On Sun, 18 May 2008 18:17:15 -0500, Mueen Nawaz wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> receiving end of that more than once (we home-schooled Ken through high
>> school, you want to talk about being on the receiving end of snap
>> judgments, that's one way to become a target, especially living so
>> close to the school he used to go to).  It's extremely rare that we
>> come to a
> 
> 	Yes, I've heard homeschooling tends to be opposed for no good 
> reason.

We've heard everything from "it turns kids into sociopaths" to "it turns 
kids into homicidal maniacs".  Having done the homeschooling thing, the 
most important thing we found was making sure to provide as broad an 
experience as possible.  Many parents who homeschool limit the kids' 
exposure to the world at large in order to further ingrain their values 
in their kids (teaching kids values is always a good thing; but doing so 
by not exposing them to the world can be damaging/problematic when they 
encounter the real world).  For us it was a no-brainer, because the 
values that we have are that the best way to talk with people is to 
understand them, and you can't do that by not interacting with them.

> If I ever have kids, I'd like to homeschool them as well. The
> feasibility of either (for me) remains to be seen.<G>

It does take a lot of time, and there are costs involved.  One of the 
other very important things is to ensure the child doesn't become 
isolated from others their age.  For us that wasn't a problem because Ken 
started out in public school, then went to a private school for a few 
years, so he had a few friends.  We homeschooled out of necessity (he was 
more advanced than the public school kids at his age, so he couldn't go 
back there, and we pulled him out of the private school because of some 
safety issues that became apparent in their required outdoor program - 
and some problems with the headmaster lying to us about those safety 
issues).  The only other reputable private school was booked up, so our 
options were fairly limited if we wanted to keep Ken interested in 
learning.

Jim

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