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Each year more than a million children are homeschooled in the United States, and that number is steadily growing. While some parents believe homeschooling is an ideal situation, others fear that a student's education can be severely hindered in such an environment. When making a decision about your child's education, which is the more reasonable school of thought?
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Are Homeschooled Kids at a Disadvantage?
Would not go back anytime soon
The reasons I took my kids out of school are not the reasons I am still homeschooling. It was going to be a one year "fix" until we moved. We are now on our third year. I can say I don't see them going back to "Public" school. Each of them are at different levels and would be lost or bord at school. I don't what that to happen. One is two grade above grade level and another that is 1 grade below and then one that is on grade level. I also like that I can pick their books that work for them. That means I need to learn how to teach more than one way. but it is worth it.
I think the teachers are getting upset because they see how well these homeschool kids are doing on their tests. It may be making the "Public" schools look bad.
- tbk September 16, 2008 5:57AM
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a question
how are homeschooled kids taught the more advanced subjects like calculus or physics?
- reckoner
September 16, 2008 3:19PM
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re:question
"how are homeschooled kids taught the more advanced subjects like calculus or physics?"
Lots of ways! Some take jr. college classes, if they choose, some buy a book and read and learn the material, and like many in public schools, some kids choose not to take these classes. One can't be good at everything or be an expert in every subject. So many of these classes aren't available to most students in public schools anyway. As homeschoolers, we at least know how to find the answers and help our kids get the information that they need or want.
- karribest
September 16, 2008 3:29PM
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let me see if I understand
they either don't learn it (which you seem to justify heavily) or they go to a community college to learn it?
- reckoner
September 17, 2008 8:57AM
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They do learn it
Many homeschoolers learn advanced subjects. And just because a student is in public school taking those classes doesn't mean they learn the material. That's why so many tutoring businesses are out there!!!
Homeschoolers have the advantage of learning those subjects in a way that makes sense with the way they learn. They can take a class, have independent study, a virtual course online, or buy a textbook. Homeschooling families are very resourceful.
But I do think it's a bit disingenuous to imply that these so-called "advanced" topics are crucial. I was a grade ahead in math in the public schools when I was a kid, but I don't use trigonometry in my daily life.
Education should and can be tailored to the talents, interests, skills, and abilities of each individual student. Public education is mass education. Homeschool education is individualized.
- nlj September 17, 2008 2:43PM
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surprised
i'm surprised the tone I keep hearing is that kids don't need to learn advanced subjects.
"Education should and can be tailored to the talents, interests, skills, and abilities of each individual student. Public education is mass education."
I had good teachers that did tailor lessons for students or gave them one on one help. This is harder when class sizes are large, but this only means we should make them smaller. Do you not send your children to college because it's "mass education"?
- reckoner
September 18, 2008 8:58AM
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It depends on the teen's interests.
I went to an A-level high school and even there not everyone was required to learn calculus and physics. But it's not too hard to find someone who will tutor those subjects if the student is interested. My husband tutors in calculus, physics, chemistry, trigonometry, biology, and computer science to both homeschoooled and public schooled students. He finds the homeschoolers much easier to teach because they have a much better foundation to learn from. The local schools tend to skimp badly on the fundamentals students need to learn before they reach high school
- Lioness September 18, 2008 10:33AM
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You misunderstand
They are not saying children don't need to take the hard subjects, but they are saying that if your child is more interested in biology instead of chemistry, they can downplay the chemistry and help the child pursue their greater interest in biology.
That is the beauty of homeschool. They can just learn the basics in chemistry in order to pass the SAT for college but can spend hours on end on biology is that is their passion. They can correspond with biologists, read textbooks, perform experiments, volunteer at a hospital, order a formal course from various curriculum providers, and do the same things public school students would do, but at their own pace, so if they want to spend months on plant cells instead of the two weeks they might spend in public school, they can.
Some college classes really are no better than just reading a book. My university psychology class had over 400 students. I got nothing out of it. I wish I had chosen a smaller college.
- crunchymom September 19, 2008 9:34PM
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Not every kid is going to be an engineer
Most public school students would not be caught dead in Physics or Calculus. Why should home schooled kids be that much different? Also, at the community college where I work, we have hundreds of high school students enrolled in classes. We bill back their high schools for the instruction. If a home schooled kid takes a community college class, how are they different than the public high school students?
Some homeschooling parents are much more qualified than the public school teachers their children would have. Personally, I wouldn't home school my kids, though I'd be qualified to teach physics and calculus and a lot of other subjects at a high school level. For example, my engineer neighbor who home schools his kids - he'd be qualified, too. My engineer friend who home schools could do the math and science, and French, too, since he taught high school level science at a private school in France for a few years. Home schooling parents are generally pretty smart. That's why their kids outperform public school kids, on the average.
- dmsharp
September 29, 2008 7:34PM
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higher learning
Trig may not be useful in everyday life... but learning it (as well as other advanced subjects like calculus and statistics) are vital to advanced degrees.
- MrBook
January 16, 2010 8:48AM
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This is not true
From my own experience with Home School, you do not have any choice in whether you take those classes. They are in the Materials we use for home schooling in our Church. When you get to that level, you have a multitude of choices, you can either teach it, use live video feed, use video feed, or use computer based learning for it.
- UltraConservative September 22, 2008 7:56PM
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oops
I am on the no side. I do not believe that children who are home schooled are at a disadvantage. There are, I am sure, statistics to prove that.
- UltraConservative September 22, 2008 7:58PM
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statistics
Some of those statistics you mention are displayed on the Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeschooling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image :Homeschool_grades_chart.gif
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image :Homeschool_academic_scores.jpg
To quickly sum them up...yes, homeschooled students have higher academic scores than both students of private/Catholic schools and public schools.
- ebsarver
September 24, 2008 1:01AM
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I think what they mean
is not all children that homeschool choose to take those subjects, just the same as they don't always choose to take them in public school. I went to public school and never had them. The highest I went was biology (but I got A's in college level astronomy) and geometry. My oldest is only 12 and I'm already checking into math programs that I don't have to understand the higher levels myself to teach. There are some great programs out there. The one I will be using teaches by DVD and book. It also has a feature that it goes through each problem in the entire book step by step on the computer so if your student misses any problems, they can see what they did wrong. My husband was a computer science major, so he can help the children, if I can't. Even if I didn't have him as a resource, I could find someone to help. The homeschooling community is VERY helpful to each other.
- eclecticeducation September 24, 2008 1:14PM
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Calculus/Physics
Just for the record, the curriculum that I am using for my children does offer advanced science and math courses. (ie - physics and calculus) as college prep. classes.
M
- ROLSongbird
August 10, 2009 12:34PM
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Higher-Level Subjects
I know some HS kids who are tutored (I went to public school and I was tutored in Physics--by one of my teachers) by others in the community, attend a college class or a night class offered by the school district or some kids don't either want to take classes like physics (i went into psychology for my BA, so physics was something i took for the Regents (NYS) diploma, not for my college degree) or don't need them for their career or college pursuits. Other kids/parents learn together, take an online class or read a physics text.
There are so many opportunities open to Homeschool kids just by virtue of their flexible schedule. Taking classes that mom or dad (or whomever does their homeschooling primarily) should never be a problem.
- kjoyr814 September 17, 2008 8:23PM
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an answer
I can speak only for my own children but with that caveat - Yes my children will be exposed to "advanced" subjects like calculus and physics. If you want the specifics my husband will handle the calculus as he's the numbers man by profession and I'll handle the physics because I'm the science nerd.
To be honest though this question irritates me but not for the reason you most likely would think. I get irritated because nothing and I repeat NOTHING that I learned in my high school years is so very complex that I cannot share that knowledge with my children. That isn't saying that what I learned was less than stellar. It was a good, solid mid-western education. But really the most advanced courses in high school are nothing compared to the course work at a college. Just because you are public schooled doesn't mean that you have an advantage of any sort. That still depends very much on location. Small, mid-western high school on the "college track" barely prepared me for the level of work demanded at my college of choice.
- bmm1097 September 17, 2008 8:29PM
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I agree
I agree with you. I too went to a small mid-western High School. It did little to prepare me for what was ahead of me in College. (I spent more than 13 years in Higher Education) I am thankful that the curriculum we have chosen for my Childrens Home School education will be preparing them for that as they reach high school. It has pre-college courses that they will have to take. They will even have the opportunity to enroll in college classes when they are seniors in High School.
- UltraConservative September 22, 2008 8:38PM
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Are you serious?
Do you truly believe that only 'school teachers' have the corner on these subjects? Maybe you should do a bit more research.
- Laughing at you September 18, 2008 7:31AM
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be direct
your implications sound stronger than it really would be if you said your point directly. I do not believe that "only" teachers know those subjects. I'm sure I could teach it since I took a lot of math and science in college, but people with such a background are a small fraction of society and I'm guessing homeschool parents have the same proportions.
- reckoner
September 18, 2008 9:02AM
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You are guessing wrong.
I've been reseaching homeschooling in all it's forms for over four years now. I have found an extremely large percentage of the parents are college grads. There are some parents who are only high school grads but even those parents are working hard to learn the subjects right along with their child or finding them mentors.
Recently, there has even been a large amount of men blogging about being the homeschooling dad! Many of those men giving up jobs as school teachers so they could stay home and teach their children while their spouse goes out and earns the income.
Also, please note, may parents of Mensa and gifted children choose homeschooling so their children can learn at their own pace. Me being one of them. My son was reading above an eighth grade level at six and
at age ten, he is working in advanced Algebra and Biology. We tried public gifted classes and private schools. They all refused to let him go at his pace. Now we homeschool, actually, we unschool meaning he has the freedom to learn. My son also knows that if at any time he wishes to return to school, he can. He is also allowed to try it decide against it, and return home. His choice.
For the sake of argument, I'll add that my oldest child finished college at eighteen and is now working in her chosen field.
Do some research and you will find very smart people homeschooling their kids.
Nuf said.
- Laughing at you September 18, 2008 9:32AM
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selective sampling
I'm sure there are kids who are served well from homeschooling, but that anecdote isn't going to convince me of the value generally. I knew a girl who was homeschool most of her life and her mother then convinced her to join the military. I'll simply say that she wasn't prepared for the world.
We can trade anecdotes, but we both me they don't really mean anything.
- reckoner
September 18, 2008 12:21PM
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First
I'm not trying to convince you. Not my place.
Second. If the system worked for everyone, there would be fewer homeschoolers then there are. Every year, all year long, there are very sad parents signing on to the homeschool groups to learn more. They tell such heart wrenching tales of the sorrows their children are suffering at school and they see no other choice but to withdraw their children and learn about homeschool. I was one of them a few years back.
Third. You say I gave you a selective sampling. You gave me one. My sampling is taken from an extremely large networking system of homeschoolers all over the world. Yes, I have done extensive research.
There will always be 'bad' parents and they exist in every group. I could list many, many, bad parents that I've seen in my life. I've found far fewer in the homeschooling community.
- Laughing at you September 18, 2008 1:49PM
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Try these statistics for size
http://homeschoolinformation.com/homeschooling/homeschool_statistics1.htm
- crunchymom September 19, 2008 10:06PM
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Military Career
But this is just one example; an anecdote to an anecdote.
A career in the military is an excellent career option. Many of those who join the military are highly educated. See http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/cda06-09.cfm
- Sudnem
September 25, 2008 8:22AM
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Advanced Subjects
I dropped out of high school in the 10th grade because of the substandard education and the threat of violence. I began to educate myself through self study. I have self taught myself many advanced science and math courses. I am now about to complete my doctorate.
My children are homeschooled. They learn advanced courses from me as well as professionals in certain fields.
I do not believe that calculus and physics are advanced courses. they are essential courses. These are principles and theory that are taught right now to my primary school children.
Physics, along with many other "advanced" subjects are involved in everyday discussion in our house.
- Sudnem
September 25, 2008 8:18AM
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homeschool kids do learn!
We also took our daughter out of a private school where she was bullied and called names everyday. Our daughter takes hard subjects. We are homeschooling and she in middle school taking Algebra 1,Literture/composition, world history, and Physical science. Our daughter is learning and we have school everyday. Our daughter is happy and enjoys meeting new friends all the time
- jaw
September 25, 2008 1:54PM
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