Posted on 12/30/2012 7:00:25 PM PST by King_Corey
It's not that top universities are telling people directly to homeschool their kids. Instead, top schools are using a selection process that gives homeschooled kids a huge advantage. Here's why:
1. Good grades are a commodity, so they don't help in the admissions process. Girls are doing so much better than boys in both standard high school courses and in standardized tests that their good grades and good scores don't get girls into good colleges. It's not enough anymore. White girls especially need a hook.
A hook is, ironically, something you are passionate about and engaged in that is outside of school. Top schools like Harvard and Stanford have always required a hook. Because when you're in a room full of smart people, smart suddenly doesn't matter—interesting is what matters.
So Harvard, for example, makes a pile of all the applicants who have the grades and the scores to get into Harvard, and then they look for what they need: A violinist, a middle-hitter, a coxswain. Then they look for what else might be interesting. A ballerina, a professional actor, a published author, and so on.
It used to be you needed a hook only for the very top two or three schools. But now white girls need a hook for all the top schools.
2. Your kid will be evaluated on the stuff that is NOT school. What this means is that top colleges are devaluing standardized tests. They don't care if you learn the national curriculum. They don't care if you can get an high score on the SAT. These achievements are commodified in the way that learning has been commodified. What really counts now is showing passion, drive, and accomplishment outside of standardized learning.
But now things start to make sense.
In general, a college degree is simply a ticket to play. It doesn't matter what school you went to, unless you go to a very top school, say, top ten. In that case, the vetting process is so tough that it's a huge endorsement to you to have the school on your resume, and there is a great network of students that will help you go through all stages of your career.
It's no coincidence that the only undergraduate degrees that really give you an edge are from the schools that require achievements that school does not provide. You get that special hook outside of school. Not in it.
3. Going to school undermines endeavors that really impress admissions officers. In fact, most of the hooks that get kids into top schoosl are driven by creativity. For example, Conrad Tao got into Columbia without any AP classes or SAT tutors. He just had his piano and a GED. But the blog Marginal Revolution has a great summary of how teachers in school suppress creativity because teachers don't like creative kids.
So the only colleges that are really worth a student's time and money are colleges that don't value time spent in school. This is one of the biggest endorsements of homechooling that I have found
So Public school is better? By what standard? Average test scores? College admission?
No, facts support that at spelling bees and in testing home school kids do amazingly better.
I see kids misbehave, but I don’t know if they are home school or public, How do you know? You don’t.
In your average public school you find drugs and violence, is it that way in your home?
Is your public school a liberal indoctrination center? Do you really know? Did you check out the daily studies? Do you hear what the people are saying to the kids day in and day out? No, you probably don’t, and even if you work there and hear what? 10% of what is said you may hear, but everyone else? C’mon!
You assume too much and don’t deserve a response. IMO, you are narrow minded and mean-spirited. I wouldn’t want my kids exposed to much of you!
“Colleges want students that pay full boat tuition.”
Everyone doesn't get what they want. ;-)
More seriously, wanting folks who will pay full tuition is balanced by other organizational needs. There do seem to be schools where this is the primary motivation. I'm struck by how many schools cater to mediocre students who are willing to shell out wildly-large sums of money to obtain a degree from a “respectable” school.
But the more selective schools have other organizational priorities to meet, too. Like, protecting their reputation as “selective” schools, which means that they have to take a substantial proportion of students who aren't mediocrities, and for whom there might be other opportunities. These students rarely pay the full sticker price.
Of course, the way the game is played, each player demands a bit more than the other is willing or able to give.
“Self-selecting statistics makes some folks (like you) claim that the mere act of homeschooling makes an individual kid smarter.”
If by “smart,” you mean innate intelligence, nothing we do with our kids will make them smarter.
But my own view is that homeschooling more reliably helps kids develop more of the smarts they have than most public schools. And much of that IS built in to the actual day-to-day mechanics of homeschooling.
sitetest
IMHO, the light was shown on your arguments, and scores, logic, and facts back my opinion. Sorry you don’t want to think the public school is a bad place for children today.
Also your personal attack on me is something I didn’t do and yet I am narrow minded and mean-spirited? I must have hurt your feelings. If I did I apologize, but I will not accept that having children go to a school where they are exposed to drugs, crass language, poor ethics, instruction that is lowest common denominator, and apathy in schools because they have real discipline problems. Don’t forget the rape, assault, and radical ideology.
Your response was a personal attack, I was nothing but polite, but you have not found any answers, and I must have hit a nerve.
If you want to see the degree of failure in the public school, go and check out a McGuffy reader.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGuffey_Readers
Where in Texas do you teach? What district?
Is this "nothing but polite?--
"...see kids misbehave, but I don’t know if they are home school or public, How do you know? You don’t. Polite?
In your average public school you find drugs and violence, is it that way in your home? Oh, that's really "polite."
This is "polite?" --"Is your public school a liberal indoctrination center? Do you really know? Did you check out the daily studies? Do you hear what the people are saying to the kids day in and day out? No, you probably don’t, and even if you work there and hear what? 10% of what is said you may hear, but everyone else? C’mon!"
Where in Texas do you teach? What district?
I don't teach. Have often made the comment that IF I did, I'd probably be in the pen for killing a kid!
There isn't enough money in Texas for me to be a teacher!
I still see you as an opinionated person who thinks he has all the answers but it's clear you are narrow-minded in your thinking.
ALL homeschooling is not good! ALL public schools are not bad. You don't seem to understand that simple fact!
BTW, when I've seen kids behaving obnoxiously in stores and have asked why they aren't in school and they tell me they are home schooled---is HOW I know they are home schooled!
No, you didn't hit a nerve because nothing you've said has been offensive
I even give you credit for caring...but you need to sharpen your critical thinking skills
Happy New Year!.
Although some research has indicated that home-schooled students perform better on standardized tests than children in traditional schools, the claim that home schooling offers children a superior education is much disputed.
One study of more than 11,000 home-school students found that students typically score 34 to 39 percentile points higher than the average student on standardized tests (Ray, 2009). Another study found that 25 percent of home-schooled students were enrolled one or more grades above their age-level public and private school peers (Rudner, 1999).
These findings mirrored the study showing that home-educated students scored, on average, at or above the 84th percentile in all areas on standardized achievement tests (Ray, 2009).
Education Week Dec. 31, 2012 www.edweek.org
“There isn’t enough money in Texas for me to be a teacher!”
While I do teach, and what King Corey says matches what I see. :)
Do what the teachers do - educate your children privately or have them homeschooled.
I think it is as stupid to say all public schools are bad as it is to say all hospitals are good or bad.
You aren't good advertisers for home schooling because you can't think! I wouldn't want my kids home schooled by you!
“Do you compare yourself to all other teachers? Or, do you just conpare all schools to bad schools.”
Yes, we do, and yes, we’re well above the average of schools in Texas.
“I think it is as stupid to say all public schools are bad as it is to say all hospitals are good or bad.”
Suit yourself. We deliver superior performance to public schools for a fraction of the cost. Do the math.
“You aren’t good advertisers for home schooling because you can’t think! I wouldn’t want my kids home schooled by you!”
If your best argument is “I hate you, you suck”, that’s not going to win many followers.
YOUR LANGUAGE, NOT MINE!
Such class! You are a teacher? Pathetic!
I hope you don't teach logic!
Nobody likes getting called out for what they are. :) Call me when you get an argument and we’ll talk.
Hmph. I homeschooled. The kid’s bright and magnificently well educated. No college is beating down our door. And I can’t afford college. Oh well!
You don’t seem to understand that I think you are part of the problem and am not interested in anything you have to say.
“Hmph. I homeschooled. The kid’s bright and magnificently well educated. No college is beating down our door.”
This article notwithstanding, the overwhelming number of colleges evaluate homeschool kids pretty much the same way that they evaluate other kids.
Selective colleges start out with grades and SAT/ACT scores.
For homeschoolers, the grades part can be a little difficult. Scores from AP exams and SAT II scores can help validate the grades given in the homeschool. If your kid takes the AP US History exam and gets a 5, then that homeschool grade of A in US history is going to hold up. But if you gave your kid an A and he score a 3 on the AP exam, not as much.
Anyway, just like with kids traditionally schooled, selective schools will show more interest in kids with high test scores than otherwise.
As well, if you want schools to chase you, the student, you can't be too coy. You gotta let them know you're willing to be chased. ;-) My older son took actions to get on numerous college mailing lists. He'd sign up at open houses, go see college reps when they came to his high school, sign up on-line at college websites.
sitetest
Knowing what I know about conventional education, I’m not gung ho about college anyway. Also, I raised my offspring to be productive and self-sufficient, so there is no question of student loans. And yet when we see local kids now in college, my high-IQ homeschooler wonders if they are better off — and needs reminding, “You’ve got your own house already, and you’re bringing home the bacon; they’re in dormitories, racking up debt for a square foot of wallpaper.” (That’s what I’m inclined to call the college diploma.)
Okay. It appeared in your previous post that you were dismayed that your child hadn't been sought-after by colleges.
If you're happy and he/she is happy, then what's not to like?
sitetest
Good points.
I respectfully request that you not ping me or send private mail to me. Please feel free to comment as you like on my posts or threads, even using my name, but, please, no contact.
Politely and respectfully,
wintertime
I respectfully request that you not ping me or send private mail to me. Please feel free to comment as you like on my posts or threads, even using my name, but, please, no contact.
Politely and respectfully,
wintertime
I respectfully request that you not ping me or send private mail to me. Please feel free to comment as you like on my posts or threads, even using my name, but, please, no contact.
Politely and respectfully,
wintertime
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