Somebody once told a very good friend of mine that she was out of her mind when she said that she was going to home school here two boys. Given the millions of dollars that are spent on the public school system each year for the sole purpose of educating our children this would seem like a pretty reasonable reaction. Or is it?
When a friend of mine announced her decision to take her two nine year old boys out of the local public school and teach them at home many people said that she had to be out of her mind.
When you think about it this would seem like a perfectly reasonable reaction not simply because the public school system has evolved over many years and developed an expertise in teaching children, but also because my friend was simply a housewife and had no training or qualifications for teaching.
But did you know that there are currently more than one million children in the United States undergoing home schooling in just the situation in which my friend found herself.
Now the reasons for opting for home schooling are many and varied but, at the end of day, most parents choose to home school their children because they believe that it is better for their children, not simply in terms of academic achievement but also in terms of removing children from many of the bad aspects of a public school educations such as bullying, getting in with the 'wrong crowd' and a host of other problems.
In simple academic terms there is little doubt that home schooling produces better results than both the public school and private school systems in the vast majority of cases. For example, the winner of the 1997 National Spelling Bee was home schooled and four sisters, all of whom had been home schooled, gained master's degrees from an Ivy League university. Another young girl gained her master's degree at the age of just 16 and was teaching at a Texas community college by the time she reached 18.
Now you might well think that these were simply bright kids and this had nothing to do with home schooling, however, even the US Department of Education would have to disagree with this as their own studies show that by the time home schooled children reach the equivalent of the 8th grade they are as much as 4 years ahead of their public school counterparts.
Home schooling is certainly not an easy option but, as any home schooling parent knows, it works. For the parent home schooling is certainly hard work but, although the teaching profession might not like to hear it, you do not need any special training or qualifications to teach your own children. Indeed, as long as you can read and write then you'll find that, with a little help from your local home schooling support group, not only will you be able to teach your own children but you will find that it is one of the most rewarding things you can do as a parent.
It is also one of the most valuable things you can do to really draw your family together into a tight-knit, loving and supportive unit.
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