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Reneeisme t1_j76vanw wrote

You can teach them those things yourself though. I agree that public education is under attack, but as a parent you can supplement as long as public school curriculum is only omitting important things (and they obviously always are, because they are teaching to a commonly agreed upon pool of knowledge that is never going to include everything your kid should know) It’s only a serious problem if they are teaching untruths as fact and doing it extensively. Which is what far right homeschoolers perceive to be happening in public school.

Homeschooling makes sense when you think public school is teaching your kid a lot of things that are wrong AND you don’t want them to develop the habit of questioning the knowledge they are given. You don’t want then to be in the habit of thinking about what they learn and deciding what is true. You have to both disagree with what they’ll be taught and not want them to hear that people can have other opinions.

My kids had teachers with a far right bias who told them all sorts of horseshit as “fact” but they weren’t harmed by that because they brought it home and discussed it with me, and with their friends and with other teachers. They learned how to sift through bullshit to form and strengthen their own opinions. My kids had a solid foundation from me that was improved by everything they heard from their various teachers, right and wrong, because all of it taught them to think and question and seek out information and come to independent, well thought out conclusions. I will agree though that if I lived somewhere where everything they taught my kids was patently wrong, homeschooling would have more appeal, but I doubt that’s often the case, UNLESS you think a huge number of things our culture accepts are “wrong”. (Like racial and sexual equality, man’s place in nature, the role of government in legislating sexual freedom, bodily autonomy and sexual identity, etc)

If your goal is simply to create unthinking people who do as they are told and never question your worldview, you don’t expose them to anyone else’s views whether you agree with them or not. You seek out curriculums that echos your “alternative” worldview and you never suggest to them that there are any other valid opinions on the matter. Ie: you homeschool them.

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monsterlynn t1_j7718ci wrote

Sometimes, though, the kid is just really really smart and good at learning and the school system doesn't have the resources to provide them with a meaningful education.

It's not a common thing, but it is a legitimate reason to homeschool.

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Reneeisme t1_j77j9us wrote

Yes, as is legitimate medical need (a kid who can't afford to be exposed to typical childhood illnesses, for example). There are reasons to homeschool. There are not nearly as many as there are kids who are homeschooled.

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