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I am bold enough to say that ALL academically successful children are homeschooled.
The only thing a school is doing is sending home a free curriculum for the parents and child to follow. I contend that very little actually learning happens in the school.
The parents are at home, around the kitchen table, checking spelling, grammar, reviewing math flash cards, insisting on neatness, reading with the child, and making sure the TV and video games are controlled. Once the child is well grounded in reading and basic math, it is the child who is educating himself. If it is an immigrant family, they usually have cousins, aunts, uncles or neighbors involved.
When I ask parents of academically successful children about their home life, I hear what is described above, as well as music and dance lessons, regular trips to the libraries and museums, and vacations planed to teach history. At the first sign of academic difficulty tutors are hired.
In other words, the children above are doing ··everything·· I did as a homeschooling mom. There is a difference though. Institutionalized academically children often have an “attitude” and, sadly, are fatter. I also suspect, but of course can not be sure, have more STD infections.
The only thing a school is doing is sending home a free curriculum for the parents and child to follow. I contend that very little actually learning happens in the school.
I have no direct involvement in home schooling (unless we take your definition of it). But when I examined the issue, I saw that if PS education is of any value its graduates would be qualified to teach a child up at least to high school without breaking a sweat. Therefore the issue seemed to boil down exactly to the question of what happens when a parent without academic qualifications decides to homeschool? And I decided that if anyone was unqualified to teach elementary school and tried to homeschool, at a minimum that parent at least would learn a lot. So education would happen even in the worst case - and there was no guarantee that the child of such parent would actually learn in a public school, either.Now when this study comes out, the worst case turns out not to be even that bad. Good to see. Bookmark.