Homeschool 360

Every day I talk with clients, co-workers and acquaintances who ask about my family - or more often, see me actually with one or more of my kids during school hours.  Invariably, homeschooling comes up either as a point of interest or explanation as to how I’m not violating any truancy laws.  As homeschooling has caught on so dramatically in the past several years, more and more folks immediately see it as a great thing.  Others, however, still look at me like we must be “one of them weird families”.  Fifteen years ago, I too saw homeschooled kids / families as weird.  That’s because they were.  In fact, my assertion to the reader is that kids were homeschooled because they were weird.  They weren’t weird because they were homeschooled.

In the past decade, homeschooling has become more and more mainsteam, as parents witness the perpetual degredation of public and private schools.  In my opinion, this change over time has been (in part) the result of parents wanting less and less parenting responsibility coupled with the schools wanting more and more control.  What was once the place to go and learn the basics needed to function in society - and perhaps move on to college - has become a place of poor teaching practices, over-crowded classrooms, liberal indoctrination and free babysitting.  If you’re unfortunate, your child may also get to experience drug raids and school shootings .  Notice I didn’t mention peer pressure, alternative ideas or bullying.  These are normal experiences for childhood.  These are experiences that must take place to prepare a child to exist and function in society.  If you are homeschooling to attempt to spare your children from these latter three, you will most likely end up with one of the “weird homeschooled kids”.  

Of course, every school is different and arguments for a particular school can always be made.  I’m looking at the larger picture.  Instead of taking the typical approach of elaborating on the obvious flaws of governemnt and private schools, let’s look at why homeschooling is catching on so rapidly in various parts of the country.

1.  Homeschooled kids are smarter.  

There.  I said it.  Oh, and I can back it up too.  A WSJ study reported that homeschooled kids outperformed the national average on the ACT and SAT.  A study done by the NHERI showed that homeschooled kids outperformed their public school peers in standarized tests by 30 - 37 percentile points.  Furthermore, whereas public schools show performance gaps between minorities and genders, the gaps are practically non-exististent in homeschoolers.  Interestingly, nearly 3 times as many homeschooled men go on to complete their doctorate than the national male average.

2.  Indoctrination

While you’re still stewing over the first point (unless you already homeschool), let me provoke you a bit further.  I posit that the vast majority of homeschooling parents have made their decision, in part, out of a desire to indoctrinate their children.  Now, when people hear the word “indoctrinate”, their ignorance starts to flare up and get itchy.  Why?  Because the modern media has taught us that the definition of  indoctrination is “teach your kids fundamentalist, radical ideas that fly in the face of what the rest of the world believes”.  I hate to break it to you, but the sad reality is that the public schools are indoctrinating your kids right now.  They are not asking you what you want them taught.  They are deciding for you what should be taught, what theories are to be taken as fact, what political views should be embraced or shunned, what philosophies to hold, what religion to adhere to or disregard.  Hey, I just described public schools and communist China at the same time.  These are your kids.  Do you really trust someone else with these decisions?  

3.  Parenting

It can be safely asserted that homeschooling parents homeschool out of a desire to be a parent.  Huh?  Better re-read that sentence.  Public schools have become the place to drop off your kids while you go to work, go back home for “me-time” or to run errands.  The result is that for 8 or so hours per day, someone else is doing the child-rearing.  Someone else is disciplining your kid.  Someone else is working on instilling values that you may or may not agree with.  If your kid turns out well, great!  You get 50% of the credit.  If they don’t turn out so well?  It’s 100% your fault.  As a homeschooling parent, you are the parent.  The child is is being raised by you and no one else has a more vested interest in being the parent than you.

4.  Sensibility

Homeschooling makes sense.  Being the smart kid who has to sit through 6 months of math he already knows, waiting for other kids to catch up to him doesn’t.  Eight hours of school of which 2 hours are spent learning doesn’t.  Staying back a grade because you’re too shy to raise your hand and ask questions in class doesn’t.  My son finished his Kindergarten math in March.  Boom!  He’s onto First Grade math.  No sense in waiting till September.  No reason to wait for other kids to catch up.  During my senior year in high school, I needed a specific number of credits to graduate but I had already taken the important coursework.  I was left with a menu of ridiculous time-wasting electives.  When I say “time-wasting”, I mean that though they were a complete waste of my time, they were designed to waste time to get me through the day.  Wouldn’t it be better to have gotten me started on college coursework if there was nothing else for me to do?  I’ll tell you, if my kids have finished their essential schoolwork, we don’t make them sit around doing nonsense for 2 hours to kill time.  They will get up and participate in family life and continue to learn by observing their parents and pitching in.

Unfortunately, not everybody can homeschool.  The single parent who has to work to put food on the table probably can’t.  The parents with health problems may not be able to.  The really, really, really stupid people of the world probably cannot pull it off.  But the two income household (where 90% of the second income barely covers child care and schooling expenses) probably can.  The work-at-home mom and dad probably can.

Typical arguments against homeschooling (besides the two I refuted in points 1 and 2) include a lack of socialization and a lack of exposure to diversity.  I beg to differ.  My kids play soccer, hang out at the YMCA while we workout and participate in a variety of activities that socialize them and expose them to people of different races and religions.  But again, what is really meant by “exposure” to diversity is really “acceptance of diverse ideas”.  Let me refer you back to point #2 and make my final argument.  

• I think I’m smarter than than the average public school teacher.  
• My faith in God is a belief, not a guess that He exists.  
• I see the flaws and contradictory logic in the current liberal thought that is so prevalent in public schools. 
• I’m not weird.  

So, why would I send my kids there?