contemporaries just because you study at home; you make friends despite your environment, not necessarily because of it. "Needing" to be in regular school to have potential friends dumped into your lap is just lazy-minded. There's almost certainly going to be a local community of likeminded homeschooling families wherever you are, so if making friends is that big of a concern, you should probably start looking (my parents were rather ambitious about it and signed us up in three). And as I suggested, your community colleges (if any - mind I'm speaking as an American) will most likely take you in as early as 14-15 years old, maybe sooner. In my experience, the most valuable social skills are acquired by regular interaction with your elders and superiors, who can teach you about the world's mechanics far better than your average dipshit slacker colleagues in high school can.

Volunteer/regular work is also a great potential hub of socialization, and you probably have better access to that from not being constrained to conventional high school timetables.