Home-schooled students shine in National Merit list

Chicago Sun Times ^ | September 29, 2003 | KATE N. GROSSMAN

[SLB]

In the years before she started home schooling her children, Annette Bramsen, a chatty whirlwind of a mom, was a major skeptic. But after more than a decade of teaching her kids at home in rural St. Charles, she is a convert -- and one armed with powerful ammunition.

Sarah, her 17-year-old daughter, was recently named a National Merit Semifinalist, putting her among the top 1 percent of Illinois seniors who took the Preliminary SAT.

She's part of a growing number of home-schooled kids cracking this elite group. Since 1997, their ranks have grown by about 180 percent, from nearly 100 to 266, including four in the metro area this year.

The number awarded National Merit Scholarships, the top prize, has jumped by more than 500 percent since 1995, from 21 to 129.

"I knew my abilities already, but it's nice for people who think home schooling won't work," said Sarah, whose eldest brother won a scholarship, one of about 8,000 awarded nationally. Another brother earned a commendation for scoring just below the semifinalist level.

"It gives us something to show them," said Sarah, as she flipped through her log of daily lessons -- including two chapters of calculus, three of the book Brave New World and four Bible chapters -- in the family room of her classic New England-style wood home.

The number of home-schoolers is up dramatically, with the National Home Education Research Institute estimating between 1.7 million and 2.1 million last school year, up from 1.2 million in 1996. Their ACT college admission scores are also consistently above the national average (22.5 vs. 20.8 in 2003), and an education institute study of 5,400 home-schooled kids found scores on standardized exams consistently above national averages in 1995 and 1996.

Many parents in this unconventional group embrace convention, when it comes to standardized tests -- to prove to doubting relatives, neighbors and friends they haven't gone off the deep end.

"It makes parents feel more comfortable," said Laura Derrick, president of the National Home Education Network. "If they can see where their child is in relation to the other kids, they know they're not ruining them."

About half the nation's home-schooled children live in states where an assessment is required by law, but many who live in states that don't, such as Illinois, test anyway. They often use national exams, such as the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills or the Stanford Achievement Test.

"We tried to use the test to see what Sarah still needed to learn," said Annette Bramsen, who gave her kids Stanford exams when they were younger. "My job isn't based on how she does. The test isn't a threat for us, it's an opportunity."

As their kids approach college, though, the tests take on more importance. Even those families that have shunned testing have to conform to land a university spot.

"It does feel good to see how I stacked up," said Mona Luxion, a 17-year-old Chicagoan who was named a semifinalist. Her family follows an "unschooling" philosophy, a child-directed model that doesn't try to recreate school at home. Before the PSAT, Mona had never taken a standardized test.

"The scores were sort of a surprise and a validation of home-schooling," she said. "Home-schooling has made me a better person. It gave me a love of learning. But I felt the good scores also showed that I had a quantitative measurement of what I'd learned."

College admissions officials are accustomed to seeing home school applications by now, but admit they scrutinize the SAT or ACT scores more closely.

"You'll look for validation in the testing in a way you wouldn't at a traditional high school," said Nanette Tarbouni, director of admissions at Washington University in St. Louis.

Or, as Sarah, a slight brunette in worn jeans and house slippers, put it: "The colleges can't just look at your grades -- they might be suspicious of an A your mom gives you."

[Moby Grape]

And I will bet that the STUDENT spending for home schooled kids is one tenth was so-called "public" schools spend.

[scouse]

two chapters of calculus, three of the book Brave New World and four Bible chapters

Not a very good curriculum by today's standards. I do not see anything concerning "The Women's place in the Trojan Wars" or "Finger Painting 101" :^))

[Luke Skyfreeper]

Our household is so much more relaxed, and the best part is that we have so much time to spend with our kids and get to know them. They're in 8th and 10th grades, and I'm so glad they haven't been getting an overdose of the 'I hate my parents' and 'My parents are idiots' talk from the typical middle and high school kids! Our kids don't think it is strange to actually want to be with us and do things with us! It also helps that they have other teenage homeschooling friends who share the same attitudes.

Major difference ping!

[Luke Skyfreeper]

I homeschool because I want to. Because I personally believe that the main part of my children's life should be under the direct instruction of my husband, or myself. For us, it is purely a personal decision that we are thankful we have the freedom to choose.

Well said.

[SLB]

We recently began homeschooling several of our children, and I am very interested in homeschooling stories.

Do you follow a packaged curriculum? Or do you design your own? Do you use the same materials for each child?
At first we bought packaged materials, but soon found that each child had their own strengths and weaknesses with learning so we now tailor to each child. One likes Saxon math the next BJU, it varies.

About how many hours a day are spent homeschooling? (the reason I ask is that one of our children who attends school came home yesterday with a load of homework, AND she spent six or so hours at school doing schoolwork. the child has little time for socializing at school and zero time for unwinding at home due to homework. our homeschooled children are so much more relaxed.)
Our daily routine is a flexible, but usually is something like this (for the kids):
Up, breakfast, beds made and dishes done by 9:00 AM.
School until about 1:00 (first thing is a Bible study, He is the center of our lives and so deserves to be first) they take a short break around 11:30 for tea served with some crackers.
Lunch from 1:00 until 2:00
Free time or makeup school from 2:00 until 3:30

The four or so hours of intense instruction at home are probably equal to 8 hours or more in the classroom of a public school. Plus, as mom helps one the other can catch up on home work.
Start dinner at 3:30.

Both of the girls still at home are very involved in a local dance studio. The oldest one is a teacher there, so they have any where from one to 5 hours a day there starting about 4:30. Dinner is sometimes hectic because of that, but they both do their share.

After dinner we have a family devotional at the table and then bedtime chores such as feed dogs, cats and birds. (Dad does the dishes!)
After chores the girls have showers and get ready for bed then curl up on the couch with mom for reading. (They are now about half way through the RR Tolken trilogy). Bedtime is by 10:15.

Sometimes the reading at night is only 10 or so minutes, but it often is much longer.

Hang in there and realize that many days will seem hectic, but then you have wonderful times in between. Join a local support group, but be certain to pick and choose the activites, there are usually more offered than can be attended. We look over the offerings and then decide which are worthy. Last but not least and above all, pray for your children, for them now and for the future.

[Luke Skyfreeper]

The college was not concerned in the least with her being home schooled, in fact they were glad she was as the program at Oxford, Regent's Park College, is self paced with only one meeting per week with the tutor. Obviously a public schooled student that is not used to having self drive does not do as well as someone who is used to studying in that manner.

"We believe that politically-run, union-controlled mass public schooling programs cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience."

[LiteKeeper]

I am a retired Army Chaplain (ret 1995); VietNam vet - 1967-1969 (Field Artillery Officer in those days)

I am currently teaching Comparative Worldview (biblical vs humanist) class in the evenings at the Air Force Academy Prep School, Colorado Springs. Third year at Air Force Academy. Taught same class at the West Point Prep school for five years.

I also have the privilege of teaching several classes in Colorado Springs to high school, college, and adults on comparative worldviews (biblical vs secular). As I read the various threads, some impress me as good for illustrating different worldviews. So, using some Army terminology, I mark threads as

* SPOTREPS (spot report) - incidents"
* SITREP (situation reports) - &descriptions of the current world scene"
* INTREP (Intelligence Report) - information of an event involving those of the "opposition;"
* INTSUM (Intelligence Summary) provides more general information. * OB (Order of Battle) - identifies liberals, and other such Rats to watch out for

When I get home, I download these reports to a database for future classes to use.

Does that help?

[Red Boots]

We have a 10th grader, homeschooled since 5th grade, so maybe I can give some helpful answers. I, too, would be concerned about that much homework in my highschooler. That doesn't leave a lot of time for living. I want the kids to have free time, but also want them to be able to get into a good college, should they want to attend, and to be generally well educated. Here's how we've tackled the high school years: Our 10 th grader spends the mornings working on several packaged curriculum programs ( Accounting, Language Arts, History & Geography and Science from Alpha-Omega). She spends the afternoons working on interest-driven courses which we designed together(art, sewing and computer business communications). She is working on setting up a website to market her beautiful, hand-sewn costumes. In my mind, this is the best of both worlds; the packaged curriculums make sure that the basics are well covered; leaving the time to put into the development of personal interests and career. One awful thing that I've noticed in a lot of kids who are public-schooled is that they lose the iniviative to take charge of their own lives. They seem to need to have someone else tell them what to do. They often spend the first decade after highschool floundering about, wondering what to do. I know I did. One of our goals is the have the children well on their way to knowing what they want out of life, and designing a way to do what they love and earn a living before they leave home.
We do basically the same plan with our 7th grader, who studies math ( Saxon), Language Arts, Science, and HIstory&Geography packages from Alpha-Omega in the morning; and follows his own interests in the afternoon. Right now he is mostly interested in blowing things up with firecrackers , and reading, on his own, anything about military history and weapons. He's a walking encylopedia of information on military hardware. I will likely use some of the same basic programs that I used for his sister when he reaches high school; and design other interest driven courses for the rest. I wouldn't use any of these packaged curriculums for my 2nd grader, we just read, do worksheets (she loves them) and get books about whatever seems interesting, for 2-4 hours each morning. Hope that was helpful, I'd be glad to answer anything else.

[anniegetyourgun]

While there are "some" students who survive the government schools to arrive with good skills, I can't get past the public school proclivities to indoctrinate rather than educate. On balance, it's a failed experiment - one that I'm not willing to subject my children to.

[Amy4President]

including two chapters of calculus, three of the book Brave New World and four Bible chapters

For some reason I sincerely doubt that she actually studies two chapters of Calculus a day. Saying you are studying two chapters of Calculus is not the same thing as three chapters of Brave New World

[MineralMan]

"While there are "some" students who survive the government schools to arrive with good skills, I can't get past the public school proclivities to indoctrinate rather than educate. On balance, it's a failed experiment - one that I'm not willing to subject my children to."

That's your privilege, of course. I was merely objecting to your blanket statement that kids in the public schools cannot read, write, or understand English. That's patently not true. Some fail, of course, but some home-schooled kids are virtually illiterate as well. Not all. Not most. Just some.

Public schools vary widely in their ability to educate kids in the basics. In my area, indeed, the entire county in which I live, over 90% of freshmen graduate, and in several of the schools it's almost 100%. Of those something like 75% continue their education. That's not failure, by any measure.

Yes, many home-schooled kids come to adulthood with excellent skills. But, so do many public school kids.

"Indoctrination" is another matter, and should be discussed separately, I think.

For you, home-schooling is your solution. For others, active participation in their kid's public school experience is their solution. In districts where parents are active and demand quality, that's what they get. In districts where parents don't care, they get another result. Same with home-schooling.

Go to our town's local library, anytime between 10AM and 5PM, and you'll see a couple dozen of those other home-school kids. They get dumped there during the day. They don't study there. The librarians are just baby-sitting them, and there are real behavioral issues. That's another aspect of home-schooling. In those cases, no schooling is going on at all at home. The parents work, and just send their kids to the library.

Home-schooling is not uniformly excellent and neither are public schools uniformly poor.

[Central_Floridian]

It depends on how the book is divided into chapters. Some books have long chapters, some have short chapters.

[petitfour]

Thanks to you all for your encouragement. We will almost certainly be homeschooling more of our children as they grow older. We haven't had all bad experiences with the public schools. On the contrary, one of our children has had excellent teachers and great opportunities in all the schools she has attended. Different children benefit from different things. Hopefully, we'll do a good job educating them all. With God's help, I know we can/will.

[cyclotic]

A local homeschool "leader" for lack of a better word refers to many new homeschoolers as Refugees. Refugees are home educating by default because their kids are slow, or unruly, or "diagnosed" with some phantom learning disorder like ADD, ADHD, AHRKEBRTUIENFGPWQND or something else and the parent refuses to addict them to Ritalin. Many refugee home schooled kids were kicked out or encouraged to home school so the public schools didn't have to deal with them.

My sister in law is homeschooling one of their five because she has bad allergies. She's not doing it from the motivation of having a better environment for teaching or a desire to teach her values. As a result, my niece is somewhat mediocre as a student as opposed to her sister who is a "gifted" student and can do no wrong in the lovely public schools. Not to mention the fact that they have used the term "social outcasts" to describe my kids because we homeschool. Evidently, their social outcast is OK.

So, in essence, we will see a slight downward trend in home school academic excellence. However, since many "refugee" parents lack the series motivation necessary, most of these kids will likely end up back in the system anyway.

[Amy4President]

I understand that. However, I kind of wish I knew what book she has where she can study 2 chapters of Calculus in one day. In my college Calculus 2 class it takes two months to learn that much material. I'm impressed... :)

[anniegetyourgun]

You mistakenly assume I homeschool. Actually, my kids have been privately schooled. Though I have absolutely nothing against homeschooling, we have chosen the structure, discipline, and high academic standards of private schools where we have lived. Those schools have exceeded the stats of public schools in all categories typically measured: average GPA, standardized test scores, SAT scores, number applying to college, number accepted to college, number graduating from college.

[Wormwood]

Be sure to add this to your database:

That's pretty much the coolest thing I've heard in a long time. Keep up the good work!

[Diva Betsy Ross]

Homeschool bump

[2Jedismom]

Good points. The president of my homeschool support group has even been contacted by the school district for tips to offer to parents of problem students when they suggest they homeschool them.

[GOPrincess]

"In districts where parents are active and demand quality, that's what they get."

Just a comment, I found this as much of an overgeneralization as the statements you objected to. Oldest child is in 11th year of public school. We have spent many years helping, donating, appearing at school board meetings, etc. Show up at every conference, back to school night and open house, children always on time with homework done, etc. We finally got tired of pointlessly banging our heads against a system that has been declining in our area for at least the last half-decade. Individual teachers can be excellent, but the bureaucratic/institutional mindset and difficulties with those administrators and teachers who ranged anywhere from uninspired to "detrimental to children and education," combined with an increasingly limited curriculum, finally became too much of a negative to continue to deal with. In fact as time went on we increasingly found that caring, involved parents were frowned on to an extent and seen more as a hindrance than a help; one teacher of eight-year-olds infamously commented that "most parents are overprotective and don't know anything." This in a "nice" district -- I'm sure if she were in a different district she would be wishing she had those "overprotective" parents back showing up to volunteer in her classroom like they do here. Decided we would channel our energies positively rather than pouring it all into the "system" as the quality we demanded was *not* there. (Don't even get me started on the high school history teacher...I've ranted about him on FR before.)

Oldest child continues in public high school (her choice), but otherwise we are now "out of the system." Second child is in private school and will likely homeschool in future; two youngest have begun homeschooling this year, and so far we are having a grand time. My 3rd grader wowed me the other day by remembering a Robert Browning poem we had recently studied: "Look," she said, "We have dew-pearled grass!" One of those "I think this is really working!" moments :).