Hmmm. I guess we can no longer use the “But I’m not educated enough to teach my kids” excuse as a way to avoid home schooling.
A study on homeschooling in the US and Canada (conducted by the admittedly conservative Fraser Institute) reveals the following tidbit:
Poorly educated parents who choose to teach their children at home produce better academic results for their children than public schools do. One study we reviewed found that students taught at home by mothers who never finished high school scored a full 55 percentage points higher than public school students from families with comparable education levels.
Interesting, no?
I’m guessing that the decision to home school shows an interest in and emphasis on education, no matter what the parents’ level might be.
The home school advantage shows up in all kinds of ways. There’s this, too:
Research shows that almost 25 per cent of home schooled students in the United States perform one or more grades above their age-level peers in public and private schools. Grades 1 to 4 home school students perform one grade level higher than their public- and private-school peers. By Grade 8, the average home schooled student performs four grade levels above the national average.
So, either I am number-challenged (public school, you know) or the average home schooled eighth grader is at the same level as the average public high school senior.
This doesn’t surprise me in the slightest, frankly. Something about home schooling really, really works.
It’s this: home schooled students get a lot of attention from their teacher/parent and can devote themselves to learning without the distractions of a typical classroom.
Pretty simple.
Still sending your kid to school? Fine. It’s every parent’s choice to make.
But just think what a little home supplementation might do.
