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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.

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[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 54 points 1 day ago (4 children)

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.

[–] selfAwareCoder@programming.dev 5 points 22 hours 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

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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

[–] dreksob@feddit.online 3 points 1 day ago

True

But there is more or less a guarantee that kids that are being homeschooled are not getting a good education.

[–] dracc@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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.

[–] AskewLord@piefed.social 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] dracc@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 10 hours 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.

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours 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.

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

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

[–] AskewLord@piefed.social 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day 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.

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (4 children)

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...

[–] Hazor@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day 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.

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day 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.

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day 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.

[–] cheers_queers@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago

not really. i did the ACT and maybe one other state regulated test and i was homeschooled my entire life.