An argument for home-schooling

[Lebanese Dragon]

How would you establish causation?

Looks like someone could have used some homeschooling. Perhaps the scientific method?

Reproducing under controlled circumstances whatever causal relation you beleive to exist between two variables.

Another probably more likely explanation for why a homeschooled person is less likely to commit crime is because they are closer and more involved with their family, than their counterparts who spend hours away from their parents each day. They develop closer family bonds, have parents who are more interested in them, and get to know their own kids better etc...

Clearly there is some emotional stability in that, and helping any time they were to veer off the path (since they have that closenss to their parents), but I would like to add in order to really close this argument we'd have to establish that most parents who spend time with their kids are encouraging them to do things that are helpful for that child.

For example, would a parent be more likely to encourage a child to engage in the more risky activitiy of stealing, or to engage in the more secure activity of working for your income. Caring for their child's safety most parents would probably encourage the second.

Thus it makes that having a close bond to your parent, that even if they are hypocrits they'll likely encourage you to go on the straight and narrow and safe path of life, by in large.

I do think there is a connection between being homeschooled, and being less likely to commit crime/join a gang; however, it's more for the fact they're at home bonding with their parents verses the fact they are learning math inside of a house instead of inside of a building.

[angelineB]

Home-schooling is a good thing for disabled students, celebrities and athletes. I think, it's not a good idea that people will prefer this type of schooling where they can't develop good social ability and find friends.

[CitizenCain]

I don't know of any adult that get bullied anywhere near as much as your average junior high/high school student.

On a related note, you're an academic who's not familiar with workplace environments where that goes on a daily basis. Fully grown adults behaving worse than petulant 6 year olds are everywhere in this world, and the majority of workplaces in the world have such people who frankly require "behavioral modification therapy" in the form of a beating within an inch of their lives. People suck, yup. And unfortunately, effective corrective action is highly illegal and prohibited by statues against aggravated assault, assault with a deadly weapon, attempted murder, murder, mass murder and so on.

Of course avoidance "works", just like my homeschooling idea would work

Well, sure, if you avoid all social interaction with other human beings, you won't get bullied or harassed or [verbally/emotionally] "abused," but that's hardly a solution. Nor is there one, really, other than attaining the emotional maturity and toolset to just not a give a fuck about what those kinds of people say to/about/at you.

If you try to solve the problem by having kids avoid this kind of shit, you'll end up with adults who don't know how handle or deal with it, and will be unable to function "normally" when they encounter a workplace bully or an asshole boss, or a power-tripping government official or any of the other places these people appear all throughout adult life.

So, really, this bullying study doesn't support isolation via homeschooling for childen, but is rather a very strong argument against it... because ultimately, lots of people are just assholes. Having social interaction with other humans beings means you'll encounter such people, and will be bullied/harassed/abused by them. It's something everyone will encounter and have to learn to handle at some point in their lives.

For me, it's nothing that can't be resolved with a ski mask and a nice, sturdy steel pole. I personally prefer those ~meter long poles with a diameter of about 10 cm, hollow, with maybe a 1 cm steel thickness. They're just freaking great - you can break every bone in a guy's body with one of those, and they won't dent, and you get the most fabulous, satisfying acoustics and tactile feedback smacking a guy in the grill with one of those. Um, hypothetically. I've been told... I mean, read somewhere. Not that I'd ever do such a thing as give someone the vicious thrashing with a steel pole that they deserve, of course.

But, whatever your preferred method of "dealing with" assholes, be it the manly approach of vicious steel-pole beatings doled out to those who so richly deserve them... or the pansy-assed, womanly approach of emotional maturity, it's better learned in childhood so it doesn't become a bigger problem in adult life. Isn't that what "growing up" is supposed to be about? Learning how to handle the stupid shit that "life" entails while you're young and the consequences are minor, like just hurt feelings, rather than major, life-altering consequences like an inability to function in society as a result, or the inability to hold a job, or jail time (perhaps as a result of not learning how to get away with beating someone with a steel pipe when you were 8), and the like. For example, not learning the valuable life lesson of treating your fellow human beings with a basic level of decency as a child might result in growing up into adult bully who has every bone in his face broken in a vicious thrashing with a steel pipe.

You do children no favors by delaying and avoiding these necessary "life lessons." You only create adults who will have to learn the same lessons, at a much higher price and with much harsher consequences.

[Aimless]

Sure I suppose causing permanent damage in the most vulnerable and formative years makes people better equipped as adults.

Of course I should probably point out that I don't like homeschooling in spite of this sort of thing. It just means I'll have to hire assassins to go to my kids' school.