 |
Homeschool Myths and FactsBefore you read about homeschool myths and the facts, you may want to read the homeschool hall of fame. They are people who you might have heard before (US Presidents, scientist, musicians, etc), but what you might not know is that they are homeschooled, too. Now here's some common homeschool myths :
Homeschool Myths : homeschoolers are 'stuck at home' The Facts : Homeschoolers may not be in school, but they're involved in sports teams, community classes, with their support group, scouts, volunteer, part-time school (Resource Center). Homeschooling families are not limited by school schedule so they are free to utilize their time and free to come and go. They can go on vacation anytime. They can go abroad and do homeschooling there. How much more effective can it be for a kid to learn about Spain than to live there and experience Spain on his own ! Homeschool Myths : homeschoolers have no socialization The Facts : This seems to be the number one homeschool myths. People say that homeschoolers lack socialization. Actually, homeschoolers have more time to socialize since they do not have to spend time for administrative task in school. They have more time to interact deeply with other kids, the neighbours, other homeschooling family. They may not have as many friends as school children do, but they have more closer friend. In school, children might seem to have lots of friend, but most they only know by names. They are not close friends. Homeschoolers have more time to become friends with parents and sibling, which in turn make a stronger family, something that seems to be in decline lately. In 1989, Linda Montgomery, a principle of a private high school, was one of the first to look to the future and adulthood of the home-educated. Her findings on 10-21 year old homeschoolers showed that they were very involved in “youth camps, church activities, jobs, sports, summer camps, music lesions, and recitals (4).” Dr. Brian Ray has been researching the homeschool movement for almost 20 years and is internationally known for his work. Ray says, “Numerous studies, employing various psychological constructs and measures, show the home-educated are developing at least as well, and often better than, those who attend institutional schools. No research contravenes this evidence (1).” One of the studies that Ray conducted was the largest nationwide study of homeschooled adults in the U.S. (2). In this study, Ray found that homeschoolers were actively involved with local communities, highly civically involved, tolerant of others and abreast on current affairs. A study by Shyers found that the only significant childhood social-interaction difference between the institutionally-schooled and the homeschoolers was that the institutionally-schooled had higher problem behavior scores (6). Homeschool Myths : homeschoolers do not live in a real world, with real people, diversity and democracy The Facts : Homeschoolers do live in a real world. The still live in the same neighborhood with real people of various ages and color and political agenda. School on the other hand is a world on its own, with people of the same age range. Homeschooling kids are closer to their parents and are more involved with what the parents do, including their parents social and political activities. Homeschool myths : Homeschool children do not know how to take tests or standardized tests The Facts : On November 16, 1990, the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) released its first report on 1560 homeschooling families: A Nationwide Study of Home Education: Family Characteristics, Legal Matters, and Student Activities. This research showed that on students K-12, “On standardized achievement tests, the homeschooled students performed at or above the 80th percentile on national norms in terms of their reading, listening, language, math, science, social studies, basic battery, and complete battery scores.” The national average in conventional schools is the 50th percentile. Furthermore, “underground” (families not reporting to the state at all) homeschooling children are far above institutionalized education children and slightly above other homeschooling children in language and reading (1,2). A study by Jones and Gloeckner cited three studies (Gray, 1998; Jenkins, 1998; Mexcur, 1993) as showing the home-educated to be performing as well or better than institutional-school graduates at the college level (3). A study by Oliveira, Watson and Sutton found that homeschooled students has a slightly higher overall mean critical thinking score than did students from public schools, Christian schools, and ACE (private) schools but the differences were not statistically significant (8). Both the SAT and ACT publishers have reported for several years that the scores of the homeschooled are higher, on average, than those form public schools. For example, for the 1999-2000 school year, the home-educated scored an average of 568 in verbal while the state-school average was 501, and 532 in math while the state-school average was 510 (9). Homeschool Myths : Homeschool children can not get into college The Facts : Irene Prue’s nationwide study of college admission personal revealed, “…homeschoolers are academically, emotionally, and socially prepared to succeed in college. (10). Several colleges think so well of home-educated students that they have been actively recruiting them for several years (e.g., Boston University, Nyack College) (1). Admission officers at Stanford University think they are seeing an unusually high occurrence of a key ingredient, which they term, “intellectual vitality,” in homeschool graduates (11). Homeschoolers are going on to college at a higher rate than the national average (2). Homeschool myths : Parents need to be certified teachers The Facts : A Nationwide Study of Home Education: Family Characteristics, Legal Matters, and Student Activities found that there was no difference in students’ total reading, total math, or total language scores based on the teacher certification status of their parents (i.e., neither parent had been certified, one had been, or both had been). The findings of this study do not support the idea that parents need to be trained as certified teachers to assure successful academic achievement for their children. Children in homeschool families with low-income and in which parents have little education are scoring, on average, above state-school averages (1,2). The average teaching schedule involves the mother giving 88% of the instruction, while the father does 10% of the teaching (12). The average education levels for mothers of homeschooled children is: Less than H.S diploma = 2%; H.S diploma = 32%; some college = 31%; college degree = 27%; more than college = 8% (12). The average education levels for fathers of homeschooled children is: Less than H.S diploma = 3%; H.S diploma = 24%; some college = 22%; college degree = 29%; more than college = 21% (12). Why all these homeschool myths ? There seem to be several possible reasons for the circulation of mis-information about homeschooling that leads to homeschool myths:
References :
If you're looking for things like avoiding peer pressure, being with kids all the time, those are not homeschool myths. Those are the reasons people homeschool. And if you know of more homeschool myths, as always, contact me and I'd be happy to include them here.
|