Making A Case For Homeschooling

www.cdc.gov...

While shocking and senseless shootings give the impression of dramatic increases in school-related violence, national surveys consistently find that school-associated homicides have stayed essentially stable or even decreased slightly over time.
According to the CDC’s School Associated Violent Death Study, less than 1 percent of all homicides among school-age children happen on school grounds or on the way to and from school. So the vast majority of students will never experience lethal violence at school.

Source

We all know about the recent news concerning the shootings in schools. We know that while shootings on school grounds isn't very common, it does happen. We all know, hopefully, how the current educational system in the U.S. is structured. We also know that it can be hard or impractical for many parents to be able to home-school their children because of employment obligations. This article is focusing more on the educational aspect of home-schooling then the violence aspect of schooling, because violence isn't as big an issue as people would like to make it out to be. If I may, let me direct you to this video that proves this point:



( A nod to TheMindWar for originally posting this here)

Parents are understandably looking for answers on how to keep their children safe and educated. I'm one of them. I have a teenage daughter who's at the point in her education now where it needs to be taken more seriously then simply at the basic primary school level. The curriculum is getting more focused and, in my opinion, needs to be more career driven. She's career driven so her education needs to focus on that. This is why I, as a parent, am taking the bull by the horns and taking more control over what my child learns, how she learns and where she learns.

I'm fully aware of the stigma that home-schooled children and parents have. It's a stigma that could have had relevancy 30 years ago, but in 2013 the whole process of homeschooling, from the availability of relevant curriculum, to the laws concerning home-schooling, to the amount of parents doing this now, and, subsequently, to the interaction of home-schooling parents and children with each other, makes it to where home-schooling is getting a bad rap it doesn't deserve. Hopefully this article will give some of the questions and concerns that people have about this issue some clarity.



To start with, the Federal Government has no general guidelines concerning this topic. Guidelines are made by individual states and can be found in their state statutes.

www.law.cornell.edu...

By and large though, these guidelines and rules are not that detailed and not that hard to work with. With 2 million families out of 114 million in the U.S., home-schooling their children, the federal government doesn't really feel the need to over-regulate this. By Government standards that isn't a large number, but individually it is. It breaks down to roughly 40,000 households per state home-schooling their children.

One concern parents have in the education of their children, obviously, is the curriculum. Some parents want it all very structured, some want it religion based, while others play fast and loose with it all as long as it falls within state guidelines. There is no lack of websites or stores in major metropolitan areas that can help in this regard. Parents are going to have their own beliefs on what is important for their child's education, as it should be. As a parent you know where your child's strengths and weaknesses are, therefore, you are in a better position then anyone to be able to tailor their education to best suit them.

Schools are different the country over. Big city schools, typically, have a higher teacher to pupil ratio, therefore, cannot focus too much on any given student in regards to where their strengths and weaknesses are, thereby expounding on them. This in turn leads to less education, by way of less educating, on the teachers part. You can't really blame them though because they are just a part of the system. They have to work with what they're given, and what they're given these days isn't much. This is why, I think, schools are focusing more on preparing students for major end-of-year tests then an actual education. What's the difference? Passing a test requires that you know the answers. An education requires that you learn the answers.

Schools in smaller towns don't seem to have the issues that schools in bigger towns have. Namely, the violence and the overall quality of education. I don't know why this is exactly, but I'd hedge my bets on the fact that smaller communities are more tightly knit, therefore, care more about each other to a larger extent then people in the big cities do. This overall attitude bleeds over into the schools and, in the case of the smaller towns, more education is focused on individual students. This is where you can really make a connection to one of the major benefits of home-schooling. The curriculum and the time spent on your student, your child, is more focused and personalized.

www.homeschoolsupercenter.com...

www.freeworldu.org...

Cont. Below

CONT.

Another concern, and a popular argument against home-schooling, is the social impact it has on your child. I look at it this way: There are too many options and resources that can link you to other home-schooling parents in your area for you to have to worry about your child not associating with their peers. Peers that you as a parent can pick and choose. If you home-school your child and they grow up to be socially inept, which is a pretty subjective concept anyway, you didn't try hard enough to keep that from happening. The main benefit that I see in this regard is that YOU, the parent, have way more control over who your child associates with then if they were educated in a public school. This is where the safety of your child comes into play.

I would much rather my child associate with and learn social skills from peers that have things in common with her, then just random people in the hallways that may or may not share her interests or have her best intentions in mind. People who share the same interests typically don't make things difficult for each other, therefore, they can have a more positive influence on each helping each other grow more productively. You put other random people into the mix and it just tends to bog down the whole learning process in the name of socializing. It's school. It's not happy hour at the local watering hole.

The teenage years especially are hard to cope with. Why make it harder on them in this regard when you have the option to take the road less traveled? Don't get me wrong, I'm not wanting to coddle my child, shelter her and make her soft. I don't want her locked inside 24/7. I know full well that wouldn't be doing her any favors with the world being what it is. But if I, as a parent, have the option of choosing between whom she associates with and whom she doesn't while she's doing her school work, I'm going to take the easier road for her. And the easier road doesn't involve police officers ( I never did understand why schools started doing that. It fosters a negative atmosphere) on the premises, random kids showing off daddy's gun in the hallway, and peer pressure regarding drugs and sex. Those are just negative distractions that get in the way.

www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org... (PDF FILE) www.hslda.org...

Remember too that the typical school day lasts 7 hours. Those hours are pretty much set in stone, so it can make it more difficult to keep up with your child's progress if your work schedule isn't in line with it. With home-schooling you can set your own hours.( With the possible exception of actual online schools) You can be there with them as they're learning so if they have any questions, you're there for them. There are also concerns about accreditation and getting into college. You need to remember two things: Not all public schools are accredited and colleges don't have the pre-conceived notions about home-schooled children that other people seem to have. They realize that home-schooled students have to learn curriculum that is state approved just like the students in public schools have to.

We’ve come a long way from the early days of homeschooling when colleges viewed home-schoolers as alien life forms. Now most colleges appreciate the variety of home-schooled students. They understand our quirky course titles, our “delight directed learning,” our “mommy (or daddy)-grades” and “kitchen credits”. Most shocking of all, they don’t seem to care much about accreditation.

www.thehomescholar.com...

There are even resources for military families. Regardless of where they're stationed in the world, military families still have the viable option of online curriculum's if the school at whatever base they're stationed on isn't sufficient by their standards. I don't know that much about this angle of it all so I can't really comment too much about it. One aspect of this that is common to everyone though is that if you decide to home-school your child, you have to take an active part. Teachers in schools do not necessarily know all of the subject matter that they teach. A good teacher gives a student the desire and the resources to learn the subject. From there, it's up to the student.

www.hslda.org...

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To all the parents out there who take their children's education seriously, let me remind you of one simple fact: This isn't your parent's world anymore. You cannot realistically apply all that was the norm back then, to the here and now. Things have moved on and you have to look at everything in the here and now as it is. Not how it used to be or how you WANT it to be. Public school funding is being cut yearly while defense spending remains the same or increases. This is just one example of many that gives focus to the priorities of the Federal Government. The same government, again, that doesn't really have any statutes regarding home based education. Do yourselves a favor and take the governments lack of interest in your child and turn it into a positive. Put them in a system that you have more control over. You're the parent and your children need your understanding and patience when it comes to this. Do your child a favor and be realistic, mature and grounded about everything. We all have biases, baggage and agenda's. But we need to be careful not to project them onto our children. They're a blank piece of paper when they start their educational years. What gets written on that page and who writes it is up to YOU. The parent. Make it count.

You have to live with what you gave them to live with. Give them something solid and they'll keep coming back for more.

www.time4learning.com...

I LOVE home schooling my daughter, and she loves it too!
Great Thread

reply to post by Starwise


Thank you.

I think it fosters more of a bond between parent and child as well.

I don't think home schooling gets a bad rap at all. Indeed, it's a lot more popular than it used to be and many more resources are available for it, including entire curricula. My grandson is being home schooled, and he's doing a lot better than he used to. Further, his interaction with other kids is going along just fine by virtue of his engagement in team sports, in his case lacrosse. IMO het gets betetr interactions with kids his age this way than he would at a school where temptations are much different.

The safety issue is overplayed. A lot more kids die at home, murdered, than at school. Read it and weep.

Originally posted by schuyler
Further, his interaction with other kids is going along just fine by virtue of his engagement in team sports, in his case lacrosse.

Thanks for bringing that up. I totally forgot about the extra-curricular activities. Most states, if not all by now, have laws that let home-schoolers participate in team sports with the local schools.

Maybe I am overplaying the "bad rap" card with the perceptions. That might be based on what I ran across some years ago.

And you're right, "curricula" is the right plural for "curriculm"s". My bad.

My husband and I decided to homeschool our daughter for several reasons. We are in our 2nd year, and love it. Ask my daughter, and she'll tell you she loves it as well!

We have found it necessary to educate a few family and friends, who held stereotypical concerns about homeschooling. The fog usually clears once they understand that she has more opportunity (and time) for play dates, extra curricular activities (violin and karate), and family outings... not to mention participate in local theater and learn a few fundamentals of home economics. Oh yes, we also have time to learn about great composers and pursue latin.

By the way, she's 7.

She would not have these opportunities in our local public school system. Not by a long shot. They can barely maintain a library, and 30 children are stuffed into each class.

Thanks for writing on this topic!

reply to post by packinmomma


You're right. There are a lot more opportunities to learn a lot more.

A lot of the stigmas associated with home-schooling are based on ignorance & not interaction with people who were home schooled.

Many of the most intelligent people I've known were home-schooled.
It's hard not to get ahead of the pack when your intelligence & desire for knowledge is nurtured during the most important time of development - as a bonus most of the bad attitudes & negative influences public school offers are avoided in the process.

What would you rather have? The one size fits all or the custom tailored version....pretty easy to see why people decide to home-school - especially when quality is lacking from many of our public institutions.

Originally posted by Taupin Desciple
And you're right, "curricula" is the right plural for "curriculm"s". My bad.

Oh, I wasn't dinging you at all. Didn't even notice it. Hope you don't think I was.

Originally posted by schuyler

Originally posted by Taupin Desciple
And you're right, "curricula" is the right plural for "curriculm"s". My bad.

Oh, I wasn't dinging you at all. Didn't even notice it. Hope you don't think I was.

No, I didn't think that. But you putting the word out there made me realize my mistake. It's all good.

Can't say I'm a fan of homeschooling. While many parents can competently educate their kids, many cannot. There probably needs to be a screening process to ensure that the children will have the same or better quality education at home.

reply to post by ballygar


Oregon requires testing, beginning at age 8, to ensure the child is being educated. I'm fairly certain most states have this requirement in place as well.

I read the stats, prior to our decision to homeschool, and was blown away by the numbers... homeschoolers placed much higher than public school children. I will try to dig that info up and share. But your point is taken... there will always be a handful who aren't equipped to educate their child(ren). Thankfully, most states have tests in place to weed this issue out.

On another note...
Coming from a small area (pop. 25,000), I also discovered we have many homeschooling families with 16 year olds taking courses at our community college. At that rate, they'll have an AA by the time they're 18. :-)

Originally posted by ballygar
While many parents can competently educate their kids, many cannot. There probably needs to be a screening process to ensure that the children will have the same or better quality education at home.

Agreed. But typically, the parents who don't have the competency to home-school their children don't have the inclination either. It evens itself out somehow to where the end result is that home-schooler's typically get a better education and are better equipped to be productive members of society.

Thanks for contributing.

The vast majority of home schooled kids that I've met have been polite, articulate and seem smart.

You can get the socialization by having them play on sports teams or doing other after school activities.

To me, unless you are in an exceptional school district, you're better off home schooling.

Where does this myth come from, that home-schooled kids end up with the social skills of an OCD germophobe in a leper colony? It's completely manufactured to discourage parents from pulling their children out of state schools.

After almost 2 years of one of my son's begging me to homeschool him, I am. He is 11 and in the 6th grade. I didn't know if it would work or not, but it does. His biggest complaint of public schooling was it was a waste of time. Think of how much time when you were in school was wasted time.

He didn't get sentence structure nor did he get algebra. Now, he does.

When I was in school, I kept one of my math books from the 3rd grade. I showed it to my son, he was amazed. They haven't even started some of that content.

Seriously, take some time to remember when you were in school and what you were studying and then look and see what your child is studying. If there is a big difference, Homeschool them. You won't regret it.

I highly recommend homeschooling.

I've been researching curricula and other homeschool related issues for years, since my fiance and I are on a 5 year plan to have children. I'm to get fit and healthy and prepare myself as much as possible before getting pregnant when I am 28.

I'm so excited to homeschool. I know I can teach my children better and more fully than an overstressed and overworked employee of the state could. I have a love of learning that I can instill in my children, and a passion for extracurricular activities as well.

My children will be well rounded and fully educated, and they will be homeschooled. The safety of being at home is just another advantage.

Originally posted by cetaphobic
I've been researching curricula and other homeschool related issues for years, since my fiance and I are on a 5 year plan to have children. I'm to get fit and healthy and prepare myself as much as possible before getting pregnant when I am 28.

I'm so excited to homeschool. I know I can teach my children better and more fully than an overstressed and overworked employee of the state could. I have a love of learning that I can instill in my children, and a passion for extracurricular activities as well.

My children will be well rounded and fully educated, and they will be homeschooled. The safety of being at home is just another advantage.

Great post.

It's parents like you who make this work. You plan ahead, make preparations and decide what you're going to do before you do it.

I guess you could say that you're doing your homework..