Home schooling:pros and cons

[LuckyRobin]

Lucky, thanks for your response and congrats on doing a great job getting him prepared. But do you think you/your son is the exception or the norm for homeschool kids in comparison to traditonally schooled children. I always hear about the succes stories of "HS" but is that because, like normal proud parents, they will talk about their kids to strangers. Whereas, a parent who has sacrificed a lot to homeschool and has an underperforming child will be reluctant to admit that they made the correct choice.

I think my son is the norm in this. I'd say about 90% of homeschooled kids that I have personally known do better than public school kids. But I think that is because 90% of the parents who homeschool are deeply invested in the outcome of their kids' education so they make sure of that. And it's one on one instruction which will always beat 30 kids to one adult. And you can tailor lessons to your child's strengths and weaknesses. If you have a kid who learns kinesthetically (by touching and doing), you do hands on learning with a lot of built experiments. If you have a kid who learns aurally, you read the lessons out loud while the child follows along in the book or have him or her read them out loud. If you have a kid who is a visual learner, you make sure there are plenty of pictures and graphs and charts. Schools have IEP's for kids that learn differently, but they aren't always followed.

I have known some parents who homeschool simply for complete and utter control over their kids' lives and I have known ones that simply do not want the government involved in raising their kids, so they keep them home and fake results. I've seen some parents who say they are homeschooling, but they aren't. They are just keeping their kids home. There are bad apples here just as there are anywhere else in life.

And I've seen plenty of parents admit that their kids are struggling in certain subjects, usually the boys and usually in reading. But they struggled with it regardless of whether they were public schooled or homeschooled. Usually it turned out that these kids were kinesthetic learners (boys often are) and most school and homeschool lessons are geared towards visual learners, so unless you teach them in the way that their brains are wired to learn there will be problems. Most homeschool parents will admit if there are problems because they want to figure out a method that will work for their kids to get them learning again.

So sure, some parents lie, but these are going to be the same type of parents that would lie about how well their kids were doing in public school, too. That goes to character of the adults. There are always going to be some.

[elessar78]

See this is all good stuff.

I agree that depending on your child's learning style (kinesthetic, auditory, or visually) you can tailor it better.

Further on the testing, I'm vehemently against testing because I'm not sure how it measures true learning esp. if teachers are distorting the results by teaching the state exams. I just used "testing" but I really didn't mean "testing".

As far as struggles, I feel that professionals may have more in their bag of tricks to get through to the student. But that's not something that can't be overcome either, but as in any field I think the more you see of something the more one is capable of responding to the issues.

Now I've heard from a lot of homeschool parents but have only heard from 2 homeschool kids and both have been negative toward the experience. Would love to hear the experiences from ones just out of school and in college and those that are in their 30s, 40s, 50s.

[LuckyRobin]

Well, technically I was homeschooled for part of sixth grade due to an extensive illness and again as a freshman in high school for half a year due to a relapse of that illness. I did well, got top marks, and really enjoyed it. I would have just stayed homeschooled except I wanted to participate in orchestra and concert choir and the laws weren't as good back then about partially attending school while homeschooling. I loved homeschooling because I learned more on my own and I really loved to learn, but I also loved public school for music, pep squad, dances, volleyball, soccer, softball, etc., and I had some fantastic teachers. In fact, I only had two bad teachers in my entire K-12 experience, one math teacher and one home ec teacher.

Also, and this may color your thoughts on this, my mother was a retired teacher at the time I was homeschooled. So I had someone on staff, so to speak, when I couldn't figure stuff out for myself, which would not be typical for homeschoolers.

[moneybags]

Studies show that home schooled children test higher on average on college placement tests (SAT and ACT)

According to this link

http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2011/02/homeschooled-students-act-scores-higher-than-national-average.html

The 11,535 homeschoolers who took the ACT in 2009 scored an average of 22.5 vs the total 1.48 million students who took the exam averaging 21.1. Sorry, that does not impress me at all. A 22.5 will not get you into a top college, and it will not put you in the running for any academic scholarships. There are public schools in my area that average 25-27 on the ACT. That average includes all students at the school(s), as it is a state requirement to take the ACT.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

What difference does it make if you are impressed or not? People do not see to their children's education in order to impress you.

So what if home educated kids do not on average have ACT scores to get into top schools. Evidently neither do kids, on average, educated in public schools. Are you wanting to hold the homeschooled kids to a higher standard?

[elessar78]

What difference does it make if you are impressed or not? People do not see to their children's education in order to impress you.

So what if home educated kids do not on average have ACT scores to get into top schools. Evidently neither do kids, on average, educated in public schools. Are you wanting to hold the homeschooled kids to a higher standard?

Well when HS parents always tout that the HS environment creates a better learning environment, then it should bear out at a statistically significant number. Again, I'm not big on test scores. It's hard to quantify stuff like critical thinking skills.

[moneybags]

What difference does it make if you are impressed or not? People do not see to their children's education in order to impress you.

So what if home educated kids do not on average have ACT scores to get into top schools. Evidently neither do kids, on average, educated in public schools. Are you wanting to hold the homeschooled kids to a higher standard?

It matters to me as I make a decision how to educate my children. The fact was stated above that homeschoolers do better on ACT/SAT tests than traditionally schooled students. I looked up the data and the gap was not that much different. I mistakenly thought I was allowed to state my opinion on this board without getting bashed.

[mgkimsal]

It matters to me as I make a decision how to educate my children. The fact was stated above that homeschoolers do better on ACT/SAT tests than traditionally schooled students. I looked up the data and the gap was not that much different. I mistakenly thought I was allowed to state my opinion on this board without getting bashed.

More broadly speaking, it does eventually impact all of us. Whether homeschooled or public schooled, the quality of the education will have an impact on the future of our society. I've already seen changes in the last 30 or so years that *seem* to be factors in our overall education decline. Our country's ability to compete over the next several decades is directly impacted by the education decisions we make today.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

It matters to me as I make a decision how to educate my children. The fact was stated above that homeschoolers do better on ACT/SAT tests than traditionally schooled students. I looked up the data and the gap was not that much different. I mistakenly thought I was allowed to state my opinion on this board without getting bashed.

Yes, of course your opinion is allowed here. No one is restricting it.

I misunderstood, thinking you were suggesting that if homeschoolers do not get ACT scores good enough for admission to top schools, then not using public school is a poor choice on average. So I now understand you only mean it might be a lesser choice for children who live in a district with ACT scores higher than an average homeschooler.

[boefixepa]

Test scores are also a bit misleading because not everyone takes them. I went to public school and I know the only ones who signed up and paid the money to take them were the good students, the ones trying to get into college. I wonder how that plays out in the results.... The homeschooler would need to take them so that any college would have a better standard to measure them at. I wonder how it would look if the last 25% of the public school kids took the test?

[moneybags]

I misunderstood, thinking you were suggesting that if homeschoolers do not get ACT scores good enough for admission to top schools, then not using public school is a poor choice on average. So I now understand you only mean it might be a lesser choice for children who live in a district with ACT scores higher than an average homeschooler.

I was just pointing out that a comment indicating that homeschooling is better because of higher test results should include data that clarifies the statement. I think the decision on educating your child should be individualized. There are pros/cons for all methods.

The schools I mentioned that have ACT averages over 25 are in wealthy areas, with little to no poverty. My school district falls below the homeschool average, but I sent my children there; which for us, has been the right choice.

Test scores are also a bit misleading because not everyone takes them. I went to public school and I know the only ones who signed up and paid the money to take them were the good students, the ones trying to get into college. I wonder how that plays out in the results.... The homeschooler would need to take them so that any college would have a better standard to measure them at. I wonder how it would look if the last 25% of the public school kids took the test?

Illinois mandates that all high schoolers take the ACT, free of charge, in April of their junior year. This report lists their average at 20.9. It also points out a comparison to MA, where only 25% of the students took the test.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-08-17/news/ct-met-act-scores-0817-20110817_1_average-composite-score-act-scores-reading-score

[mom-from-missouri]

We homeschool. 43% of our county homeschools. We belong to a coop, teen book club, field trip group, 4H, scouts, church, youth group, do volunteer work, sports......plenty of socialization with all ages. So, socialization or lack of, is an argument that can't be used against us.


My kids take the ACT. One daughter takes it each offering going for scholarships (she has a ton already). Our scores between the kids range from 27-29. Our local public school average is 19.

Parents don't need to be experts in all subjects, but do need to know what they are not good at teaching and arrange for a source for that subject. My daughters take outside music and art lessons, and foreign language lessons, and at times have had math tutors for the more advanced math classes. We do have our own chemistry lab, microscopes and according to a teacher in town, we have more equipment in ours than the high school does--in fact, they have borrowed some of ours in the past. I have a 14 year old learning to fly a plane. Public school doesn't offer that...

We are involved in speech contests and on a debate team. Our coop does a yearbook and class rings, and a graduation for 8th grade and seniors. We also have area homeschool proms. So no "high school experiences" are missed.

Not heard of any homeschool shootings lately.....

My husband has vacation during the traditional school year. We just pack our books, laptop and take school along on vacation. We school 365, so that's only about 3 hours a day to get our required hours in. While on trips, we learn about where we are, see sites and such and work it into our lessons.

I know what my daughters are taught in regard to religion, sex, and they are not given birth control or taken to Planned Parenthood by the school nurse, as was one young lady in a nearby school district. If they skip school, I know it.....and I am probably skipping with them.

[boefixepa]

"If they skip school, I know it.....and I am probably skipping with them."

I love it!!!! My mom would do that with me too!, but I was in public school, then she would write a note for me.... it was "our" joke.

[bones72]

Con: Poor socialization skills, very poor performance in secondary education, higher likelihood of divorce, poorer performance at work. From a report that I cannot find, but was done by the Florida Homeschooling association. Personal anecdotal experience is worse than that, far, far worse. Also, only the Army currently accepts GED's.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Bones72, I looked on google for a reference to "Florida Homeschooling association" and did not find it. Could you do us the favor of finding the name of the group that published those negative findings?

P.S. After looking around a bit, I found this summation of academic measures.

http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/ray2009/2009_Ray_StudyFINAL.pdf

At the end of that article it says to visit National Home Education Research Institute for the complete study, "Homeschooling Across America: Academic Achievement and Demographic Characteristics."

http://www.nheri.org

To the original poster--Sorry, I know that testing is not so much what you are interested in hearing about. I actually found the above link when looking for discussion of a higher divorce rate related to homeschooling. (By the way, is that supposed to be a higher divorce rate among adults who had been homeschooled, or among parents of homeschooled children? What I'm seeing is that there is an exceptionaly high rate of intact marriages among parents of HS children. But I see nothing so far on the adults who were HSed.)