I totally respect what you and Hareem are doing Psyah Bhai, I really do…and I’ve said that over and over again. However, I still have to advocate for those of us who are not homeschooling. It is a gross misinterpretation to blame chalak kids, bullying, lack of intelligence, creativity etc on public schooling. That squarely falls on the shoulders on the parents. This is a very dangerous generalization. It is no different than me saying that ALL homeschooled children, including your own, are social misfits who can’t function in the real world and are emotionally stunted…because we both know that is just not true.
I’ve watched the videos you’ve posted in this thread…including this one and I’m sorry, but there is nothing different or innovative or hard factual truths to back up yours or his opinions..because they are just that…OPINIONS. Just like my views are..they are MY opinions. I would never use my opinions to talk down about your children or the path you’ve chosen for them. All I ask of you is to stop insinuating that my children (generally speaking here) or other public school educated children are inferior to yours.
My 3 boys are stick up for one another..they are perfect gentleman..they know how to share, they don’t bully or humiliate others..they don’t curse…they are well versed in Islam/hadith/seerah…are mindful of salaah…have started fasting in Ramadan…know to donate their allowance to charity…if one is out with us and is allowed a candy bar or treat, he automatically picks up two more for his brothers…sound familiar? Isn’t this what you’re teaching your sons as well? What does that have to do with homeschooling? Can public school children not have manners and be empathetic human beings?
I don’t know if you just haven’t been exposed to it where you live or are not interested so you haven’t researched it but there are MANY, MANY, MANY different pedagogies of education available today. My own children went to an Expeditionary Learning school for 4 years. Magnet programs, Classical education charter schools (there’s one right in front of my house, I can see it from where I’m sitting here on the sofa right this minute) IB schools…New Tech programs…STEM programs…there are so many avenues to choose from, and from what I’ve seen here on GS and in my own life of sphere of influence, we’re all doing the best we can for our kids..there is no need to parent shame someone for their choices.
I’m so sorry to say Psych, but every time you indulge in homeschooling vs publicschooling debate, you make homeschooling less and less appealing because you infuse your arguments with gross generalisations and self righteousness. Forgive me for not reading the entire thread word by word from the beginning, but I would suggest that if you want to talk about homeschooling, please try to keep it as why it works for you, your family and your children. You don’t necessarily have to seek refuge in generalisation, paranoia and in any petty comparisons to prove why public school children have inferior intelligence, zero creativity and behaviour problems compare to homeschooled kids. Honestly, I can assure you that all these people who are politely debating with you and defending their parenting can easily come up with enough damaging and really hurtful generalization, stereotypes to completely bring down homeschooled kids.
As I said … Many times I’m not selling home schooling … I don’t intend for you to favour it … I’m presenting my reasons for it … And those reasons will not be suitable for all … Correction, they will not be suitable for most …
Just imagine if I protected my child from everything in the world, one day when they grow up and are out in this big bad world of ours and they hear the F word, they’d be googling it or asking their colleague what it meant. How embarrassing to find out that way hehe.
I find that when my kids communicate with kids of all cultures and religions, they become richer in their perspective…and more importantly, tolerant.
I think seclusion or protection shouldn’t be the reason to homeschool your kid. Reasons such as a poor rating/bad infrastructure or maybe health issues could be some reasons. But again, it’s everyone’s personal choice.
I know of home schooled kids and it is their parent’s priority to try to get them involved in as many activities as possible, alongwith organising regular play dates. I think isolating a child can really stunt their emotional growth.
I wanted to point out one thing, I think it was Psyah who said that he didn’t like normal schooling when he was growing up and that was why he is homeschooling his children. But I wanted to ask one thing, what if 25 years from now when your kids are grown up, they themselves could say they hated the homeschooling part and wished they never had that and for that they would make sure their own kids go to regular schools. Then your grandchildren could go ahead and say they hated regular schooling, that is a never ending cycle. What would be your answer then? There is no guarantee that your children will grow up to love the fact that they were homeschooled. Right now they have seen no different, so for them this is normal and routine but there is no guarantee that later on they won’t regret it. Just like you thought that regular education wasn’t something you enjoyed they can later say they didn’t enjoy home schooling. (Though I hope insha’Allah your kids grow up to be amazing and intelligent people)
Every generation reacts to the one that came before. Our parenting styles often reflect what satisfied and dissatisfied us about our childhood, and we focus on those few things, sometimes at the cost of the good things that were also there (that we aren’t as aware of).
I’d say anyone making huge generalizations about what kind of child will be produced solely based on the form of education is kidding herself/himself. Human beings are complex individuals, and we cannot be completely understood just based upon a formula. a+b will not always equal c when it comes to raising children.
Psyah…first of all thankyou so much and also hareem for helping me out…
Also thankyou to muzna and khattichic! Montessori method seems really good!
Some more questions…why would parents not allow homeschool children to go outside and meet others on their own?(not under parents supervision) and how would this help them in becoming good well mannered human beings later when they grow up?
I think everything revolves around parents whether kids go to school.or not…maybe that is the reason why parents choose to homeschool?
We have a child in our extended family that was the only child for a good # of years. She was raised of course by her parents and around mostly adults. Her parents did preschool, pre-K and KG at home.
When it came time for her to go to first grade…she and the parents had a very hard time adjusting. Parents believed their child could do no wrong and the teachers were all psychos. Child didn’t understand why she had to wait in line, take turns, share, not scream for attention, etc. No one made any effort to introduce her to society and teach her how to behave when around people that are NOT your relatives. Sharing, manners, tolerance, etc…are taught not by textbooks but by day to day actions. They are learned behaviors. Its not the child’s fault…its the parents who neglected to think about how their child will eventually live among human beings and yes…interaction with them is necessary.
A lot of people seem to think their kid is the only one on this planet…when the child is actually a global citizen. They belong to the world they live in and we prepare them the best we can for it.