Big no true homeschooler energy going on in your comments.

I don't mean it that way at all.

OP took their anecdote and generalized it very broadly [0]. I shared my own anecdotes, explicitly acknowledging that it's "hard to come to any conclusions from warring anecdotes alone". OP responded saying that their anecdote is actually a collection of 13 anecdotes. I countered that 13 tightly related and completely non-random anecdotes do not turn into a usable stat.

Nowhere did I mean to imply OP's experience isn't a true homeschooling experience, just that it's not necessarily as representative as they believe it is and that more information is needed before generalizing either of our experiences is fair.

[0] "it hasn’t really changed that much - it’s just something parents like to tell themselves to avoid thinking about the experiences their children are missing"

You are (unfortunately) welcome to gamble with your children’s well-being and see if the benefits of homeschooling is worth the negative consequences if you’re wrong!

When your child is coming home in tears every day because other children are mean, and the teachers and administrators won't do anything, and your child is sitting bored through bullshit indoctrination and being harangued for skipping brainless homework to write or make art or do any number of other things, feel free to sit down and tell them how valuable the public school system is, and how their suffering is stupid and they need to get over it.

The school system has many problems. That doesn't mean that homeschooling isn't 10x worse.

In aggregate, sure. At a personal level, probably not. Just pick whatever works.

So simple! Why didn't I think of that.

The reality is that what homeschooling parents think is "right" is often extremely noxious and damaging. Again, not all of them sure, but a large portion.

> The reality is that what homeschooling parents think is "right" is often extremely noxious and damaging

Yeah, which is why it’s bad in aggregate. But that generally isn’t the case for parents that send their kids to normal school first and then pull them out when things aren’t working out for whichever reason.

Just because you can point to cases of homeschooling that's 10x worse than the average public school doesn't mean there aren't homeschooling environments that aren't much better, and public school environments that aren't MUCH MUCH worse.

What a fundamental misunderstanding of statistics. Were you homeschooled? /s

If you think you made a meaningful statistical statement, your fundamental misunderstanding of language is a strike against any public school that graduated you.

And original too!

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Let's end this conversation here, this is devolving into useless banter.

This entire thread is why I think public schools and private schools are both really important and need investment. Homeschooling as well but that I see as a gap solution.

Do the tears eventually end without permanently destroying the child/parent relationship? If so, you might actually be describing something better!

And the juvie outcome is so common that it makes up the most likely outcome from having a bad school experience? I think homeschooling may still be statistically worse

The tears eventually end with your child bringing a weapon to school or going hulk and slamming another kid's head on concrete like that viral meme you probably can remember, then getting suspended, getting put in Juvi, and having their life fucked up even worse.

Statistically? No they do not.

Maybe have a look at the rise of school shootings, student suicides and children bringing weapons to school (to the degree that there are metal detectors in schools all over the place now). Kids were bringing knives to school to fend off bullies back when I went to school, and getting stabbed with uncomfortable frequency, and that was 30+ years ago in a halfway decent neighborhood.