Hi all, adult who was homeschooled here.
Background:
I was homeschooled up until 9th grade when, due to family illness, I attended my local public high school. I had a great experience with homeschooling, and as a result a much better experience in high school, college and career.
I am of the camp that on balance kids of parents who invest time and effort are going to do great whether those kids are in public, private, or home school. However, no matter the school choice, one BIG caveat is that I strongly believe that it gets dangerous whenever parents' only passion is their kids. In cases where parents don't have any other hobby or interest and are living entirely through their kids, I think there is a much higher likelihood of helicopter parent syndrome, or trying to keep kids in a bubble, both of which can lead to lower 'grit.'
Advantages to homeschooling for me included:
(i) flexibility: ability to learn at a faster or slower pace as necessary, ability to participate in many more activities.
(ii) broader social opportunities: in addition to local friends and extracurricular friends, you can volunteer, travel, be part of multiple homeschool groups, go to camp, get to know more adults than if you were in school,… etc.
For context: While I was homeschooled, I went to band and art class at school, played sports, did girl scouts, participated in homeschool groups, went to camp every summer (before ppl get all fired up – scholarships are definitely available!), volunteered with the Red Cross, volunteered at an estuarine research reserve, and got to travel around the country via music scholarships.
Advantages to public high school for me included:
(i) access to science lab materials I might not have at home (liquid nitrogen, blow torches).
(ii) a couple absolutely fantastic teachers, and some pretty bad teachers. Obviously, I learned a lot from the great ones, but I also learned from the bad ones how to 'play the game.' We can discuss the value or lack thereof of this particular skill :-)
For context: By the time I was in high school, the fact that I had already developed some confidence, understanding of my learning style, and specific interests made the school years more fulfilling. I am sure it's possible I would have developed these in a traditional school setting, but I think it's easier with a small class size (1) and more time for extracurricular opportunities.
Respectfully,
Amateur Mustache