another case in point against homeschooling?

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by minn_stat

My anecdotal evidence is different than yours. The first homeschoolers I knew followed the typical stereotype quite closely - very strange and backwards family in many respects, the children were very sheltered and tightly controlled. As the kids grew up, several of them freaked out and became very rebellious and wild.

Understandably, I didn't think much of home schooling for a long time because of this first impression.

But I have changed my viewpoint quite a bit as I have observed and examined the issue over the years. I didn't just take my first impression and let it guide my opinion for the rest of my life.

I have definitely seen a mixed bag in terms of results, as mentioned before. But I have seen some families use home schooling very effectively, and some of the most impressive kids I've known are products of home schools. I think home schooling, properly done, can provide a child with a far superior education to most public schools, and they don't have to turn out weird or backwards. Unfortunately, some do, but some kids come out of public schools pretty messed up, too.

Intuitively we can't know if those kids would not have turned out the same or better had their parents simply supplemented their education. That's my point. Parental involvement and delivery of options helps kid succeed, not the medium. You're confusing the medium with the result, and I believe the correlation could not be proved.