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There are many reasons that growing numbers of American families are home schooling their children. For most, I would suspect that academics is not the primary motivation. The good news is that home schooled children perform very well academically.
"Studies suggest that those who go on to college will outperform their peers. Students coming from a home school graduated college at a higher rate than their peers* -- 66.7 percent compared to 57.5 percent -- and earned higher grade point averages along the way, according to a study that compared students at one doctoral university from 2004-2009. They're also better socialized than most high school students, says Joe Kelly, an author and parenting expert who home-schooled his twin daughters ..."
Home schooling is no longer a go-it-alone affair for most families. Almost every city has a network of semi-organized homeschoolers who do things together and help each other. Children are not limited by the education levels of their parents. By high school, students learn to self-study and typically leave their parents behind in a few subjects. Parents learn right alongside their children in other subjects. There are home education curriculum providers offering learning support classes with tutors - tutors with Ph.Ds in some cases. Resources from webinars to DVDs to online unit studies are available. Local tutors from the community - college students and retirees - are often very affordable. Because home schooling takes less time, students have more time for extra-curricular activities like music, martial arts, sports, volunteer work, and other hobbies. It can make for a rich and balanced life.
Homeschooled children who are schooled well and prepared for college will do fine. Statistically their numbers may even outperform since there are fewer of them and pulled from a smaller pool as opposed to places that accept anyone with a minimum GPA.
This doesn't address what percentage of homeschooled kids actually do go to college however. And the "better socialized" claim seems to be purely arbitrary and self made by the author who homeschools his kids.
To all non-socialist/communist parents: do you want to shape your children's value system or do you want Marxist's turning them into Obamazombie's? Take your kids out of these indoctrination camps!
To all non-socialist/communist parents: do you want to shape your children's value system or do you want Marxist's turning them into Obamazombie's? Take your kids out of these indoctrination camps!
It probably can't be if everyone is expected to work.
Now, there has never been anything stopping parents from teaching kids anything even when they go to formal school. It's a weird idea that some folks seem to have when they play one against the other. And it's stupid.
Homeschooled children who are schooled well and prepared for college will do fine. Statistically their numbers may even outperform since there are fewer of them and pulled from a smaller pool as opposed to places that accept anyone with a minimum GPA.
This doesn't address what percentage of homeschooled kids actually do go to college however. And the "better socialized" claim seems to be purely arbitrary and self made by the author who homeschools his kids.
Great post. Those were my thoughts exactly. It could be that only the best homeschool students go to college and thus it skews their performance in college. The studies listed are interesting, but there really needs to be more data available to really have a discussion on the benefits of home school.
Their performance may be more variable since they are more dependent on their parents. Thus, a home school child with fundamentalist religious parents may not get exposure to as many ideas whereas a home schooled child of parents with advanced degrees may have an advantage.
I tried digging around, but I can't find any more data on the subject.
Great post. Those were my thoughts exactly. It could be that only the best homeschool students go to college and thus it skews their performance in college. The studies listed are interesting, but there really needs to be more data available to really have a discussion on the benefits of home school.
Their performance may be more variable since they are more dependent on their parents. Thus, a home school child with fundamentalist religious parents may not get exposure to as many ideas whereas a home schooled child of parents with advanced degrees may have an advantage.
I agree with the above and Cecee's post as well.
I actually do support homeschooling to an extent and do feel that it can be better than public or private schools sometimes. I actually did consider homeschooling my kids if my husband had accepted a job transfer to another city that I felt did not provide my kids the opportunity to go to a good quality school.
That said, I feel that a lot of fundamentalist religious parents home school their kids primarily with a religious focus and not an academic focus. I will have to research it but traditionally it was more fundamentalist religious parents who home schooled versus those homeschooling due to low quality schools or just to provide their kids a more well rounded education versus that provided in a school. Due to this, I would actually doubt that home schooled kids go to college above or even at the rate that traditional students go to college. I can believe that those who get there do better though, especially if they were educated by a great home school community as those kids would have benefited from individualized attention and learning and a lot of research has shown a more tutorial method (individualized attention) lets students learn at their own pace more often and perform better academically.
Parents learning along with their children is not an ideal way to teach. The teacher should know more than the students.
The old saying comes to mind. There are those who can do and the others teach. I agree the teacher should be the master. The teacher should also care enough to actually try and teach. Todays public schools? Jobs handed out based on bribes or who you know instead of qualifications?
I would say that it is a crap shoot sending your kids to a public school.
The old saying comes to mind. There are those who can do and the others teach. I agree the teacher should be the master. The teacher should also care enough to actually try and teach. Todays public schools? Jobs handed out based on bribes or who you know instead of qualifications?
I would say that it is a crap shoot sending your kids to a public school.
Not that I'm aware of.
And if you went to public school you can only teach your kids what you know.
Fortunately education and learning isn't limited to 12 years, 6 hours a day. The best and brightest know this. The rest...
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