Why Home school?

Home schooling - Why Home-school?

The answers to the question posed by the title are as diverse as those who choose to home school. Parents opt for home schooling for various reasons ranging from a desire to instill certain values to the wish to remove students from an unsafe public school environment to the desire to provide a superior education. However, the most basic, general reason for most is the well-founded belief that homeschooling is ultimately better for their child. This experience allows students to get the one-on-one attention that allows students to have the type of education that caters to their needs.

'Better' can mean a variety of things, but it incorporates as many absences as it does positives. The absence of peer pressure or bullying are two prominent features of public school that many homeschooling parents want to remove from their child's life. However, the positive aspect is equally important. The view that a better education can be gained by homeschooling over public or even standard private schools has been well studied.

Furthermore, the studies largely agree: home schooling is educationally superior in the overwhelming majority of cases.

There are many individual stories that illustrate the success of home schooling. The winner of the 1997 National Spelling Bee was home-schooled. Four sisters, all home schooled, went on to achieve Master's degrees from an Ivy League university. One young woman was home-schooled and entered college, getting her Master's degree by age 16. She later taught at a Texas community college by the age of 18.

These achievements could be dismissed with a wave of the hand, claiming these students, and/or their parents, were unusual. The current numbers suggest that the average home schooled child is in the 60th-70th percentile by age 12. That means they are, on average, a grade ahead of their public school peers.

The numbers for older children are even more impressive. Based upon studies reported by home-school advocates, and the U.S. Dept of Education, by the time the average home schooled child reaches the equivalent of 8th grade, he or she is four grades ahead of his or her peers; this is a reflection of the how public schools continue to miss the mark.

Home schooling works.

Of course, as most homeschooling parents know, nothing good comes easy. Parents often experience burnout, especially a few months after first beginning to home school. As with any new task, it takes time to acquire the knowledge needed to teach a young person all they need to know to develop properly. Poor performance is the easiest path to take; however, rise to the occasion takes effort from both student and parent. First and foremost, the parent must step up to the plate during this process.

Children, according to a well-established home-school philosophy, are natural sponges for knowledge. Most home schooling parents feel the need to research curriculum options; define goals, guide children, and a host of other tasks. If the parent has not been home-schooled or well educated they may have some catching up of their own to do.

Are the results worth the effort? If the outcome desired is a well-adjusted, keen-minded offspring ready for life's challenges, for most parents that is an easy question to answer.