The Truth behind Home-Education Parent-led education has been around for a millennium, at least,

Thesis: Homeschooling environment is an effective approach in education due to evidence of higher achievement on placement tests, success through college, engaged socially with activities outside homes, and students becoming active members of society.

All homeschoolers aren’t always necessarily smarter than public schoolers, but because they are very good at self-motivating themselves and they work very hard and set high expectations they normally do well on standardized tests. When it comes to college graduation, homeschoolers graduated at a rate of 66.7% and public schoolers graduated at a rate of 57.5% at a doctoral college. Homeschooled students also normally score fifteen to thirty percent higher on standardized testing and graduate with a consistently higher GPA than the average public schooler. Colleges, such as Harvard, have been looking for homeschoolers in particular because they are often the most prepared for college. It has been made clear that because of the homeschooler’s superior form of education, they score quite high on standardized tests and turn out to be more intelligent than the students of other schools. The fact that this type of education benefits the student should be an influential factor in the decision about homeschooling.

Not long ago, my parents received an endless amount of criticism, similar to the Walls’ family, for their decision to homeschool my siblings and me. Many “feared” for us, because according to them, there was no way we were going to learn effectively at home, what we could in a formal school. My mom tells me stories of how people she’d known expressed genuine concern over the idea of educating children in a different way than what is deemed “normal.” I do not blame these people for their concern, as they were raised in a society that emphasizes a single approach to learning. Although there were definitely times growing up when I wished to attend a brick and mortar school like “normal” people, after a certain age I genuinely appreciated my parent’s decision. Being home-schooled has taught me so much more than just the basic principles of education. I grew up being highly self-reliant due to my online school requiring students to be almost entirely responsible for keeping up with their work. Similar to college, I had a syllabus provided to me, and had no one other than myself to make sure I was on top of everything. This helped me to become a responsible and well-organized individual. I also gained a quality education, despite all of the fear and concern of those around me. I still have to answer the questions, “Why were you homeschooled?” and, “Didn’t you want to go to regular school?” more

Education in our society is a very important factor in shaping our future. One’s future is depended on the education they receive and everyone is somehow affected by this. Children from the ages of kindergarteners to seniors in high school, college graduates, and stay at home mothers, are all shaped by the education the government provides us. There are many different ways to acquire an education some through private schools, public, charter, and being homeschooled. However, homeschooling is growing more in popularity than it has ever been.

Haven’t parents for the most part acted in the best interest of their children? Collectively, the best interest of all parents is to have their children become successful in life, and parents would take whatever steps necessary to ensure they are capable of developing socialization and interpersonal skills, in order to relate with members of their community. The opinion that homeschoolers are uncivilized and incapable to socialize is a prevalent idea even in the 21st Century. According to Moore, S. and Moore, M. (1990) the mention of reviewing literature about homeschoolers, generates strong opposition from college students citing “shyness” and “unsociable ” traits as reasons why not to study the material (p. 62, para. 3). Subsequently, with the advent of the internet and cellphones, many gaps are being bridged, and the socialization argument is becoming a non-issue for homeschoolers. Yet many still believe homeschoolers are incapable of living in the “real world”.

Summary: Michael Romanowski wrote an article called "Common Arguments about the Strengths and Limitations of Home schooling." Home schooling is continuing to grow rapidly in many places. He explains that home schooling serves children equally well as public schools. Romanowski supports the main idea by giving claims that home schooling helps a child improve their social skills, children who are homeschooled are more likely to become academically successful, a student is not put on time limit and they are not told to put everything up and focus on a new topic. Home schooling allows children to learn to socialize with older people and stills allows them to socialize outside of their home with community activities. When the parents are closely involved in the student's academic work

For the first 230 years of our history, parents, not the government, were in charge. Competence in reading, writing, and arithmetic was nearly universal at the time of the American Revolution. But by the mid-nineteenth century, a band of reformers led by Horace Mann of Massachusetts replaced our founding, free-market education system with a system of state-run education, with compulsory attendance and standardized curriculum. (Forstmann, 2001) Homeschooling has been around for a long time and is not going anywhere. It continues to increase as the year's pass, and it’s not slowing down. Many pioneers have fought for homeschooling, and new ones continue to surface. While the public education continues to downplay homeschooling, home educators continue to flourish in many ways by performing academically and becoming professionals in their field of study. The reasons parents chose to homeschool for religious reasons, low standard in public schools, academic advancement, and a safer environment. From my own experience with homeschooling, its beneficial for a variety of reasons. One reason would be one on one teaching according to the child’s learning style. When you compare this method to the public sector, children are receiving constant tutorial help from their parents. Receiving tutorial help doesn’t mean that the child will not know how to perform without assistance but prepares the child to study on their own and master the scope and sequence of studying. A child will have

Homeschooling is on the rise in America. According to a 2007 NHES study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education there are an estimated 1.5 million students actively being homeschooled up from the 850,000 estimated in previous study conducted in 1999 (NCES, 1). Once seen as a fringe activity usually associated with the religious right, homeschooling now encompasses many mainstream families looking for educational alternatives in the face of such issues as violence, peer pressure, and poor academic quality in many public schools. Detractors on the other hand claim that homeschooling is a less effective method of educating America’s youth citing academic and social issues. Despite critics’ claims to the contrary, homeschooling is an effective and viable method of education as its participants not only do well academically; they are well socialized and are successful in college and later life.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “There is no school equal to a decent home and no teacher equal to a virtuous parent.” Parents have numerous reasons for homeschooling their children, may it be religious or a dislike of the local school system. The National Home Education Research Institute estimates over 2,000,000 children are homeschooled in today’s society (source). Some believe that the government should have stronger regulation over what the parents teach, to make sure the children are given a fair education and will be able to make their way in the world after school; while many believe it is the parent’s right to control what their child learns. Although some parents may not have an education degree, they have the right to homeschool their

People think that because these children have never been in a real class room before that after they graduate their twelve grades in the homeschooled setting they couldn’t possibly get used to the idea of a community college or even worse a university. Joan Bress states that “Colleges that have accepted homeschooled students appreciate the maturity and self-direction these students demonstrate. They believe that because homeschooled students have been involved in shaping their own education, they tend to be motivated learners and are comfortable assuming positions of leadership, both in class and in social situations” (17). It is a fact that homeschooled children actually score higher on test scores than children from public schools. This is due to the fact that the one-to-one learning time really helps a student and these kids are smarter because of

With the many anxieties and stresses of public school, homeschooling is rapidly growing in popularity, with the numbers increasing by at least 7 percent every year. There are currently approximately two million children homeschooled throughout the United States. Recently in the years of public education, children have struggled due to the many distractions around them. Even in private schools, this issue has been evident. Sometimes the private or public school can be too slow for a student who is a quick learner. Sometimes the private or public schools have no fault in the issue, but the child suffers with a learning disability. With a committed parent or teacher, homeschooling can benefit their learning.

Times have drastically changed in the twenty-first century, one of them being education. Many aspects are considered when parents choose how they would like to educate their child. Aspects such as academics, sports, learning accommodations, finances, student performance, and social life may all be factors in the final decision. Over the past ten years, homeschooling has become increasingly popular among Americans. According to Brian D. Ray from National Home Education Research Institute, there are over 2.2 million homeschooled students in the United States. Although public schooling can have its benefits, homeschooling is more beneficial for a student in today’s society.

Many concerns are expressed for homeschoolers. When it comes to homeschooling, the first point of emphasis that critics point towards homeschoolers is the lack of socialization. “Critics charge that home-schooled children will be socially handicapped and unable to adapt to real-life interaction when older” (Jeub 1994). Ultimately, critiques get their conclusions with many observations and interviews that show how they do not choose to, or are not incorporated in social events or activities. Critiques imagine that the children are stuck with their parents all day and only go out when their parents allow them or when they personally go out. With this environment, critiques envision that homeschoolers get little to no cultural experience from their world surroundings (Anderman and Anderman, p. 468) In essence, the assessment is a never-ending speech from the critics that the number one flaw in homeschool is socialization and the

Recent statistics indicate that homeschooling is increasingly becoming a method of education that is accepted and trendy. Homeschooling is now a fashionable choice for many of the young professional looking for the best education for their children. However, the question that arises is whether this form of education is right for our children. For parents, making the decision of instructing their children from home is not easy. The topic of homeschooling is controversial and involves issues such as social and cognitive development, standards, governmental involvement and safety (Merry, & Karsten, 2010). Those who oppose homeschooling argue that too much is left for

The pedagogues are essentially parents that believe that they can provide better quality education at home. In terms of academic performance, the research shows that children who are homeschooled achieve higher than their traditionally schooled counterparts. In 1990, Dr. Brian Ray (2000) conducted a survey of 1,500 homeschooling families representing 4,600 homeschooled children, the largest study of its kind at the time. Ray observed that “the home-educated students averaged at or above the 80th percentile on standardized achievement tests in all subject areas,” while the average public school result was the 50th percentile (p. 74). According to a 1999 research study conducted by L. M. Rudner which measured the academic achievement of 20,000+ homeschooled students, standardized test scores for homeschoolers fell consistently between the 75th and 85th percentiles (as cited in Wilhelm & Firmin, 2009, p. 310). Other studies have had similar findings (Ray, 2000, p. 74-75). Individualized plans, one on one attention, as well as student directed learning, are all factors that may contribute to this higher achievement of homeschooled children. While some may argue that this advantage comes at the expense of social interactions with their peers, opportunities to interact with other homeschooled children and other community and athletic group involvement effectively address the socialization issue.