Why Should You Homeschool?

All throughout High School I chose to do homeschooling – and it was one of the best choices I’ve made in my life. It allowed me to graduate early, start college early, and really start working hard on my web development and consulting.

My four younger brothers all followed in my footsteps, and are now home schooled.

What’s excellent about home schooling is that you truly do get to work at your own pace – and it allows you to really develop great time management skills.

I will note though that along with home schooling – it’s important to have a good social life too. Whether you meet people through church, supplement clases, etc…human interaction is important.

I Agree With you 100% Chris. I was Home Schooled My Freshman Year. But i’m back at a regular high school this year, but i do plan on going back to home schooling next year. But yes it dose give you more freedom and choice. Their are a lot of programs especially here in Washington State that get you involved in other schools. The Program i was in is called “The Home Partnership Academy” That Is where i would still go to a building and have to do some work for a specified amount of time a week. Then i would do everything else at home. The Neat thing was its all Online. So i could be in Phoenix Arizona and Still Study for a test. But Home Schooling sometimes can have its draw backs. It can have to much freedom hence you get behind. (That’s What Happened to Me. Im Currently Trying to catch back up) But Anyways Great Article as Usual Chris. Keep it Up!!

More children being home schooled means less children on busses, means less busses, means less traffic, means better environment. No need to worry about little Johnny not coming straight home from school, getting a detention, or getting suspended.

Very interesting view that you have there Chris.

I have a question now. Do you think that the kids that did not go through the public systems get their college paid for by the state assuming that the main providers of the children are tax payers paying the same taxes as a person that didn’t keep their kids from the “system”? Or do you think that since the parents didn’t utilize what was there then its their loss and shouldn’t be compensated for in any form?

~Andy

I was homeschooled for 6 years and it was the best thing for me personally. Previously I was at the bottom of all classes in school but after only 3 years of homeschooling I was in the top .05 percentile of the US for several subjects. I was also able to graduate a full year early while only studying half as much as my friends in public schools.

Every state is different but in Minnesota students must be tested every year by the UofM to make sure they are progressing correctly. In contrast public school students are only tested every 4 years (may have changed since I was in school). In my personal oppinion you have to be very dedicated to it and willing to study or your going to fail. This is not only for the students but for the parents as well.

homeschooling is the only choice when the school refuses to teach your blind child Braille and tries to lock her up in a “solitary confinement cell” without even a toilet. yes, here in the USA

“I’m always excited by things where people are given choices…”

“…If they want a more religious-based education, then so be it.”

Well, there’s a catch22.

Mercutio – please explain your “catch 22″ comment. Sounds like you have a “flamebait” chip on your shoulder. You might as well get it out, eh?

On a recent morning radio show, the announcer asked people who were home schooled to call in and give they’re opinion of the subject. Everyone who called in said they did not like it. Not a scientific study, but it did yield some interesting results. What do the kids think? Sometimes they know what’s best.

Interesting that the socialization meme was point 5. The single strongest argument for homeschooling, IMO, is the fact that it lessens the influence of peers. “Socialization” is nothing less than the brainwashing of children into lil peer-apes. Better they should learn to be adults by having most of their influences come from adults who love and care for them than from ignorant lil apes who are struggling their way to adulthood (and more and more often never arriving, as “youth culture” readily demonstrates).

The strongest influences of wisdom and maturity on my own youth were my grandparents who were largely homeschooled, with only a few hours a day a very few months of the year, for very few years at that, in small one-room schools to supplement what they learned from their parents. They were also among the most literate people I have known; most teachers and professors I had all the way through post grad work didn’t meet the benchmark they set for literacy. Heck, even now I barely approach the literate, well-cultured knowledge base my grandfathers exhibited as mostly autodidactic farmer-carpenter and country preacher. (And yes, since I have collections of their reflective writings, I can make a fair comparison between their education and mine, which is still lagging behind theirs in many ways.)

There’s a place for formal education outside the home, but with the dumbing down of college/university studies (2005 survey reported in the Washington Post had 69% of recent college grads as barely functionally literate) and the growing wealth of education opportunities online–education opportunities, not necessarily formal class work–as well as testing and certification programs, a college education is growing to be less of a necessity even for white collar work. And for those who just find joy in learning, such things as free courseware from places like MIT are a boon.

As to public education through the high school level, if we as a people wanted to “fix” it, we could. Simply tell Washington D.C. to take a hike, abolish all “schools of education” in colleges and universities, put all school administrators and remote educrats on chain gangs making little rocks out of big ones (with apologies to the 1% of them who aren’t dumber than the rocks they’re breaking) and let schools sort themselves out at the local level. Sure, most parents today are enstupiated products of previous failed public schools and don’t know enough to know what good education is, but then neither do at least 90% of the teachers in their children’s schools. They’d muddle through eventually, wasting far less money and harming far fewer kids than statist educrats running things from their government offices and plastic, faux ivory towers.

Most home schooling as I’ve seen it is abuse.

As a very specific example, I have home-schooled relatives.

Their math book wasn’t oriented around math, but about attacking the “new math.”

Literature and history was narrow, limited, and was oriented around a specific perspective and message.

Science was not science.

Seemingly well meaning, but nonetheless crap that impoverishes children.

Their parents had *no* idea the books and curriculum–which they thought had been vetted–were crap, and that they were impoverishing their children–who are sadly still limited to this day, nearly two decades later.

Yes, our schools have issues, but there is a working process for improvement. Groups of knowledgeable people create the curriculum. Teachers have degrees in their subjects. And you are still the interpreter for your kids.

Further, school and education are as much for acculturation as for straight knowledge transfer. Ours is a pluralistic society in a pluralistic world, and we have a broad common culture. Cultural experiences and cultural literacy is critical.

You need to participate, both with your school and with your kids. Of course you need to put everything in perspective for your children. You need to impart your culture, and that’s most effectively done in perspective. Also, you will further enrich their lives outside school.

Just don’t forget where the *real* gems are and “throw the baby out with the bath water” and deprive your kids of their opportunities and their birthright.

Great post. We’ve been homeschooling for 20 years now. Wouldn’t do it any other way.

Great post. I’ve never been homeschooled and I’m 14 years old, and don’t plan on it. It’s uncommon in New Zealand.

Hey there chris thanks for the top 5. I really would like to be homeschooled. It seems to be a better idea than a public school or private. Some kids just need time alone and concentrate at their own pace and get done what needs to get done in order to pass.

My list looks a lot like Johnathon B’s. I think I would change the last thing on his list though. The homeschooling lifestyle is all about socializing and socialization in a broader, more applicable context. I have learned more about making friends, understanding cultural trends, diversity, and a myriad of other things since we started homeschooling. My kids are learning all this *from the beginning*, not after they become adults and are suddenly thrust into it all to fend for themselves. The social/socialization aspect of homeschooling has turned out to be one of the most surprising benefits of not being tied to a life of school.

I don’t think everyone should homeschool, in the same way that I don’t think everyone should be vegetarian. But just like being a vegetarian, anyone can do it, and enjoy it for all of its benefits and challenges.