Homeschooling became very popular during the COVID pandemic, when public schools shut their doors -- despite science, reason, and logic -- for much longer than they needed to (and they probably didn't need to at all). As kids foundered with 'remote learning' and parents learned what really went on during the day, a lot of families from across the political spectrum decided to dump the traditional school system in favor of homeschooling.
Lefties don't like it. They can't conceive of a world where they don't have a stranglehold on every aspect of our life from the cradle to the grave. And they're smart enough to know that having an ideological monopoly on public schools can only serve their political causes.
So here's a Lefty who decided to post a long thread on why homeschooling sucks.
He's wrong, in every conceivable way, and this writer is going to dismantle his argument.
So buckle up:
I get flak every time I say this, so I figured I should clarify.
— Knowing Better (@KnowingBetterYT) January 13, 2025
Universally, 100% of the time, homeschooling is the worst option for every single child. Without exception.
I'm not being hyperbolic.
Let me explain.
1/11 https://t.co/cGdYD6gAQi
Narrator: he is, in fact, being hyperbolic.
No person on earth is qualified to teach every subject at every grade level.
— Knowing Better (@KnowingBetterYT) January 13, 2025
Having a textbook isn't enough. Teachers are supposed to know more than what is in the book so they can answer questions about the book.
Even then, you need to know when to teach what concepts.
2/
Right. No person can know everything.
Knowing what happens outside the textbook is called experience. Real-world experience. And a drive to continually learn new things.
But the key is the last sentence: you have to know when to teach what concepts.
Yes.
Parents know this. Parents know their three-year-old is ready to learn the alphabet but isn't ready for algebra. You do not need special knowledge or training for this.
But let's continue.
Teachers are basically experts in child development.
— Knowing Better (@KnowingBetterYT) January 13, 2025
Kids physically can't understand negative numbers until a certain age. The abstract thinking parts of their brain aren't done cooking yet. Do you know what age that is?
But let's say you decide to do it anyway, because...
3/
His argument is literally that a teacher -- who only sees your child for 180 days a year, MAX -- knows more about your child's development than you do.
And yes, parents know when kids develop abstract thinking because they spend time talking to their kids. They spend time with their kids. They see how their kids understand and respond to the world around them in every interaction, every single day.
...You want your child to have a religious education.
— Knowing Better (@KnowingBetterYT) January 13, 2025
Your child needs to be exposed to different ideas and people who don't look like them.
It's going to happen eventually, better for it to happen now while you're able to explain why you believe what you do.
4/
This flies in the face of what homeschooling really is. Kids who are homeschooled are often exposed to different people, different ideologies, and different worldviews by the very nature of homeschooling. Homeschoolers go to museums and playgroups and into the real world where they meet a variety of people.
Meanwhile, in public schools, we stick all kids who are ages 11-12 in the same classroom with the same peers day after day. With one teacher (or a handful of teachers) who have the same ideological bent.
But 'diversity' or something.
...Your child is a genius.
— Knowing Better (@KnowingBetterYT) January 13, 2025
They may be ahead of the class, but they won't learn how to work with others and help them catch up.
That isn't your child's job, of course, but it will be an invaluable skill going forward. Want them to be a leader some day?
5/
Excuse this writer, but WTF?
Does he think parents lock their homeschool kid in a closet and force her to work all day? These kids have siblings, friends, homeschool co-op friends.
Homeschooling doesn't happen in a vacuum.
You know those prodigies who end up in college at 16? What kind of experience do you think they're having?
— Knowing Better (@KnowingBetterYT) January 13, 2025
Absolutely zero college kids - sorry, adults - will want to hang around a 16 year old for reasons that I hope are obvious.
Let your kid grow up like everyone else.
6/
Translation: hold your kid back so other people feel comfortable.
Leftism in a nutshell.
...Your child has been bullied.
— Knowing Better (@KnowingBetterYT) January 13, 2025
I'm sure it's safer at home. Is that your plan for the rest of their childhood?
Getting the school to fix the situation, or switching schools, or hell, paying the popular kids to protect your child, is still better than keeping them at home.
7/
The schools rarely fix the situation. There are countless stories of kids who commit suicide because they are bullied at school and -- despite the parents's best efforts -- the schools do nothing.
Look no further than this story, where a boy (who identified as 'trans') beat a girl and the school did nothing. Or Loudoun County, VA -- where nother 'trans' student sexually assaulted several students and was moved from school to school.
But, sure, tell us more about how the school will 'fix' bullying.
As a parent, it is not your job to curate your child's entire existence and decide what ideas they hear or who they socialize with.
— Knowing Better (@KnowingBetterYT) January 13, 2025
They will grow up and resent you for it.
Your job is to guide them and provide context to what they're experiencing outside of your presence.
8/
Actually, that's exactly what the job of a parent is.
When it comes to stats like "homeschooled kids perform better on tests," there's a selection bias problem.
— Knowing Better (@KnowingBetterYT) January 13, 2025
Every public school kid takes tests like the SAT or ACT. Only the college-bound homeschool kids do.
Parents decide the curriculum. There is no homeschool diploma.
9/
It doesn't matter if every public school kid takes the SAT/ACT (and no, not every public school kid takes those -- only the college bound ones).
For a guy whose handle is 'Knowing Better' you'd think he would, ya know, know better.
The idea of a tradwife teaching her 8 blonde kids in a farmhouse is the EXCEPTION when it comes to homeschool.
— Knowing Better (@KnowingBetterYT) January 13, 2025
More often than not, homeschool is a dumping ground for kids who have failed out of or been expelled from everywhere else. It's a dead end to their education.
10/
How incredibly insulting, for starters. Also, this completely undermines his argument about diversity and different worldviews: he just admitted 'blonde kids' being taught by 'tradwife' mom is the exception.
Gosh, he's bad at this.
And no, homeschooling is not a 'dumping ground.
For every successful homeschool story, there are 99 kids who fell through the cracks and will struggle as an adult.
— Knowing Better (@KnowingBetterYT) January 13, 2025
And that successful kid would have been much better off in a public school, surrounded by diverse peers, learning things you can't teach them.
11/fin
Now he's just making stuff up.
You get flak for this because the evidence proves you are wrong.
— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D. (@neoavatara) January 14, 2025
So wrong.
This entire thread is based on a clear misunderstanding of how homeschooling or the internet works.
— David Fite (@DavidFite) January 14, 2025
YUP.
I'm thoroughly convinced that it's literally impossible to condemn homeschooling without unintentionally turning yourself into a shining example of why people should homeschool. https://t.co/75uxurPdEX
— Eric Spencer (@JustEric) January 15, 2025
It is impossible.
Because they always do this.
As of 2022, 21% of adults in the US are completely illiterate and 54% read below a 6th grade level. 40% of students in the US can't read at a basic level.
— Freely Ashley (@TheFreelyAshley) January 15, 2025
Numeracy skills are even worse with just 9% of adults 16-65 being proficient at math, and that is based on data from 2013.… https://t.co/5XS9MAJK7s
In some Baltimore public schools, ZERO students are proficient in reading and math.
But EXPERTS!
And look, there are fantastic public school teachers. There are fantastic public schools. But those are the exception and not the norm.
Homeschooling works.
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