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
Like hatred of your faith, Global Warming, Anti-American ideas, Socialism and communism are good, and a bundle of other bad things that are poured into your child's head for 8+ hours a day... and YOU LET THEM
After you start home schooling, you can also turn off the TV, throw out the video games, and teach them how to read a book and do things instead of the lowest common denominator education they would get at the local Socialism center.
Please don't tell me your local school is better, or you or your spouse or whatever works as teacher and they aren't like that. Also please don't tell me your brother or sister or Mom are teachers and they are different, they are one person, surrounded by tens of thousands that are the exact opposite.
The amazing thing is many people here go and do things to advance the Conservative Freedom loving Republic with their full effort, and then let their children go off to the other side to learn the opposite of everything they believe every day.
hear, hear... i love the homeschool lifestyle...
Excellent post!
One big advantage of homeschooling is that it allows your children to develop unique skills and character traits that help them stand apart in a crowd. In government-run schools where standardized testing has become more common over the years, it’s much harder for a kid who is out at the far end of the bell curve to make the case that he’s any different than his peers.
Pssst, 4 year degrees suck anyway.
My classmates, the ones that are doing the best are the ones with 2 year degrees and a SKILL.
Homeschooling fits well into that.
I homeschool my kids. It is lots of fun.
No,top colleges want people wth interests and passions. Homeschoolng can facillitate it but is no guarantee.
Bookmarked.
Ping for later, there are so many universities that are going after good home schooled kids, its not funny.
Colleges have learned that homeschoolers are more likely to have psychologically healthy living habits and are less of a drain on school personnel.
I had no problem with my kid going to a government run school. I told my kid that I want him to be an independent thinker and not buy into groupthink. He has an active social life and the thing my wife and I did was to get him into co-op so he could work and any class he could take outside of school and get credit for we signed him up for.
My kid hasn’t taken a gym class in 4 years. He takes business classes outside of school and wherever possible volunteers his time for senior citizens and autism groups.
He wound up authoring a book on autism, playing travel sports at a high level and he is getting called by college advisors about his college apps. My kid doesn’t have great grades nor a great SAT score. He is interesting and that’s what the schools are saying to him.
Of interest to homeschoolers.
So why, then, after a parent has home-schooled and shielded their kids from the liberal public indoctrination centers, would they then surrender them to the university liberal indoctrination factories? Even in conservative parts of the country, most have been taken over.
Hilldale college and a scattering of other colleges and universities would not undo the hard work of the parents. But other than that I’m not sure how to solve the dilemma.
I know that a sheepskin is the “ticket” to play. But sheesh.
The university liberal factories seem now to be trolling for the last sparks of brightness as evidenced by the article ....apparently, sadly, in order to either control them or snuff them out.
There must be a better way that freedom loving people can find to educate our young people.
Just food for thought...
Uh oh! Some government school defender is bound to “feel” personally hurt and offended by the “implied” insult to their very existence and going running whining to the moderator demanding that the thread be pulled.
Can’t hurt sensitive “feelings around here’, you see. /s
I was afraid to homeschool my youngest son when he was not flourishing in the p.s. herd. It’s the best thing that happened for him and our family. But, I had to adjust my work, and pretty much dedicate my life to it as the major priority.
It is a family lifestyle and it’s peaceful, sane and good. He ripped through his studies once he reconnected to his own body and mind. He lost himself in the herd. He found himself in homeschool.
You are right about the gadgets. Not much time to waste on video games and other nonsense. I can single handedly fill up twenty five lives with things we need to do and people we need to see. He was easy.
This ping list is for articles of interest to homeschoolers. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping List. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added or removed from either list, or both.
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This ping list is for articles of interest to homeschoolers. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping List. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added or removed from either list, or both.
The keyword for the FREE REPUBLIC HOMESCHOOLERS’ FORUM is frhf.
This ping list is for the “other” articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. This can occasionally be a fairly high volume list. Articles pinged to the Another Reason to Homeschool List will be given the keyword of ARTH. (If I remember. If I forget, please feel free to add it yourself)
The main Homeschool Ping List handles the homeschool-specific articles. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping list. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from either list, or both.
Not in Texas with it’s Top 10% rule. Top ranking high schoolers get an automatic admission.
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