Very true. Very important too. I found those things in jobs I had among other activities. I thought that was going to be ta challenging part of going to college, not have a proper discipline when it came to deadlines, but thankfully that wasn't an issue for me at all. Though school does teach these things, many don't really "take responsibility" until it matters to them. It mattered to me, and obviously many kids that have gone to a school, it never mattered to them, therefore flunking from college or not being able to hold on to a job.
I don't disagree with what you said, but a lot of kids are suicidal in highschool. He was just very vocal (call for help) about it.
I'm not saying these things are insurmountable, just that they put homeschoolers at a serious disadvantage. And I disagree that the "responsibility" of school is ignored until it "matters"-- I took high school pretty seriously, mostly because I feared "failing" and the repercussions for doing so. But again, this whole dynamic between the "bad kids" (that didn't care) and those that did, was all part of the essential learning experience which essentially paints the same dynamic that will occur in adult life. School for me wasn't defined by the education, but the fact that it's was mini socio-economic habitat that prepared you for all the challenges of adult life. Homeschooling just doesn't make sense to me for this reason, and I don't even remember it being a possibility growing up in Canada. I never encountered anybody home schooled until I moved to Texas. Also, how the hell do you simulate grade 9/10/11 physics/chemistry class at home when you don't have a laboratory?? Dad's meth lab doesn't count.
The selection bias for home schooling is pretty extreme and it makes numbers like that useless. The people who choose to home school are the people that know they're going to be good at it, that's why the kids do better. That doesn't mean we'd be better off if everyone homeschooled instead.
No one in the history of the planet has ever suggested that that would be the case.
I'm pretty sure I'd rather put my head in a pot of boiling water than have to teach a teenager biochemistry.
Again, you think very highly of yourself. You're forgetting there are 6-8 subjects every semester you'd have to teach the kid. Some would be easy because you would understand it more readily, some would be more difficult. The teachers in high school only have to concentrate on one subject for one grade, year round, year after year. And if you're intelligent and savvy enough to be able to actually teach your kids effectively you're wasting your own talents and potential by staying at home and foregoing your promising career.
The teachers in high school follow a strict, State-mandated curriculum. I don't think highly of myself, you are just approaching this as if every high school teacher is an expert in their assigned subject (which often does not correspond with their actual field of study or expertise). That is not my experience and I think it would be hard to defend that position.
Yeah, the curriculums are set up, and you have to learn it, or re-learn it (for the most part) for a multitude of subjects well enough that you could effectively teach it to your kid.
