That question mark shouldn’t be that big: if you’re serious about educating your children, homeschooling is by far the best option.
We’ll give you a brief overview of homeschooling pros and cons, and we’ll take a look at the basic homeschool vs public school statistics; if you’re not convinced homeschooling is the best way to go, you’ll sure be, by the end of this article.
Let’s look at the numbers.
Homeschool vs public school statistics
The fact that the US public education system is close to a mess is no mystery to anyone; after all, it’s constantly outperformed by most other western countries, and, while US universities are among some of the most prestigious in the world, they rely heavily on imported brainpower.
For the past 40 years, there seems to have been a serious downfall of how public schools educate our children – and this is not likely to change, either.
The only change you can really make is in the way you educate your own children.
Homeschool vs public school: test scores
When it comes to performance in standardized tests, there’s no doubt about it: homeschoolers far outperform public school children. While homeschooled children average an impressive 86% on all subtests, their counterparts reach a meager 50%.
While there’s quite a debate on how well poor children do in the public school, money is not that much of an issue when it comes to homeschooling. Homeschooled children whose parents spent more than $600 per year came out, on average, in the 86th percentile, while those whose parents shelled out more than $600 came out in the 89th percentile.
One of the main objections to homeschooling is that children might be unprepared for college; this is absolutely false. Not only do homeschooled children adapt well in college, they graduate at a much higher rate than their counterparts: 66.7% of homeschooled students finish college, while only 57.5% of public school students do.
Finally, the stereotype that homeschooled children are a bit socially awkward is unfounded. Homeschooled children constantly outperformed public school children in each of these crucial social adaptation factors: communication (113.45 vs 98.08), daily living (112.10 vs 90.77), socialization (109.50 vs 95.08) and maturity (115.55 vs 93.00).
Homeschool vs public school – pros and cons
We’ve seen that the statistics are completely in favor of homeschooling your children. Numbers aside, there are more reasons to homeschool your children – and a (very little) few not to.
Homeschooling pros and cons: Quality
Teaching 30 children is much less likely to results in learning quality for all of them – and if your children tend to get lost in the middle of all the public school noise, their school performance will be seriously affected.
If you’re homeschooling them, the situation is completely different. Not only do you get the chance to control what they’re learning, you’ve also got the opportunity to work closely with your children, explaining everything they don’t really understand, and helping them practice everything until they get it right. Test passing won’t be your children’s goal – mastery of the subject will.
Another way in which homeschooled students are much better off than their public school peers is the significantly higher amount of field trips and other types of hands-on learning. A public school routine might involve one trip per semester – if you homeschool, you can have one per week, or as many as you want.
Homeschooling pros and cons: Safety
Smoking, alcohol, premature sex, schoolyard beatings, gangs – all these are improbable if you homeschool your children. Not to mention you also avoid serious tragedies like school shootings.
Homeschool pros and cons: Family bonding
Spending time with children is a big issue these days – though it’s totally not so if you homeschool. You’ll have the chance to spend quality time with your children, and you’ll also have plenty of fun learning together.
Public school vs homeschool pros and cons: Government involvement
Let’s face it: while government policies in education have largely been well-intended, there are quite a few areas where you might not agree with the “official” position. If you don’t what your children being lectured on unregulated political views in the fourth grade, homeschooling is the way to go.
Public school vs homeschool pros and cons: Structure
The only major area where public schools might be superior to the average homeschool is in the structuring of the school day and of the subjects. Some homeschooling parents might have a hard time getting everything done on time – and if you’ve got additional household chores, things get even more complicated.
However, with a bit of organization and time management, you can overcome this obstacle. Most homeschooling families manage to find time for everything, even if they’re got less time to spend on watching TV; but who wants that, anyways?
Conclusion
Homeschooling is simply better than having your children attend public schools. It’s as simple as that. Statistics, common sense, experience – everything shows that homeschooling is a better, more efficient way to educate your children.
So stop wondering and start homeschooling today – it’ll be a challenge, but you’re going to love it.
Resources
http://www.nheri.org/research/research-facts-on-homeschooling.html
http://www.debate.org/opinions/is-homeschooling-better-than-public-schooling
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