Homeschooling: The Better Choice

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It is a well known that many students need one-on-one attention when it comes to learning. Students in homeschooling environments are allowed to work at their own pace, which keeps them not only actively engaged in the task at hand but also allows for freedom to explore their interests. Homeschooling provides a perfect environment for one-on-one education. A child struggling with a math problem in a public school classroom may have to wait several minutes for the teacher to be able to help him or her, and even then may be “cut short” in actually fully understanding what to do because the teacher must move on to help the next student. However, that same child in a homeschooling environment does not have to wait on other students before receiving the help they need. This leads to children having a full and complete understanding of the problem, and allows them to move on to complete the assignment in a timely manner or move on to another subject all together. Brian D. Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute, states that unlike public school, homeschooling provides "an interactive process rather than a series of tasks to be tackled.”(Ray 52) Parents are able to respond in a timely manner to students' readiness for new challenges and take the time to make sure that their children fully understand concepts and appreciate the work they are doing. The discussions that take place during informal learning deepen parent-child interactions and increase the children's confidence as learners. Homeschooling affords more natural opportunities for teaching and learning to become more personal, thoughtful, and individualized to each student.

Homeschooling advocates urge parents to respond to the different learning styles of their children. Many children are kinesthetic learners, homeschooling can allow parents to find ways to make every subject very hands on and fun. Other children may be aural learners and homeschooling can allow for that too, and so on with all the other learning styles. Choosing to home school allows parents to not only be flexible with the way their children learn but also with what their children are learning. Homeschooling should be intensely personal, closely supervised, intentional, delight-directed, and not based on a one-size-fits-all model.. According to the Home School Statistics and Reports in 2002, written by Brian D. Ray, 71% of the parents who educate their children hand pick the curriculum from a variety of books, videos, and educational manuals. Another 23% order entire curriculum packages (Ray 53). As today’s technology continues to improve, parents have access to a seemingly unlimited amount of information via the Internet, which can be easily integrated in their home school education.

According to Brian D. Ray the National Challenged Homeschoolers Associated Network encourages parents of special needs children to develop personalized opportunities for their children to learn. (Ray 51) Having raised their children since birth parents know better than anyone what works best to help their child learn, after all parents are our first teachers. It has been found that homeschooling parents of learning disabled children "can create powerful instructional environments for their children" (Ray 52) and that their children achieve more academically than do their peers in public schools. Parents of a child with learning disabilities are more likely to go at the child's speed, provide one-on-one tutoring, and expect their child to blossom, with the result that the child does well academically.

The same homeschooling environment has also been found to be a blessing for gifted children. Did you know many of the discipline problems in traditional schools are created by extremely bright children who are bored to death? Homeschooling gives them the freedom to develop in various ways and pursue interests without time and curriculum constraints. Gifted children can receive one-on-one teaching, guidance, and encouragement from their parents; they are free to go at their own pace in every subject; and they can regularly take advantage of resources outside the confines of a school's walls.

Originally, schools were all based in The Bible. It served as the primary textbook for reading in class and at home, and the student’s daily lessons reinforced a commitment to moral behavior based upon Scripture. When the homeschooling movement started in the 60’s it began with parents who wanted to get back to this basic religious freedom. Homeschooling allows parents and families with strong religious beliefs and moral values to keep their children immersed in that lifestyle. It also encourages parents to choose curriculums that best suit their family’s lifestyle and beliefs. “An estimated 75% of American home educating families are practicing Christians.” (Wilhelm and Firmin 304) Most of these families view the public school system as a place where their children can be exposed to much negative influence. Violence, sex, drugs, bullying and peer pressure are abundant in public schools. By no means, does homeschooling mean that these problems can be avoided altogether, but home educated children do not have to face them on a daily basis.

Another advantage of home schooling is the quality of education received by the student. Generally, homeschooled students achieve above average ACT and SAT scores. A study conducted on homeschooled and public schooled students in all fifty states concluded that “test scores for home-educated students fell between the 75th and 85th percentiles while public school students tested around the 50th percentile.” (Wilhelm and Firmin 310) That same study showed that 24.5% of homeschooled students performed one or more grades above their age-level peers in public schools. In fact, according to Brain D. Ray home-schooled students in grades 1–4 perform typically one grade level higher than their public schooled peers. However, by eighth grade, the average home-schooled student performs around four grade levels above the national average. (Ray 53)

Significant challenges continue to exist for the home school education movement. Many people who oppose home school programs claim interactions with other children at school are vital to the child being properly socialized. It is true that children need to be around other children. Eugenia Hepworth Berger states that primary-aged children need interaction with other children. (Berger 207) Homeschooled children may not socialize at school but they can join many extracurricular community activities with other children their age, like boy/girl scouts, sports, dance, and many other choices. In addition to students’ own parents teaching them, groups are formed among home school families so their children may interact with