Home School or Public School done at home?

I think the word homeschool is a misnomer. Perhaps it should be parent-led-education; home education, or something a lot more creative than I have time to think of right now. People equate any kind of schooling done in the home with "authentic" homeschooling.

My son was briefly enrolled at a virtual charter "public school at home" program, and the principal/head of school kept emphasizing that it was a public school. At that time, I, too, thought any educational program in which you taught your child at home was "homeschool"; however, via research I learned there is a distinct difference. Also, the parents of many of the virtual charter school students were former homeschoolers who were making comments, i.e., they were tired of homeschooling all alone, they still wanted to homeschool but have the support of a certified public school teacher, etc. This was even more confusing for me. However, because the virtual school curriculum did not work for my son, I withdrew him from the charter school, and began "authentic" homeschooling.

When you homeschool you take on the expense of computers, curriculum, field trips, classes, etc. to enhance/optimize your child(ren)'s educational experience. You also find/get outside help if something is not working. I know of homeschoolers who have gotten tutors for their children, used remedial resources to help their children get up to grade level, etc. Homeschoolers do this without goverment assistance, and, hopefully, without government interference.

I do not think public cyber schools should be in the same category as private ones, nor should they be grouped with the cyber schools homeschooling parents may choose to use. No certified public school teachers will be involved with the latter and this distinction is a significant one.

I think people see anything done at home as "homeschooling." I do believe there is a difference and I think that in some ways the public school at home programs have many of the negatives of public schools and can keep people from pursuing programs that would be more beneficial to their families.

I also think this is a tool being used by the government to maintain control and keep some of their funding. I think the government has a vested interest in keeping people away from true homeschooling.

However, I think for some families this is the safety net they need to take their children out of the public school classroom and there are many benefits to doing so. I am pretty okay with them being lumped into the same category, but I fully understand your point that they are two different things.

There is little understanding of any alternative schooling in the general public. It is just easier to lump it all together. After all, the methods of homeschooling vary so widely that it is almost impossible to sum them up in one quick blurb. Most people who do not homeschool don't give the subject much more thought than what will fit in one quick blurb. But I think it is fair to call cyberschool a form of homeschool. While cyberschooling is different from traditional homeschooling, it still happens at home and should include close parental involvement. When the online program is state run and funded, the line certainly begins to blur between home and public school.

Yes. I agree with Glurpy. The unindoctrinated does not discern the variances of curriucula, they only see the choice to reject the school building and move the learning process into the home. Of course homeschoolers are acutely aware of the different methods, materials and philosophies that constitute home learning. I have chucked out many a curriculum that mimics school "busy work"' and also some that just plain brainwashes children in somebody else's life philosophies. Canned curriculum just doesn't cut it for me. I think a responsible, dedicated unschooler will probably have the best and most relevant education at the end of the day.

Because they equate any type of schooling done at home with homeschooling. Or they have only ever heard of homeschooling in terms of online schooling or other and never realized that other options were available.

To be honest, I have no problem calling friends of mine who have their kids signed up for the public-school-at-home programs homeschoolers. They are doing their program at home. They have chosen the curriculum. They participate in homeschool group activities. And just as a homeschooling family might find a tutor or similar for a subject or two, these families have simply chosen somebody else to be responsible for the whole official evaluation. Legally, we all know they don't qualify as homeschoolers, but for practical purposes, they are.

They are viewed as the same thing for the same reason that charter schools are believed to be the same as private. In both cases (charter schools and public school done at home) they just don't look like the public school everyone thinks of. Therefore, when they try to categorize them, these people just lump them into the nearest analogous thing they can think of.

Charter schools are schools do things different from public schools, so they must be private schools; distance learning is done at home so it must be home-schooling.

Many people think that homeschooling has a literal definition... school within the confines of your home. Some even go so far as to think that homeschoolers are ALWAYS at home. This of course is ridiculous, but that could be where the confusion comes from.

I honestly believe they think they are doing us a service. Here we'll tell you what to and you can have our stuff for free. Problem is, it's still their stone age way of doing things, not to mention they still get to add our children to their statistics. When Baltimore County offered this to us as an option 6 months ago we said NO THANKS. Keep it.

As far as public perception is concerned I really believe it's a sort of ignorance. And believe it or not many people still really believe in our country's educational system. They haven't realized they've been cartoned and portioned out by a system that was orginally meant (and still it today) to train people to be a work force for other companies. They are and never were meant to be bastions of free thought and liberation!

because both of them teach the exact same thing one will just keep you away from drugs and violent insane snipers hidden across the street from your school

in the end you end up with a pieace of shity tattered paper that states you have tooken 12 years of bull **** you are not going to remember 1 year after you graduate