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Homeschooling: Is it a "Second Rate" Education?
Once parents get beyond the initial fear of home schooling, and become familiar with its many benefits, they may wonder if indeed home schooling is a "good" education when compared to public school. Home schooling is legal in all 50 states, and is widely recognized as a valid educational choice. If standardized test scores are any indication of the effectiveness of differing forms of education, then home schooling is the leader by far. According to Dr. Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute, data were collected on 5,402 students from 1,657 families. The research indicated the following scores. (1)
It is interesting to note that many of the most prestigious colleges in America have accepted home educated children. Among them are: The Citadel, College of William and Mary, Loyola, Duke, Harvard, Moody Bible Institute, Notre Dame, Penn State, Pepperdine, Purdue, Stanford, Texas A & M, Wheaton, and the list goes on and on. (2) What Makes Home Education So Effective? What better place is there for a child to learn than in a loving home with a parent as a "personal tutor"? Most home schoolers I have met have chosen this method because they are convinced that the home is the best possible environment for learning. I personally believe this to be true. My children are free to pursue their education in a relatively quiet, peaceful place, free of peer pressure, time constraints, bullies, or other negative hindrances. As opposed to conventional classroom settings, learning at home provides much in terms of flexibility. Personally speaking, I balance control and flexibility to meet my children's individual learning needs. I am able to fill their lives with a love of learning, with good books and excellent resources. And best of all, I can encourage them to pursue their own interests, all the while incorporating different aspects of education into the subject matter they love. My children are able to advance at their own rates, and retention is high, as I am monitoring their progress every step of the way. They don't move to the next level of learning until I am convinced that they have actually learned a given subject, rather than their being able to give correct answers on a test sheerly out of short term memory cramming. Home education trains children for life, not just for a job. They learn in real life situations within the family setting. And, in my humble opinion, there is no better place to learn. What About You? If you are considering teaching your children at home, but have feared it would not be a high quality education, please reconsider. Visit some of the web sites I have posted here, and learn as much as you can about home education before you assume anything about it. It will be time well spent, and you may even change your mind about becoming your child's teacher. This article was the last in a 3-part series on Homeschooling. We hope you enjoyed them and learned something!
(1) The study that Dr. Ray conducted was the largest ever of home education across the United States, and the findings are published in a book entitled, Strengths of Their Own - Home Schoolers Across America. The particular statistics noted in reference to test scores were taken from "Facts On Home Schooling" by the National Home Education Research Institute (2) Taken from the Minnesota Association of Christian Home Educators' handbook, as quoted from the Home School Legal Defense Association web site. The list I saw contained more than 450 colleges / universities who had accepted home schoolers as of April of 1997. |
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