Homeschooling Myths
There are many myths surrounding homeschooling and its effectiveness. We hope to dispell some of those here…
WE ARE HERE TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS
If you are considering homeschooling, and have heard some of these myths or others, please reach out to us. We would be happy to speak with you and help put them to rest.
While homeschooling requires time and devotion, the education can be safe, sincere, nurturing and highly effective without requiring an unyielding burden on the parents or child. The “One House on the Prairie” perception, although still possible and effective, doesn’t reflect today’s reality. Busy single parents, in fact, are homeschooling their children, as are fathers. Also, struggling learners and children who learn differently are succeeding academically, often better than their counterparts in public schools.
Quite the opposite is true. Widespread national studies find that homeschool children are better socialized than students from public and private schools. Having children at home, where the family can be their major influence rather than peers, socialization becomes overwhelmingly positive. Add the fact that there are plenty of opportunities for homeschool children to interact with one another and the myth of poor socialization is easily dispelled. RCHSA provides multiple events such as field trips among its members for children to socialize.
Also, while public school students tend to be grouped with people their same age, homeschoolers often meet up with fellow homeschoolers who are younger and older. Homeschoolers can attend live classes in small groups, take courses at learning centers, and participate in online learning and chat rooms. The end result is a wider array of social experiences with people of different ages.
The idea that homeschoolers are gifted or naturally intelligent is one of the newer myths we have seen – sometimes to explain away high academic achievement when compared to public schools. However, many parents seek out homeschooling because their kids need more one on one attention. Homeschooling is often a great solution for kids who are advanced learners, as well as kids who feel disengaged in school, bored by the curriculum, or struggling with a learning disability.
While schools are allocated money from the government based on their enrollment figures, the difference lost from the non-attending homeschooling students is offset by the school not having to spend money on those students. Also, homeschooling families pay taxes that support the school system, even though they aren’t utilizing the school’s resources. Additionally, an argument can be made that the homeschoolers are helping the school by reducing the number of children attending that school and, thus, lowering the classroom-to-teacher ratio.
Homeschooling empowers families to embrace experiential learning and extracurricular activities. This provides the flexibility to take a field trip when it’s convenient or move the classroom to another setting that is relaxing and inspiring. Daily schedules can be created that enable your child to learn at a time and a pace that make the most sense given the realities of your life. By enabling you to determine the months and days your student will receive instruction, homeschooling allows you to create a truly customized school year.
Again, while homeschooling requires time and devotion, the schedule upon when the schooling is done is up to you. Some parents who work during the day homeschool at night. Busy single parents, in fact, are homeschooling their children, as are fathers, aunts and uncles. The best part of homeschooling is it is extremely flexible to meet your individual needs.
Many homeschooled kids play in recreational leagues, participate in Tae Kwon Do programs, and a number of other extracurricular activities and community service projects. In our area there are sports leagues such as GCAA Stallions and Cabarrus Stallions that offer sport programs such as volleyball, football, baseball, cheer, etc. Some private schools even allow home school students to participate in sports programs.
Because the key to homeschooling is providing families with flexibility, there is no shortage of time for kids to be active outside their daily learning. In fact, many RCHSA members are accomplished athletes, artists, musicians, and more – using homeschooling to help them pursue their passions and talents in ways that public school does not allow.
Parents and students effectively learn together. Parents need only an enthusiasm for learning along with a commitment to make the effort. Statistics show that a parent’s level of education has no influence on how well their children do in home education. By virtue of grade-specific online resources, DVDs, local support groups like RCHSA, certified teachers, and homeschool classes/co-ops, ample assistance is available.
Children who learn differently make up a steadily increasing segment of the homeschool population, as is the case with special needs’ children. While traditional schools are set up to service the needs of the general public, or the masses, home education can be tailored to personalize the learning process. Simply, compare a class of five struggling learners to a homeschool class of one that also has the benefit of focused dedication and numerous support resources.
Yes, it does. And quite effectively. Major universities now actually reserve a certain percentage of their enrollment solely for homeschoolers, because they know those students know how to study and are typically more self disciplined and well rounded than their counterparts in public school. On the college-entrance Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT), homeschoolers score 67 points above the national average, and homeschoolers outperform all other students on the ACT (American College Testing). Further, 68 percent of U.S. universities now accept parent-prepared transcripts.
In fact, homeschoolers have a higher rate of attending college than any other group of children: 66.7% of homeschooled children, compared to 57.5% of traditional public school children. Some top-tier colleges like Yale, Dartmouth, and UC Berkeley actually seek out homeschooled kids and accept them at a high rate. These schools recognize the unique qualities and skills that such children often possess, such as being self-motivated and self-disciplined.
In addition, many students who study at home with an online school have been accepted by excellent college and universities and tell us they learned how to be responsible for their own education and how to manage their time from their online school. These skills led to a smoother transition to college, a time when many students struggle with their newfound independence.
This criticism often arises from a feeling of defensiveness on the part of public school parents. Many of those same people would like to homeschool their children, but find it impossible to do so because of economics, social stigmas, low confidence in their own ability to teach their children, and lack of free time. Actually, there is partial truth to this myth. Although homeschooling parents don’t think their children are better than their public school peers, they do believe the educational benefits are worth the sacrifice, monetary and otherwise, to give their children what they perceive as a better education.
One of the primary reasons parents decide to homeschool is because they don’t believe the public school system is teaching the right lessons and instilling the proper values. With homeschooling, parents have more control over both curriculum and specific courses. Plus, plenty of guidance is available to help with those choices.
Home is, indeed, the foundation for learning, where the student begins to receive the necessary rock-solid confidence to excel. Yet, homeschooling is far from confined to the home. There are classes and education co-ops available to attend, along with clubs and sports to join, plus a host of other activities that promote interaction and synergy among homeschool students and families.
