Posted on 11/29/2005 1:34:50 AM PST by Lorianne
Like many critics, I used to feel vaguely sorry for home-schooled kids. What a shame, I thought, that they might be deprived of the well-rounded education and social skills to become integrated, productive members of society. I never thought to question why cafeteria food fights or the predatory pack habits of teenage girls would be better for molding productive members of society.
This uninformed, critical opinion lasted precisely until I met my first home-schooled children several years ago. Within one month I met five home-schooling families, and their 13 children were among the most polite, well-adjusted, socially adept and academically advanced kids I'd ever seen. Being home-educated seemed to have given them a confidence and maturity — and yes, social skill — far beyond their years. They had many friends, but didn't seem dependent on their peers for approval — a far cry from what I remember as a kid.
I've since learned that these kids were not the home-schooling exception but the rule, which makes me wonder how anyone could look at the data and say it deprives kids of anything. In a landmark study by Dr. Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute, among 7,000 young adults who had been home-schooled, 74 percent had attained some college courses, compared with just 46 percent of other young adults — and 82 percent said they would home-school their own kids. On the social front, almost twice as many home-schooled adults as those in the general population were active in their community (71 percent to 37 percent) and "very happy" with life (59 percent to 28 percent).
In 1998, a Home School Legal Defense Association's study of 20,760 home-school students found that: "In every subject and at every grade level (on standardized tests), home-school students scored significantly higher than their public and private school counterparts." Younger home-schoolers performed one grade level higher than their public and private school counterparts, and by eighth grade, "the average home-school student performs four grade levels above the national average."
Obviously, home education doesn't fit every family. But the evidence makes me think it's the kids who aren't home-schooled who may be missing out, not the other way around.
is this author for real? i guess not everyone sees things so clearly with all of this propaganda from the OM (fka MSM).
one day soon, it will be illegal to homeschool your children.
you must offer them up as "sacrificial lambs" to the NEA socialist re-education camps errrrr I mean public schools (where the dumbing down of america marches on).
This writer's experience has been the same as mine. I know many home schooled families. They are the greatest.
We homeschooled our 3 boys all the way thru HS. As we look back on those years and observe our children now, we can say with full confidence that we will never regret our choice to educate our children this way.
Being home-educated seemed to have given them a confidence and maturity — and yes, social skill — far beyond their years. They had many friends, but didn't seem dependent on their peers for approval — a far cry from what I remember as a kid.
ping
Do you really think so? Or do you have a God-defaming defeatist eschatological ax to grind? You seem to have forgotten HR 6, which melted down capital switchboards with history's largest single outpouring of resistance. You seem oblivious to the power of consecrated focus, and "ye do err, knowing neither the scriptures, nor the power of God."
(You're really joking, right? 'Cause I'd hate to be you if you aren't!)
The two kids I just met recently, did go to elementary; but were then homeschooled after seventh or eighth grade. . .and they were most impressvive.
. . . don't know if I have met any that were homeschooled in entirety. . .but it is no longer an 'isolating educational experience'. .
More Democrats in power, will insure greater problems for the 'homeschooled'; they do not want to lose a population of children to values other than those provided by the Government.
Hillary would just shut the door on it. . .for sure.
I tell every parent of a young child I meet -HOME SCHOOL! I truly feel that is the biggest mistake I made that I would cut off an arm to correct. Twenty years ago I didn't trust my own abilities and did not yet have my very well earned loathing and hatred of 'school', its administrators and 'zero tolerance policies' that never are enforced unless it's to protect a 'protected child' -and I do know of what I speak. In Southern Indiana I've clashed with 3 different school systems and found all lacking. The first -when our daughter was in the second grade wasn't too bad, but the other two were horrific.
Keep your children well socialized and in extracurricular activities such as music or (might I suggest) JUDO (for self-defence and discipline) for example, but keep them away from the shark packs that swim among the student, teacher and administrators that laughably try to disguise themselves as a 'school'.
Well said in all particulars.
That focus applies to power; just remember, that concentrated power is to be eschewed not invited as do our current socialized trends and ever-increasing, politically-correct culture. The Left. . .the Demrats. . .want nothing more, than to fulfill their own, 'will-to-power'.
Their every success; is 'our loss'; and should they eventually succeed in total; they will not suffer for long. . .the independence of any citizen educating a child outside Government boundaries.
Pray. . .but take nothing for granted; all prayers are not equal. . .
Your comment makes absolutely no sense. I'll just ignore it.
Then there's the fact that we have the guns.....
I was thinking the same thing. In my area, for example, there is a city school district where only 38% of the students graduate; yet in the adjacent suburban public school district, 93% of the students graduate and go on to college. For the homeschool statisitics to mean anything, we need to know how many of the 7000 home schooled students would have gone on to college if they had attended the public high school that services their area (as opposed to any public high school). Maybe 86% would have gone on to college, suggesting that public school is a better choice. I would also like to know how many of the home schooled students actually graduate from college (as opposed to merely taking "some college courses"), as well as the quality of the colleges they are attending. Although home schooling may be a better choice, these particular stats are meaningless.
My MS thesis compared democraphically matched samples of kids who were being home schooled vs. kids in public schools. All were from white, middle-class fundamentalist families. The home school kids far outperformed the others on a standardized test of social maturity, the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales.
"These statistics are just nonsense. You have to compare kids with the same social background."
Their called "self-selecting statistics" and I've been attempting to make the same point on another thread. The HSLDA (mentioned in the article) has statistics (oft quoted - and misinterpreted - by posters here) that describe a 30+ point increase in standardized test performance - All just by taking your kids out of public school!
I'm all for homeschooling - but you have to be rational about the potential benefits to academic achievement for each individual kid.
statistics lie, and simply correlating high achievement and saying it's because of homeschooling is simply not true - these high-achieving students are more often than not selected (in the statistical sense) for homeschooling by rightfully concerned parents worried that their gifts will not be sufficiently challenged by being around average-ability peers in public school.
Achievement should be honored and emulated wherever it is found. High-Achieving kids are often homeschooled, and should be held out as examples to other kids.
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