Comments on: Dina Lohan confirms Ali is being home-schooled

By: skeptical

skeptical — Tue, 12 May 2009 07:28:04 +0000

Wow. Joss Whedon was right. We never get beyond our high school years.. and clearly that is just as true for the homeschooled as it is for the public-schooled. Look at you homeschoolers! You’re whining about being misunderstood too! “Don’t judge, don’t be prejudiced” and yet the homeschooled are just as guilty of being prejudiced.

Example:”I see the public setting creating academically apathetic and socially self-destructive youths/people- consider the horrible environent and the influences a public school brings. (10 and 11 year olds having sex in the bathrooms??) ”

Oh really? So public schools are all about sex in bathrooms? And you think you’re not being prejudiced with that comment? (Or checking your spelling? The Edit feature works now.)

Texasmom probably has it right.. the genius homeschooled kids started out as geniuses, and all the homeschooling did was let them develop their talents. They still had to start out genius material. Selection bias.

Take a dumb-as-rock kid and put the dumb-as-rock kid in a homeschool situation with an equally dumb-as-rock parent, and all you’ll get are a couple of stoneheads.

Circumstances matter.

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By: Hieronymus Grexx

Hieronymus Grexx — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:43:57 +0000

Public school a cooperative community. Right, and there was no bullying at Columbine either. What bizarre Stepford school did you attend?

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By: dirtyoldman

dirtyoldman — Mon, 11 May 2009 07:26:52 +0000

I just realized that this might be a non-issue, considering that many celebs flat-out dropped out of high school to start making movies when they were in their late teens: you can find plenty of listings by googling it, and those lists include Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, Liv Tyler etc.

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By: texasmom

texasmom — Mon, 11 May 2009 05:10:40 +0000

One reason you hear anecdotes about successful homeschoolers is that most of America’s supergeniuses are being homeschooled — because our school system coughs up geniuses like undigestible hairballs. Our family knows a lot of kids who are Davidson Institute Young Scholars (IQ at the 99.99th percentile, which is 145 IQ or 160 IQ, depending on the scale you use). It turns out most of them end up homeschooled. So when you hear those anecdotal stories about smart homeschooled kids, keep selection bias in mind — a noticeable hunk of kids are at home BECAUSE of their smartness. They weren’t average kids made brilliant by homeschooling. They were brilliant kids who were permitted to work at their own level through homeschooling.

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By: Oregon

Oregon — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:31:36 +0000

To Justalark: Homeschoolers do succeed. A high number of them. I am not surprised your graduate work is in education (perhaps you should have diversified). This is K-high school we are talking about. Not college. How hard is high school to teach? And if it were hard for a person, do you think they would even attempt homeschooling? No. Of course homeschoolers function well in society. For a highly educated person, you sure do stereotype.

Public school a cooperative community? Yah, right. Didn’t they tell you about thinking outside of the box in college?

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By: teehee

teehee — Sun, 10 May 2009 18:44:18 +0000

LOL, I am 25, no kids. I said nothing of homeschooling anyone; I am only trying to demonstrate that assuming a homeschooled person CANT even do what millions of people do each semester– get into college- is an extremely insulting assumption hardly based on fact. I am not calling myself or anything about me exceptional– the others commentors are, in a very rude way to say the least.

You are projecting your own thoughts into what I wrote; I made NO mention of ‘my’ children.
If I DO have children, though, I will be attune enough to know if they are happy or successful in whatever academic environment I choose to let them ‘tryout’, and can adjust according to their needs and wants. That is WHY I was homeschooled– I personally preferred it as a kid and did better– my mom made the decision based on my wishes, NOT HERS. She actually allowed us to go back to publi school in the 9th grade to see if we wanted to be there, and the answer was a resounding no.
I wont be so rigid to think that the only way they can be happy, too, is by being in traditional school settings, ie, thinking a la LOL.

Basically the point of all this nonsense is- you cannot generalize from any one homeschool kids’ experience. Because my parents gave us a choice of what to do, it doesnt mean that all parents will.
Likewise, some parents do NOT offer that choice to their children (just as some of the kids do NOT do well in homeschool and others absolutely excel, etc etc etc)– ie, stop being so “LOL-o-centric” to think that all homeschool kids are destined to be miserable failures under the dictation of their incompetent parents, who magically cant read out of a Teacher’s Edition of a textbook like all other “qualified” teachers/professors can do.

Well I always know that to argue in favor of HS is a waste of energy, because no one wants to listen and they use everything you say to further their argument against it– but if there are enough ‘sh&theads’ bashing it, as someone else pointed out, there might as well be at least one sh&thead [me] who SUPPORTS it ROFL!!

….’my kids’… HA!! And why did they have to come up with that ‘no child left behind’ slogan for the entire public school system, anyway, if its as great as people want to argue?

Yes, it really depends on the child, teachers, texts, environment- there is no single answer for all.

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By: the original kate

the original kate — Sun, 10 May 2009 02:11:27 +0000

i know three seperate families with homeschooled kids, (7 kids in all ranging in age from about 10 – 19)and all the kids are bright, interesting to talk with and exceptionally creative. they are also very friendly and very social, and a bit more mature than other kids their age. they are able to think for themselves and learn on their own, which is a lot more than some public school kids. the 18 & 19 year olds are now in college (with scholarships), are doing great and have adjusted well to living in the dorms. for those bashing homeschooling, i think it really depends on the kids, and on the parents.

now, having said all that, obviously the idea of dina lohan homeschooling anyone is ridiculous. that woman isn’t smart enough to train a parrot.

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By: LOL

LOL — Sat, 09 May 2009 23:10:30 +0000

TeeHee, thank you for making my point– your rant is all about YOU and YOUR choices and opinions and personal experiences you were permitted to have (with very little about their effect on your children. Remember them? They’re the ones whose whole lives will be affected once you’ve reached your educational Peter Principle) and how every word ever written on the subject is automatically TeeHee-o-centric.

Very little of high school is “lecture”, and it’s the entire experience of a school environment (public, private, montessori, whatever) to which we are speaking, not strictly academics. The ONLY advantage of home-schooling is the one-on-one attention, and without context or proper educational training on the part of the “teacher”, it’s a weak advantage.

Your kids are in for a rude awakening.

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By: JohnnieR

JohnnieR — Sat, 09 May 2009 22:57:03 +0000

“It turns out we shouldn’t have worried, Dina’s taking care of everything. Except that there’s no mention of an actual tutor, so I’m guessing Dina is actually doing Ali’s school lessons herself. Mother of God.”

and…

“I do have something against home-schooling in general, because I tend to think that everyone has a rotten time in school, so suck it up. I had to, now you should too.”

LOL! Bravo! I see the writing style of these articles is getting spicier, saucier, and without a doubt, funnier, without being too vulgar.

I LOVE IT! Keep it up.

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By: teehee

teehee — Sat, 09 May 2009 20:39:56 +0000

It’s worth noting that the difficulty level should have been mastered by the parent teaching– ie, it doesnt go beyond highschool. So assuming the parent teaching the child wasnt a drop out at grade school level, the subjects are easily taught.
I also mentioned before that its all in the textbook, too. I did my learning by myself using the textbooks– I NEVER was tutored or received lessons from my mother/parents; it was all book based learning by myself. Not that my mom couldnt have done it- she isnt a highschool drop out moron or something who doesnt know 10th grade algebra.
Again, I am fine; I graduted and am pursuing a masters and hopefully a PhD (depending on the opportunities it would afford mein the future).
Socially, its a joke what is considered ‘socialization’, in my opinion- I see the public setting creating academically apathetic and socially self-destructive youths/people- consider the horrible environent and the influences a public school brings. (10 and 11 year olds having sex in the bathrooms??) If that is socialization, I sure am glad I was not “properly socialized”. I’m happy I’m not an ADHD who cares more about chatting on my cell phone and applying my makeup in lectures or going out to bars than about studying for my final exam or writing my papers.
People who know me personally say I am one of the deepet persons they’ve met, very old soul and mature. I make true and lasting friendships with people of all ages and am a very happy person with a great network and interests.
Of course, my ranting doesnt do me any favors LOL but hey it always irritates me when people talk so much smack and spread this idea suggesting that I am somehow flawed for what has been a great blessing and opportunity that I took full advantage of and greatly benefitted from.
Its completely backwards to assume that public schooling has an advantage in terms of teaching self-discipline. The switch from hoeschool to college was zero— because lecures are only a small part of learning in college. the rest is upto YOU as a student to study and work at home between classes. You cant pass just by attending- so there’s where the homeschooling background gives us an advantage in college, actually.
As for science and math, my HS graduating SAT showed I was right on target in math (range 530-590 I scored 560). There is no science on the SAT so the Stanford test from one year earlier shows I was “PHS” instead, meaning post high school level (EVERY subject I tested put me at PHS at 13 years old. My average percentiles ranged from 71 to 87% ABOVE the NATIONAL averages in all subjects. Far from ‘behind’).

PS thanks for implicitly labeling me exceptional LOL.

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