When someone mentions homeschooling, do you think of someone who is socially awkward or really nerdy? If so, you have the WRONG impression of homeschoolers. I myself was pulled out of school in the third grade because it was difficult to learn with 30 or more kids per class. The teachers are overwhelmed, and most students don't get the attention they need for a proper education.
With homeschooling, you can learn as slow or as fast as you want; you can also choose what you learn on top of the required topics. Not just the five or less options you get as extra classes in school. You get to pick what you learn, that's the beauty of it.
Another myth many people associate with homeschoolers is that they have no social life. Not true again. Sure, there some socially awkward people, but many of them are perfectly normal. Most homeschoolers take classes with other kids. I have met some of my best friends at classes like those. A bonus with homeschooling is you meet some really cool people, and you learn a lot from people who are different from you.
Someone who is in a school has a very restricting schedule -- you have X amount of sick days or snow days and holidays. A benefit of homeschooling is that you can work when you're sick or work during snow days and holidays. Now that may seem like a curse, but it's not. Those days that aren't wasted don't have to be made up at the end of the school year. You also have the freedom to take a vacation AT ANY TIME of the year. With the flexibility of being homeschooled, I can take a trip almost anytime. I have been all over with world with the freedom of a loose schedule.
In most school settings, you learn via textbook, but the most effective and exciting way is hands-on learning. It is difficult to do hands-on learning with many students, but for homeschoolers, it's perfect!
You must be wondering how is this allowed. Free breaks, learn what you want? Teaching yourself?
It is all true, but it requires a lot of restraint and discipline, and sometimes it hard, but there is one way to keep all homeschoolers buckled down and working: the threat of losing all their freedom. Once a year, all homeschoolers are required to meet with a teacher from the county they live in, and the teacher will review all the work they had done that year. You either pass or get a warning. If you get a warning, you have not done a sufficient amount of work, and they will expect to see a lot more the next year. If you don't pass the next year, they are required to send you back to school, and no one who has had the luxury of being homeschooled wants that. Homeschooling has its ups and its down, but it is an amazing experience altogether.
Second, I don't have a lot of patience. People have said I would be a great teacher. College? Maybe. Grade school? Absolutely not. I don't like having to explain things more than once.
Third, my son doesn't listen to me anyway. My street is being rebuilt, and I've tried to show him the layers of ashphalt, gravel, sand, etc and where all the water lines, sewer lines, gas lines, and other utility lines are. No interest whatsoever.
I went all the way through public school at the top of my class, double major in college, masters degree and Ph.D. at a major state university -- and was always socially inept, bullied, and extremely shy in public school.
All 4 of our children have been homeschooled from the beginning all the way through high school, have lots of friends, are completely socially comfortable around people of all ages, know how to converse intelligently, are outgoing, have excellent work skills, and are self-motivated.
I very much wish that I had had the same homeschool advantage!
THANKS ;-)
In my experience, homeschoolers do not need to be told to "buckle down". These are people who are doing something counter cultural for the purpose of their child's education.
And do you not see a conflict of interest in the teachers unions and their stated goals and their being able to approve the freedom of homeschoolers?
Our daughter attended school from Pre-K to 3rd Grade and was homeschooled from Grade 4 through high school. She is enrolled in a 4 year college, will major in English and starts in the fall. She already has her schedule and all of her classes have under 25 students. I am sure it will be an adjustment but life is full of adjustments.
it's obvious that a student in a class of one will learn more than students will in public schools where the ratio is more like 30:1,
but its not a sustainable system for the nation as a whole. I'm grateful for what public education gave me, even if it wasn't the greatest system.
Here are some articles regarding Colleges that WANT homeschoolers.
http://homeschooling.about.com/od/highschool/a/colleges.htm
http://voices.yahoo.com/homeschoolers-preferred-colleges-universities-6318238.html
http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070923/FEAT/709230406
“Home educated students generally score at the 65th to 80th percentile on achievement tests, 15 to 30 percentile points higher than those in public schools,” writes Brian D. Ray, Ph.D. of the National Home Education Research Institute. They also tend to stay in college and finish on time, often with above-average grades. This makes them very desirable students.
Putting that aside it seems that the largest movement for home schooling are the Evangelicals that don't want their kids exposed to the real world and the truth.
I fail to see how twisting history and suppressing information makes anyone ready for life in a secular nation unless the agenda is to kill public schools and create new generations of dumbed down citizens that are under the control of religion.