Bess on Warpcast

Linda Xie pfp

Video clip of Naval talking about how homeschooling kids is significantly better than having to send kids to school I don't have kids, curious what parents think about this? Hadn't really considered homeschooling for when I have kids https://x.com/joelrafidi/status/1882152338376532222?s=46&t=QNlz9swNdb9dxGQvZZJaCw

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Bess pfp

I was homeschooled K-12 and there were definitely pros and cons. Happy to share if interested :)

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Linda Xie pfp

I'm actually extremely interested if you can share some of the pros and cons

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Zenigame pfp

seconded, very interested

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Bess pfp

Absolutely! This will probably come in a few parts as I have a lot to say on the topic. A few things to preface: 1) the success of homeschooling is absolutely dependent on a few factors I’ll go into. It’s not for everyone, but can be successful. 2) In my adulthood (30s here), I appreciate the sacrifice that my mom made to homeschool us. Because of her decision to do this, we were a one-income family of four my entire life. I graduated high school officially in 2010, so there were not a lot of work from home opportunities, as my mom would have been able to take advantage of. Even if she could, homeschooling really can be a full-time job of its own, especially with middle school and below aged children. When you are a child, you don’t necessarily understand or see that sacrifice, let alone appreciate it.

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Con: - Looking back on my experience, I feel that I did not have as much opportunity in high school to explore potential colleges or career fields I might have been interested in compared to my peers in public/private schools. I didn’t have college fairs or speakers or even a school counselor to help me figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Yes, of course, my parents attempted to help me with that. But with that also comes limitations of their own interests/knowledge or even bias of where they thought I should go or what I should major in.

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Socially, I can’t really categorize negatively, but I absolutely had a different experience than someone in a traditional school. As a homeschooler, you have to make a conscious effort to socialize since you are not in a traditional school setting. HSers often get the stereotype of being “awkward” or “unsocialized”. People are often shocked when I mention I was HSed, and I do give my parents that credit for making every effort that they knew of at the time. I danced for 13 years and my mom also had us in a co-op group with other HSers twice a week. We would all come together for certain classes that you really couldn’t do on your own, like debate, speech, or drama. My best friend’s mom was an art teacher and held HS classes. I was also a four-sport varsity athlete (more on this in a second). I definitely knew HSers whose parents did not make as big of an effort as my parents in this aspect and suffered socially as both children and adults.

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Bess pfp

In general though, I did miss out on the daily general socialization of being in a school setting. Some people, like my sister, didn’t mind the trade off, but I did. Seeing your friends who attend school go to school events, whether a sporting event or prom, made me feel as a teenager that I was missing out. When I’ve expressed this to others, I’m often told “don’t worry, dances are overrated”. I know as an adult it wasn’t a life changing thing, but as a teenager you feel it. I actually did go to junior prom at a public school, as a side note. A friend asked me because the girl he wanted to take said no and he already had bought tickets. It was fun, but a weird experience not knowing anyone like my date did… who ditched meto hang out with his school friends.

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