Anecdotally, most current or former homeschooled kids I meet seem pretty socially awkward. I wonder if It’s because the miss-out on the opportunity to learn how to socialize properly as children. But maybe I’m being too critical, idk.

  • stoy@lemmy.zip
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    5 days ago

    It is illegal here, parents are required to send their children to school for a minimum of nine years.

    This is to protect the interests of the child, Sweden has several laws that are focused on the child’s rights over the parent’s authority.

    I have read arguments from people in the US who homeschool their kids about how it is the parent’s right to manage their children’s education.

    But to me that just seems wrong, in Sweden children have the right to a high quality education that follows a proper plan and is done by professional teachers, it is the duty of the parents to make sure the children attends their education.

    Homeschooling means that the government can’t verify that the education the children receive is up to standards set by the department of education.

    Just about all education in Sweden is free to Swedes and EU citizens, so there is zero financial reason to do homeschooling over regular schooling here.

    • chunes@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      In the US, the quality of schools varies drastically based on where you live. There’s no guarantee that kids are getting a good education unfortunately

      • dracc@discuss.tchncs.de
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        5 days ago

        The Swedish school system didn’t pop up out of thin air either. Of course you’ll have to invest in the system for it to work.

        • chunes@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          right but we have a significant portion of the population trying to privatize it, which by design makes it unequal

        • AskewLord@piefed.social
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          5 days ago

          we don’t have national education policy.

          education is 90% determined by the town or city you live in. even states have minimal influence over local districts.

          schools in the same district, and schools a few kim apart, can have wildly different standards and outcomes.

          the only major factor is basically, how wealthy your zipcodes/parents were. that is the overwhelming determination of your educational outcome, because richer parents value education more than non-rich parents.

          in poorer communities, education is seen negatively and it’s actively discouraged.

          • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            the only major factor is basically, how wealthy your zipcodes/parents were. that is the overwhelming determination of your educational outcome, because richer parents value education more than non-rich parents.

            in poorer communities, education is seen negatively and it’s actively discouraged.

            I think you’re about to be visited in the night by three ghosts.

          • dracc@discuss.tchncs.de
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            4 days ago

            Right. Then you’d have to start by making a national education policy. I’m not saying it will be easy (Sweden did by no means get it perfect right away, nor is it perfect now) but unless you start somewhere you won’t ever get to a better place.

            • AskewLord@piefed.social
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              3 days ago

              Anytime we do that things get way worse than they were previously. No Child Left Behind accelerated the destruction of our education system by basically punishing poor schools for being poor. Our Federal government should get out of education policy entire. It should provide funds for school construction and infrastructure.

              • dracc@discuss.tchncs.de
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                1 day ago

                Yeah, no, with that NIMBY attitude nothing will ever get done. You really think the rest of the developed world got to were they are without some chafing along the way? It’s almost as if you don’t want shit to get better with that typical American defeatist mentality.

                • AskewLord@piefed.social
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                  14 hours ago

                  No. Education works best from the bottom up. Parents are the biggest factor, not teachers or schools.

                  • 42firehawk@fedinsfw.app
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                    12 hours ago

                    And how do you get parents to universally improve over time? You can’t drive the improvement without a top down incentive at bare minimum. If no child left behind failed, look at why and try again, don’t give up and say the nation will be illiterate outside of the ruling class.

    • selfAwareCoder@programming.dev
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      4 days ago

      I’ve heard that before, and would be a fan of making it illegal in America as well, there’s a strong argument that doing so would improve the quality of American schools significantly.

      The idea being that if rich children go to public schools then the rich will be more focused on improving public school instead of attempting to defund it

    • Flagstaff@programming.dev
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      4 days ago

      Homeschooling means that the government can’t verify that the education the children receive is up to standards set by the department of education.

      Well… They do tests. They’re sent to outside test centers so no one can cheat for them and mask their incompetence or something. Doesn’t everyone periodically run tests to ensure they’re on track?

      EDIT: Wow, I’ve been misled… Thanks for the enlightenment, everyone. I used to work with homeschooled students. Maybe the vetting quality was better back then or something…

      • stoy@lemmy.zip
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        5 days ago

        You mean the national tests?

        Sure, we have those, they take place in your normal school at the same time all over the country.

        Ok, say a child is homeschooled for five years, and then fails a national test, that means that they have effectively lost a lot of their best time to learn, and they need to retake the subjects to catch up.

        Proper schooling allows for students with special needs to get extra help.

        I was one of those students, I was on the spectrum of having light autism, possibly some ADHD/ADD and similar stuff, I got an assistant teacher in school for several years, and even went to a smaller class specifically tailored towards students with my kind of mental issues, as I grew up I became more independent and learned to live with my difficulties, these days I don’t consider myself to have any real problems from my earlier diagnosis, and can even use them to my advantage.

        I got the help I needed, when I needed it, while attending mostly normal classes and getting socialize with fellow students.

        The socializing part was hugely important for my development, without that I would not have been able to go as far as I have.

        When I look at homeschooling, I see it as parents denying their children a proper education, often to force their own warped worldview onto their children, this obviously comes from someone who experienced a well functioning school, even if I was bullied at times.

        TL;DR: Testing only shows the result of time spent in education, it can’t catch students as they are about to fall through the cracks as a proper teacher can during lessons, this means that a homeschooled student that fails the test has lost a lot of opportunities to get extra help during their schooling.

      • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        You say this but I know someone homeschooled for years who learned next to nothing and is ruined for life because instead of having lessons for hours every day, he played videogames. You’re suggesting he could not have gotten away with that, but he certainly did.

      • Hazor@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        I was homeschooled in the US and no such testing was required, and it still is not required in my state. I think it absolutely should be required if homeschooling is going to continue to be allowed.

    • redsand@infosec.pub
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      3 days ago

      Your books have the same propaganda filtered down from the US and Israel as most of the EU right? And a kinda weird section on WWII like in Switzerland?

      Do try to remember even though your government is relatively competent it is not really your interests or that of your children those institutions serve. It’s still rich old men who want valuable workers.

      Don’t believe me, visit Brussels or an Ikea. You seem too comfortable with your education system.

    • AskewLord@piefed.social
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      5 days ago

      Americans value individual choices over collective responsibilities.

      Homeschooling her is predominantly for those who fell they are not a part of our mainstream culture or that culture is corrupting. A lot of religious and other minority belief groups practice it.