I wanna know the answer to the dollar question

Should I wait for your YouTube?

Funny you say that!

About halfway in to the investigation he asked, "we aren't making a YouTube of this are we?"

He was worried it was going to cut into his RC plane flying time.

Most of our stuff doesn't end up on YouTube - those things take a while to edit!

He noticed a trend in his early data that older bills weighed slightly more, but later data didn't support that.

Internet search concluded that older bills weighed slightly more due to oils and handling. They said moisture too, but I dispute that but didn't get into equilibrium moisture content with Alex.

In the end, he wants a bigger sample size - which may be a ploy for an advance on his allowance. I'm unsure.

zooguy96 said:

---

Gone Camping said:

---

1939 said:

---

MasonB said:

---

Better day to day example:

He just finished his math lesson on his own and came in to tell me one of the questions asked him the best unit to measure the weight of a dollar bill.

I told him I think a five dollar bill weighs 5 times as much as a single dollar bill and he told me my hypothesis was crazy, listing the reasons why.

I told him to prove it.

Which led to the picture.

And now he is collecting data on 10 different dollar bills and drawing conclusions about whether their weight changes the longer they are in circulation.

We are discussing sample size, unknown variables, and measurement error.

It's his curiosity and interest that is leading him, so he is having fun doing it (and fun proving me wrong).

But don't worry, TeslaAg - we will sneak some cigarettes in the bathroom later and I'll teach him how to hide the evidence from his mom.

---

Being completely serious here, this doesn't impress me. It's the exact type of thing that goes on every day in real schools.

---

Random experiments led by the student, that weren't planned in the curriculum, happen in "real" schools?
I'm gonna have to disagree.

---

Yeah, they don't. 99.9% of assignments are teacher-led, not student led.

---

Its 100% the case that the majority of homeschool parents think their kids are so smart that they are being held back being in a group setting or that they need sheltering from world. They spout out test scores and do apples to oranges comparisons to try and justify why traditional schooling is so terrible. I get that there are circumstances where it works better for some kids and that is fine.

The fact of the matter is that most schools provide a quality education as well as non-educational experiences that are just as good if not better than what you can provide through home schooling. Showing that your kid weighed a dollar bill is not some gotchya moment, that happens every day in schools all across America whether you have been brainwashed to believe it can't be true or not.

As with anything, the biggest factor in a child's development and educational success is parental involvement and socioeconomic status. Those that come from good households and/or money are the ones that are going to excel educationally. Unfortunately, public schools don't get to reject the bad kids and you see mass differences in educational outcomes amongst students within the same class. Because many of these kids from broken homes and don't put in any effort don't succeed people claim the schools are failing. If you can afford to have one parent stay home and put that much effort into your child's education, your kids will succeed in traditional school.

It should come as no surprise that the "good schools" are almost always in affluent communities and those in poor areas are often labeled as failing. A good case study here is rural districts that have mix of affluent and poor students with a diverse backgounds. The more affluent and often white kids succeed in school while the poor minorities don't. Does that mean it's a bad or failing school? Why are some students succeeding, going off to good colleges and having great careers while others are dropouts? Would your white affluent homeschooled kids succeed here? I bet they would.

I would love to see a long term study, and I'm sure they have been done, that compares home schooled vs. traditional schools students educational and life achievements controls the things I mentioned above. How does your average kid at A&M that was home schooled compare to a traditional schooled student at age 28? I'm sure all of you home school people are convinced that surely the home school kids are higher achievers, but I highly doubt it.

1939 said:

---

zooguy96 said:

---

Gone Camping said:

---

1939 said:

---

MasonB said:

---

Better day to day example:

He just finished his math lesson on his own and came in to tell me one of the questions asked him the best unit to measure the weight of a dollar bill.

I told him I think a five dollar bill weighs 5 times as much as a single dollar bill and he told me my hypothesis was crazy, listing the reasons why.

I told him to prove it.

Which led to the picture.

And now he is collecting data on 10 different dollar bills and drawing conclusions about whether their weight changes the longer they are in circulation.

We are discussing sample size, unknown variables, and measurement error.

It's his curiosity and interest that is leading him, so he is having fun doing it (and fun proving me wrong).

But don't worry, TeslaAg - we will sneak some cigarettes in the bathroom later and I'll teach him how to hide the evidence from his mom.

---

Being completely serious here, this doesn't impress me. It's the exact type of thing that goes on every day in real schools.

---

Random experiments led by the student, that weren't planned in the curriculum, happen in "real" schools?
I'm gonna have to disagree.

---

Yeah, they don't. 99.9% of assignments are teacher-led, not student led.

---

Its 100% the case that the majority of homeschool parents think their kids are so smart that they are being held back being in a group setting or that they need sheltering from world. They spout out test scores and do apples to oranges comparisons to try and justify why traditional schooling is so terrible. I get that there are circumstances where it works better for some kids and that is fine.

The fact of the matter is that most schools provide a quality education as well as non-educational experiences that are just as good if not better than what you can provide through home schooling. Showing that your kid weighed a dollar bill is not some gotchya moment, that happens every day in schools all across America whether you have been brainwashed to believe it can't be true or not.

As with anything, the biggest factor in a child's development and educational success is parental involvement and socioeconomic status. Those that come from good households and/or money are the ones that are going to excel educationally. Unfortunately, public schools don't get to reject the bad kids and you see mass differences in educational outcomes amongst students within the same class. Because many of these kids from broken homes and don't put in any effort don't succeed people claim the schools are failing. If you can afford to have one parent stay home and put that much effort into your child's education, your kids will succeed in traditional school.

It should come as no surprise that the "good schools" are almost always in affluent communities and those in poor areas are often labeled as failing. A good case study here is rural districts that have mix of affluent and poor students with a diverse backgounds. The more affluent and often white kids succeed in school while the poor minorities don't. Does that mean it's a bad or failing school? Why are some students succeeding, going off to good colleges and having great careers while others are dropouts? Would your white affluent homeschooled kids succeed here? I bet they would.

I would love to see a long term study, and I'm sure they have been done, that compares home schooled vs. traditional schools students educational and life achievements controls the things I mentioned above. How does your average kid at A&M that was home schooled compare to a traditional schooled student at age 28? I'm sure all of you home school people are convinced that surely the home school kids are higher achievers, but I highly doubt it.

---

Again, previous question. Have you been inside a classroom? Have you been a teacher?

Yes, I have been inside of classroom, my wife is a teacher, my mother is a retired teacher, and I went to school.

You didn't answer a single thing about what I posted, just reiterating that traditional schools suck and its fact because you said so.

It wasn't a gotcha moment. Someone asked what day to day looked like and I wanted to show a real time example.

Your experience with homeschoolers does not jive with mine.

And no small part of taking my son out of public school was the impact on his classmates and the teacher. We did it for others as much as us.

And for the OP, this is something to be prepared for. Lots of bitterness and misunderstanding about homeschooling that you will just have to learn to live with.

I've never criticized someone's individual choice to homeschool or any other school (except maybe t.u.).

But for some reason every Tom, Dick, and Jane feel the need to question what we do and ask us to justify it.

Total strangers will find out your kid is homeschooled and start quizzing them on math, science, math, or English right on the spot.

They are desperate to show what you do is inferior.

Strange phenomenon.

MasonB said:

---

Quote:

---

Being completely serious here, this doesn't impress me. It's the exact type of thing that goes on every day in real schools.

---

What we do is "real school".

And if you meant public schools - then great! Glad to hear it.

It hasn't been my experience that math class would stop down for an impromptu science investigation based on one child's interest, but if that is happening I'm all for it. Most of the teachers I know would love the opportunity and freedom to do those things, but are hamstrung by teaching to the test, schedules, teaching to the struggling, aiming to to middle, and/or managing behavioral issues.

---

It really seems like most you who are so pro homeschool here are citing examples of elementary age kids. I am more interested in the high school age. Its a totally different animal.

MasonB said:

---

It wasn't a gotcha moment. Someone asked what day to day looked like and I wanted to show a real time example.

Your experience with homeschoolers does not jive with mine.

And no small part of taking my son out of public school was the impact on his classmates and the teacher. We did it for others as much as us.

And for the OP, this is something to be prepared for. Lots of bitterness and misunderstanding about homeschooling that you will just have to learn to live with.

I've never criticized someone's individual choice to homeschool or any other school (except maybe t.u.).

But for some reason every Tom, Dick, and Jane feel the need to question what we do and ask us to justify it.

Total strangers will find out your kid is homeschooled and start quizzing them on math, science, math, or English right on the spot.

They are desperate to show what you do is inferior.

Strange phenomenon.

---

You can say that all you want, but this thread is full of homeschool parents bashing public schools. And I shouldn't say public schools but any traditional school, public or private.

What's ironic is that I am a former public school teacher supposedly bashing public schools because I'm pointing out that their framework is not as conducive for learning as other methods, due to a variety of things, such as state testing, inefficient administration, and ineffective parents.

Learning with a smaller group of motivated, structured, focused students is far more conducive to learning that teaching a class of 30 with many who don't want to learn, for a variety of reasons. In this instance, you're always teaching to the lowest learner.

I can tell you about the homeschooler who swims for Auburn and entered college with 20 some odd hours of credits, including STEM.

Or I can tell you about his homeschooled brother in law who is a second year med student at 22.

I could tell you about our coop director's daughter who starts med school in the fall.

I could tell you about the brother and sister who are crushing it a KU.

I could tell you about a homeschooler who started his landscaping business at 16 to save for college, but it went so well he skipped college to run the business and now runs multiple crews.

I can introduce you to Lacey Swope - a local weather personality who was homeschooled, has degrees in math and meteorology.

I can introduce you to the guy who runs Fire Fly Farms cheese factory in MD and was homeschooled.

It's like getting a red Toyota - suddenly you start seeing them everywhere. Everywhere we go we bump into someone who was or knows a homeschooler. We hear success stories all the time.

Are they all success stories? No.

Will Alex be? I don't know.

But I sure am enjoying the freedom to give it our best and see what happens.

I missed the private school bashing from homeschoolers.

As for public schools, the biggest critics I see are public school teachers. And I truly feel for them.

Our coop is mostly staffed with former public school teachers escaping.

The biggest critics of homeschooling seem to be people with no direct experience with it or threatened by it.

I bet your Co-op is staffed with RETIRED former public school teachers wanting a second income. Public school teachers are actually some of the biggest DEFENDERS of public schools.

You can list all the successful former homeschooled students as far as the eye can see, I never said that kids that were homeschooled can't succeed. What I have argued is that those people that you mentioned would have had similar outcomes if they would not have been homeschooled, because they had parents that cared and would have pushed them to succeed in any school setting. Your argument seems to be that if those same people would have been in a public school they would have had worse outcomes because you don't think public school provides a quality education. This is the exact scenario that I said in an earlier post that I wish there was a study on.

You'd be wrong. Most of the teachers at our coop are in their 30s and 40s.

But that sticks with theme of anti-homeschoolers arguing with their perceptions instead of reality.

I agree that many teachers try to defend public schools while frustrated with its flaws. Tough position to be in.

And I agree, those kids would have likely been successful in a public school. Why begrudge them and their families the path that they chose and preferred?

Also, look at it this way. It's a time issue.

Public school (High School): ways teachers lose instructional time : pep rallies, club meetings, drills, discipline, state test review (this is minimum 2-3 weeks).

Home school (High School): ways teachers lose instructional time: students being curious, going to museums, etc, doing many different types of learning due to smaller class size, providing more individualized instruction.

Not all public schools are "bad". They are just less effective due to time, state tests, etc. Teachers don't have the time or ability to be as creative due to the constraints they have to teach under.

Which one are teachers leaving in droves?

One friend - asst principal at a school in Texas. Over 50% of their teachers don't have a full teaching license (provisional) - and they still have 8-10 positions unfilled because they can't find anyone to teach.

Another friend - district testing coordinator for a large district in the Houston area - same thing, but on a larger scale.

1939 said:

---

zooguy96 said:

---

Gone Camping said:

---

1939 said:

---

MasonB said:

---

Better day to day example:

He just finished his math lesson on his own and came in to tell me one of the questions asked him the best unit to measure the weight of a dollar bill.

I told him I think a five dollar bill weighs 5 times as much as a single dollar bill and he told me my hypothesis was crazy, listing the reasons why.

I told him to prove it.

Which led to the picture.

And now he is collecting data on 10 different dollar bills and drawing conclusions about whether their weight changes the longer they are in circulation.

We are discussing sample size, unknown variables, and measurement error.

It's his curiosity and interest that is leading him, so he is having fun doing it (and fun proving me wrong).

But don't worry, TeslaAg - we will sneak some cigarettes in the bathroom later and I'll teach him how to hide the evidence from his mom.

---

Being completely serious here, this doesn't impress me. It's the exact type of thing that goes on every day in real schools.

---

Random experiments led by the student, that weren't planned in the curriculum, happen in "real" schools?
I'm gonna have to disagree.

---

Yeah, they don't. 99.9% of assignments are teacher-led, not student led.

---

Its 100% the case that the majority of homeschool parents think their kids are so smart that they are being held back being in a group setting or that they need sheltering from world. They spout out test scores and do apples to oranges comparisons to try and justify why traditional schooling is so terrible. I get that there are circumstances where it works better for some kids and that is fine.

The fact of the matter is that most schools provide a quality education as well as non-educational experiences that are just as good if not better than what you can provide through home schooling. Showing that your kid weighed a dollar bill is not some gotchya moment, that happens every day in schools all across America whether you have been brainwashed to believe it can't be true or not.

As with anything, the biggest factor in a child's development and educational success is parental involvement and socioeconomic status. Those that come from good households and/or money are the ones that are going to excel educationally. Unfortunately, public schools don't get to reject the bad kids and you see mass differences in educational outcomes amongst students within the same class. Because many of these kids from broken homes and don't put in any effort don't succeed people claim the schools are failing. If you can afford to have one parent stay home and put that much effort into your child's education, your kids will succeed in traditional school.

It should come as no surprise that the "good schools" are almost always in affluent communities and those in poor areas are often labeled as failing. A good case study here is rural districts that have mix of affluent and poor students with a diverse backgounds. The more affluent and often white kids succeed in school while the poor minorities don't. Does that mean it's a bad or failing school? Why are some students succeeding, going off to good colleges and having great careers while others are dropouts? Would your white affluent homeschooled kids succeed here? I bet they would.

I would love to see a long term study, and I'm sure they have been done, that compares home schooled vs. traditional schools students educational and life achievements controls the things I mentioned above. How does your average kid at A&M that was home schooled compare to a traditional schooled student at age 28? I'm sure all of you home school people are convinced that surely the home school kids are higher achievers, but I highly doubt it.

---

Welcome to the machine. Teachers want to punch a clock with as many easy kids as possible. If kids succeed, it's the parents, if they fail, it's the parents. Why isn't it ever the teachers? Everyone shows up when the work is easy; character shows through when it's hard.

You're not scoring a lot of points for public school.

1939 said:

---

zooguy96 said:

---

Gone Camping said:

---

1939 said:

---

MasonB said:

---

Better day to day example:

He just finished his math lesson on his own and came in to tell me one of the questions asked him the best unit to measure the weight of a dollar bill.

I told him I think a five dollar bill weighs 5 times as much as a single dollar bill and he told me my hypothesis was crazy, listing the reasons why.

I told him to prove it.

Which led to the picture.

And now he is collecting data on 10 different dollar bills and drawing conclusions about whether their weight changes the longer they are in circulation.

We are discussing sample size, unknown variables, and measurement error.

It's his curiosity and interest that is leading him, so he is having fun doing it (and fun proving me wrong).

But don't worry, TeslaAg - we will sneak some cigarettes in the bathroom later and I'll teach him how to hide the evidence from his mom.

---

Being completely serious here, this doesn't impress me. It's the exact type of thing that goes on every day in real schools.

---

Random experiments led by the student, that weren't planned in the curriculum, happen in "real" schools?
I'm gonna have to disagree.

---

Yeah, they don't. 99.9% of assignments are teacher-led, not student led.

---

Its 100% the case that the majority of homeschool parents think their kids are so smart that they are being held back being in a group setting or that they need sheltering from world. They spout out test scores and do apples to oranges comparisons to try and justify why traditional schooling is so terrible. I get that there are circumstances where it works better for some kids and that is fine.

The fact of the matter is that most schools provide a quality education as well as non-educational experiences that are just as good if not better than what you can provide through home schooling. Showing that your kid weighed a dollar bill is not some gotchya moment, that happens every day in schools all across America whether you have been brainwashed to believe it can't be true or not.

As with anything, the biggest factor in a child's development and educational success is parental involvement and socioeconomic status. Those that come from good households and/or money are the ones that are going to excel educationally. Unfortunately, public schools don't get to reject the bad kids and you see mass differences in educational outcomes amongst students within the same class. Because many of these kids from broken homes and don't put in any effort don't succeed people claim the schools are failing. If you can afford to have one parent stay home and put that much effort into your child's education, your kids will succeed in traditional school.

It should come as no surprise that the "good schools" are almost always in affluent communities and those in poor areas are often labeled as failing. A good case study here is rural districts that have mix of affluent and poor students with a diverse backgounds. The more affluent and often white kids succeed in school while the poor minorities don't. Does that mean it's a bad or failing school? Why are some students succeeding, going off to good colleges and having great careers while others are dropouts? Would your white affluent homeschooled kids succeed here? I bet they would.

I would love to see a long term study, and I'm sure they have been done, that compares home schooled vs. traditional schools students educational and life achievements controls the things I mentioned above. How does your average kid at A&M that was home schooled compare to a traditional schooled student at age 28? I'm sure all of you home school people are convinced that surely the home school kids are higher achievers, but I highly doubt it.

---

It's more a recognition that our children have unique abilities and unique deficiencies. Most of us aren't grade fetishists. Those are standards the public school system set for itself. We didn't do that. They did. Why would you be upset when we point out the system doesn't even succeed by its own standards? You can talk about why that is, but the fact is that it ultimately stems from an attitude that parents are not their children's primary educators. Homeschool families broadly have different standards. We're talking about 2 completely different philosophies for educating children. You're trying to project the public school philosophy onto a homeschool model for education. We're not even doing the same thing except that they fit under the gigantic umbrella of terms like school and education.

because that's the reality. Sure some teachers are better than others, but to act like a kids home life is just some minor indicator of student achievement is putting your head in the sand. It's not the only factor, but its the biggest one. I don't care if you're a damn good teacher, public school scores in South Dallas are not going to be better than Highland Park ISD.

Again, I'm not saying that home schooling doesn't or can't educate a child as good as a traditional school, or that there aren't some advantages. Homeschool parents don't seem to believe there is any scenario where a public school can provide a better or equal education and life experience than home schooling does, and they seem to want to ignore specifics regarding school demographics and claim all public schools are bad because some of them have low average standardized test scores.

It's actually kind of funny, most anti-public school people rail against standardized tests yet they use them to to prove to everyone why public schools are bad.

1939 said:

---

because that's the reality. Sure some teachers are better than others, but to act like a kids home life is just some minor indicator of student achievement is putting your head in the sand. It's not the only factor, but its the biggest one. I don't care if you're a damn good teacher, public school scores in South Dallas are not going to be better than Highland Park ISD.

Again, I'm not saying that home schooling doesn't or can't educate a child as good as a traditional school, or that there aren't some advantages. Homeschool parents don't seem to believe there is any scenario where a public school can provide a better or equal education and life experience than home schooling does, and they seem to want to ignore specifics regarding school demographics and claim all public schools are bad because some of them have low average standardized test scores.

It's actually kind of funny, most anti-public school people rail against standardized tests yet they use them to to prove to everyone why public schools are bad.

---

They're right, though. There's a culture element to homeschooling that will never be replicated in public school. That ranges from technology to family life, to peer groups, to visiting historical sites and interests.

The comeback is always that they miss out on the upper 1% of educational possibilities. An average student with the family culture you prefer is still the best outcome. There's no winning argument. Public schools are not good culture setters and the responses such as, 'you have to learn to deal with all types of people', 'do you just want your daughters to be breeders', or whatever else there is aren't compelling. Good parents care about their children's outcomes beyond college and their 20s. It starts with family culture. None of the defenders here are the enabling screen handing type.

I and my wife went to public schools. My parents and some grandparents taught there. It's not an argument in a vacuum. We're at a private that overlaps more with homeschool or co-op/university than traditional private and I'd do homeschool before I did traditional private.

AGC said:

---

1939 said:

---

because that's the reality. Sure some teachers are better than others, but to act like a kids home life is just some minor indicator of student achievement is putting your head in the sand. It's not the only factor, but its the biggest one. I don't care if you're a damn good teacher, public school scores in South Dallas are not going to be better than Highland Park ISD.

Again, I'm not saying that home schooling doesn't or can't educate a child as good as a traditional school, or that there aren't some advantages. Homeschool parents don't seem to believe there is any scenario where a public school can provide a better or equal education and life experience than home schooling does, and they seem to want to ignore specifics regarding school demographics and claim all public schools are bad because some of them have low average standardized test scores.

It's actually kind of funny, most anti-public school people rail against standardized tests yet they use them to to prove to everyone why public schools are bad.

---

They're right, though. There's a culture element to homeschooling that will never be replicated in public school. That ranges from technology to family life, to peer groups, to visiting historical sites and interests.

The comeback is always that they miss out on the upper 1% of educational possibilities. An average student with the family culture you prefer is still the best outcome. There's no winning argument. Public schools are not good culture setters and the responses such as, 'you have to learn to deal with all types of people', 'do you just want your daughters to be breeders', or whatever else there is aren't compelling. Good parents care about their children's outcomes beyond college and their 20s. It starts with family culture. None of the defenders here are the enabling screen handing type.

I and my wife went to public schools. My parents and some grandparents taught there. It's not an argument in a vacuum. We're at a private that overlaps more with homeschool or co-op/university than traditional private and I'd do homeschool before I did traditional private.

---

Well there you have it, there is no reasoning with you, you believe that homeschooling is better than traditional school in every aspect no matter the school and specifics of the child's situation. Nothing is going to change your mind.

Thread recap:

"Homeschooling is just kids on iPads and being lazy"

"Actually, no. There are many academically rigorous options and more everyday."

------------

"Well, it's isolating and the kids are weird."

"Not these days, there is proliferation of social activities and homeschoolers put in a lot of effort to give their kids those opportunities for social development."

----------

"Well, it's too sheltered and religious. My kids need to slay ass and pound beer"

"Homeschool kids are still kids. Plenty of them are out exploring in all kinds of ways,"

--------

"I know some former homeschoolers and they are weird."

"You likely know some that aren't weird, so it doesn't cross your mind. Plus homeschooling has evolved."

--------

"The mom can't teach everything."

"Typically they don't try to."

---------

"Fine for little kids, but they are limited in high school."

"Homeschool actually has more options to chose from in any subject."

-------

"Well, it's not good for kids with special needs."

"The flexibility and choices let us tailor to their needs."

--------

"Well, not everyone can do it."

"Agreed. Why does that mean we should denigrate those who do?"

---------

"Homeschoolers think their kids are better than everyone else."

"No. We just want what's best for our kids."

--------

"Public school can do everything homeschool can."

"Well, it can't do x, y, z"

"There is no reasoning with you!"

Not a great post. Many of the things you listed were not settled by any stretch.

1939 said:

---

AGC said:

---

1939 said:

---

because that's the reality. Sure some teachers are better than others, but to act like a kids home life is just some minor indicator of student achievement is putting your head in the sand. It's not the only factor, but its the biggest one. I don't care if you're a damn good teacher, public school scores in South Dallas are not going to be better than Highland Park ISD.

Again, I'm not saying that home schooling doesn't or can't educate a child as good as a traditional school, or that there aren't some advantages. Homeschool parents don't seem to believe there is any scenario where a public school can provide a better or equal education and life experience than home schooling does, and they seem to want to ignore specifics regarding school demographics and claim all public schools are bad because some of them have low average standardized test scores.

It's actually kind of funny, most anti-public school people rail against standardized tests yet they use them to to prove to everyone why public schools are bad.

---

They're right, though. There's a culture element to homeschooling that will never be replicated in public school. That ranges from technology to family life, to peer groups, to visiting historical sites and interests.

The comeback is always that they miss out on the upper 1% of educational possibilities. An average student with the family culture you prefer is still the best outcome. There's no winning argument. Public schools are not good culture setters and the responses such as, 'you have to learn to deal with all types of people', 'do you just want your daughters to be breeders', or whatever else there is aren't compelling. Good parents care about their children's outcomes beyond college and their 20s. It starts with family culture. None of the defenders here are the enabling screen handing type.

I and my wife went to public schools. My parents and some grandparents taught there. It's not an argument in a vacuum. We're at a private that overlaps more with homeschool or co-op/university than traditional private and I'd do homeschool before I did traditional private.

---

Well there you have it, there is no reasoning with you, you believe that homeschooling is better than traditional school in every aspect no matter the school and specifics of the child's situation. Nothing is going to change your mind.

---

Not true, but believe what you want. Most homeschool students don't need what you're selling or their families can provide it with family and cultural cohesion (re: no need to be bullied, exposed to bad culture, social programming, etc.). The product you offer was always intended for the lowest common denominator and they're very keen to that.

As long as we are free to choose, it doesn't have to be settled.

I care about people having accurate information and then I trust them to do what is best for them.

Maybe someday there will be a mass migration away from homeschooling and back to public schools and you can ttt this thread and give me a big told ya so.

For those curious how the dollar weight investigation went...

It led to us getting a 100 of them and sorting them by years. The average of each group was 1.0 gram within our margin of measuring error.

But we noticed something odd. We had years of 1985, 2003, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2021.

Which lead us to research that explained bills are released in series and the year of that series doesn't necessarily reflect the year it was printed. (Bills printed in 2020 would be marked 2017).

Which lead us to see how many bills were printed each year, but that data isn't available (or we didn't find it), but we did find how many dollar bills are in circulation each year.

Which made us wonder how that compares to inflation since Alex is well versed on printing money causes inflation.

Which led us to looking up inflation by year and putting together this graph.



And now he is outside flying his RC plane waiting for the bus to bring his friends home.

I don't know why you are saying the product I offer. I don't work in education.

And you're wrong once again, schools have different paths for different students, dual credit, some districts even have magnet programs.

1939 said:

---

I don't know why you are saying the product I offer. I don't work in education.

---

So you're just simpin for fun?

By the way the green line should be going the opposite direction. The value of a dollar in 2025 is not nearly double what it was in 2000, it's nearly half.

That's not what the graph is saying. It's saying you would need $1.83 in 2023 to buy what you could for $1 in 1999.

If you don't like the convention, you can take it up with the MN Federal Reserve

https://www.minneapolisfed.org/about-us/monetary-policy/inflation-calculator

But if my explanation is poor, you'll have to forgive me. I was public school educated.

I can have Alex explain it to you if need be.

1939 said:

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Not a great post. Many of the things you listed were not settled by any stretch.

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You would need $1.83 in 2023 to purchase something that cost one dollar in 2000. The value of your dollar did not increase. I understand what you're trying to say, but the graph is wrong, it's saying that as the money supply increases so does the value of a dollar, that's is false.

The value of a dollar decreases with inflation, that's a pretty well accepted concept.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1032048/value-us-dollar-since-1640/

I understand the purchasing power goes down. We all do.

Again - take it up with the fed or any other online calculator that spits out the worth of a 2025 dollar compared to 2000.

I hate that I missed out on this discussion! But, I just have to throw this out there because it's my current battle:

If you're in Texas, HB3 is having a public hearing on March 11. This bill attaches strings to homeschoolers that they do not currently have. We have immense freedom in Texas and it's so sad to see this occurring. If it passes, don't take the money.

All it's saying is the you would need $1.83 in 2023 to equal $1 in 2000. That means your dollar is worth less in 2023 than it was in 2000. That is not the same thing as your graph which is saying your dollar is worth more today than in 2000.

If a house that was worth 100k in 2000 is now worth $300k, it means your dollar is worth less because you have to have three times as many to buy the same thing.

What you should do is set the first year in the calculator to 2024 and the second to 2000, and it will show you that your dollar is worth about half of what it was in 2000.

Back to home schooling...my .02.

I taught HS for 4 years. And University for about 20, on and off.

HS - taught 2 years inner city, 2 years Dallas TAG.

Many very bright kids, but more in TAG than the project school. Why -- number one reason was parent involvement, IMO.

Home schooling is maximum parent involvement, if you are willing to do what it takes to maximize their learning. This does not mean that the kid will be albert/alberta einstein. But you can/will do more to maximize their potential, if your stones are big enough and your committment unwaivering, than any teacher in a public school and more than most private schools, unless you are talking about an environment like St. Mark's (Dallas) or perhaps Dallas TAG -- but even TAG was not in the same echelon as St. Mark's.

One teacher might be better than you, even divided 30 ways. But it is a unicorn school for the average teacher is better than you - when they are divided 30 ways in each class, and that is before they have to fight through all the admin BS.

BTW several of my favorite undergrads were home-schooled, and a much higher proportion of home-schooled were near the top of my classes than overall students.