Aaaaah! Not a proud moment to be a homeschool grad (birth through high school), but I must say, I know hundreds of homeschooled kids, and have met about 1 like this guy. The rest are all basically normal.

tikvah on June 8, 2007 at 8:42 PM

That’s BS too. I also know hundreds of home schooled children, and lot’s of them are pretty similar to this one. The difference between them and many public schooled kids is that they actually learned something worthwhile in school other than exactly how to “fit it” or “disappear in the crowd” so that Godless people would “think” they are “normal”. And the other difference is, by and large from my experiences anyway, they love the Lord their God.

IF “normal” and “fitting in with the crowd” is what we hope to accomplish by publically schooling the children, then we are doomed as a God fearing Nation.

(No one thinks it’s great that a CNN reporter was fumbling through the whole thing along with the kid? What’s with you people????)

manwithblackhat on June 8, 2007 at 11:41 AM

Because we remember who she used to be. It still hurts a little to remember that she used to be my favorite Fox News babe. Anyway, I guess this is the cost of going over to the dark side, eh?

OH man he is lucky I’m no this dad

tomas on June 8, 2007 at 8:51 AM

Tomas, it’s evident you are NOT his dad as you spelled ‘NOT’ wrong! ;)

Sorry Buddy, couldn’t resist! ;)

Yet but for the grace of God, there go I.

The last time I saw a high school age kid interviewed on Fox and Friends; he was illiterate and was so nervous he could not answer the questions.

I think people that criticize home schooled children are just trying to justify the public schools their children attend and are jealous.

Like another poster said, the ones I see coming out of public schools have tattoos, body piercing, multi colored hair, and wear the pants have way down their ass like some thug rapper and talk like them too.

Their vocabulary is at grade school level and could not pass a third grade spelling test even with their PC on their laps.

Nevertheless, hey they are socialized by the indoctrination centers into the finer things in life, right.

I live in Mexifornia, so consider my location.

But why am I reading this? Every moment here wastes valuable seconds I’m not reading about Paris.

Put your own selves in front of cameras for the first time, and you will behave poorly. He is the envy of every intelligent kid in the world, and some people think he should be ashamed because he didn’t learn it in a public school?

Whether he is socially awkward or not is irrelevant. He is obviously smart. I am pissed at Kiran for not asking better questions, like who are your role models, what are your favorite subjects, favorite books, etc. Would be much more interesting than how stupid she looked asking him trivial nonsense.

he’s completely unaware. He’s homeschooled and very uncomfortable socially.

RightWinged, you seem to attribute his poor social skills to home schooling. How are you making this correlation?

but you need to socialize your kids or they wind up like this

Let’s all quit with the “socialization” bull crap. It sounds like ya’ll are referring to a pit bull, not a young boy. IMHO, most kids in public schools are the ones with poor social skills. Yes, this boy could use some helpful hints. To try to infer that his demeanor is because of home schooling is just wrong.

Having said all that, there is no chance at all that my kids (when I have some) will be attending public schools. They’re either going to a well-vetted private school or I’ll be homeschooling them (in a structured way, not haphazardly as my parents did).

By the way, those are precisely the thoughts of my friend. Even though her homeschooling was atrocious. Go figure.

That said, although homeschooling may be right for some, this kid seems like someone whose scholarly and social life is severely restricted (as many but by no means all homeschooled kids are). Such restrictions mean that there are going to be certain scholarly and social gaps that a more well-rounded child will not have, and it’s easier to be more well-rounded in public or private school. I view homeschooling like many of you view vegetarianism: If done correctly, it can be healthier than the alternative, but it’s so easy to do wrongly that it might not be best on balance for most.

In the interest of full disclosure, I went to public school, but a best friend was homeschooled in a way that severely negatively impacted the course of her life. Her knowledge of biology is at a grad school level while her knowledge of mathematics is at an elementary school level. Her social skills are similarly all over the map, depending on the situation; she’s good at both captivating and alienating people. This kid might be similarly both advanced and stunted.

For everyone talking about the kid being rude, he’s completely unaware. He’s homeschooled and very uncomfortable socially. I’m not against homeschooling, because the public school system is crap… but you need to socialize your kids or they wind up like this… even in to adult years. They can be the nicest people who would do anything for you, etc. but they just can’t interact normally with people and just have regular conversations. Sometimes, even if you’re related or relatively close to a family of them, they can’t even comfortable talk to you without stuttering and talking really low. Anyway, I just had to point out, to all those accusing him of being rude, etc., that he’s not being rude at all, he’s just a very awkward kid.