Time to Home-school!

I said I would focus on the home-schooling facts about a week ago. The time to follow up has come. From homeschoolfacts.com comes the following information:

Homeschooling is the single, fastest-growing educational trend in the United States, and that trend is expanding worldwide. Dr. Brian Ray, one of the leading home-school researchers, estimates that homeschooling has increased 15 percent per year over the past several years. While accurate statistics regarding the number of families homeschooling is difficult to come by, Dr. Ray’s estimates are supported by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Household Education Survey program.

In 1999, the U.S. Department of Education estimated that there were about 850,000 homeschoolers nationwide that had increased to about 1.1 million by 2003. Ray estimated that there were between 1.7 and 2.1 million homeschoolers at the end of that period, and that currently, there are between 2.5 and 4 million homeschoolers nationwide.

So how do home-schooled children compare to kids from a public school background?

Social Skills: There is a common myth that homeschooling produces social misfits. This myth partially arises from an assumption that traditional education systems provide “normal” socialization activities. Dr. Raymond Moore, in his book "Better Late than Early," writes: “The idea that children need to be around many other youngsters in order to be ‘socialized’ is perhaps the most dangerous and extravagant myth in education and child rearing today." There is ample research that indicates that because home schooled students are exposed to a wider variety of people and situations, they learn to get along with a variety of people, making them socially mature and better able to adjust to new situations.

In other words, home-schooled children are around adults with so much more one on one attention and such a small class size that the children act more mature than perhaps they would otherwise.

In their communities: Many non-homeschoolers believe that homeschooling can turn out better students, but because home-school students are educated in greater isolation from the world, they are less politically and socially involved. This concern comes at a great time, for homeschoolers at least. The first generation of homeschoolers has now grown up and entered the workforce. Dr. Ray surveyed more than 7,000 adults who had been home schooled and compared them against their more traditionally educated peers. His research found that:

• Ninety-five percent of homeschoolers had an adequate comprehension of politics and government, compared to 65 percent of U.S. adults.
• Seventy-one percent of home-school graduates participate in ongoing community service activities, including politics, compared to 37 percent of adults in similar ages.
• Eighty-eight percent of home-school graduates are members of organizations (community groups, church, or professional organizations) compared to 50 percent of U.S. adults.
• Significantly, 76 percent of home-school graduates voted in a national or state election within the past five years, compared to 29 percent of similar U.S. adults.

My comments will come with the next blog.  Any other interesting questions?