Eight Reasons to Home Educate
Eight Reasons to Home Educate
by Spencer Mason
The decision to home school involves commitment, sacrifice and dedication. It will cost money for educational and curricula materials. It requires your time for working with your children. It requires you to be different from most of your friends and neighbors. (After all, their children get on the school bus every morning.) Your parents may disapprove of your decision to home school. As with anything worthwhile, there is a cost involved. So, what are the advantages of home education?
- The home school can be tailored to fit your child’s maturity and learning styles. Rather than your child having to fit into a graded education system, your school can be moulded to fit your child’s needs.
Several government funded studies the 1920’s and 1930’s showed that classroom instruction and book learning was not the most effective way to educate children 9-10 years old or younger. Studies in the 1970’s by Raymond and Dorothy Moore and others confirmed the findings of the earlier studies. Their studies showed that many children, especially boys, were not physically, neurologically or emotionally mature enough to handle structured classroom teaching.
In home education, a child can be allowed to develop mentally and physically before he is exposed to structured book work. Also, in areas where the child excels, the home school will not hold a child back. Instead, home schooling can permit the child to learn as quickly as his ability and interest will allow.
2. Across the nation the average home educated child scores in the top 30% on standardized achievement tests.
Home school test results for North Carolina in the 1988-1989 school year are as follows: CAT top 27%; IOWA BASIC top 20%; SAT top 27%; METROPOLITAN top 33%. (The 1988-1989 school year was the last year test scores were compiled by the Division of Non-Public Education.)
3. Tutorial style education is more time effective than classroom teaching. Educators have estimated that in 1-1/2 to 2 hours, a tutor can cover the same material that classroom teaching takes a whole day to cover.
With home education you can give your child the precious gift of time! Time to play, to read, to draw, to observe nature, to do a project, to sing or play an instrument, to be involved with a service project, to run a cottage industry, to develop relationships and to pursue their interests.
4. Parents have control over what their child is taught; when and how it is taught. The parent can be flexible in changing the method of educating to suit the child and the family.
Who cares more about your children and their education than you, their parents? Who knows your children, their strengths and weaknesses, better than you? Who, besides you, can insure that your children are taught right from wrong? Who can teach your values and beliefs better than you?
DEUT. 6:4-7 Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength. These commandments which I give you this day are to be kept in your heart; you shall repeat them to your sons, and speak of them indoors and out of doors, when you lie down and when you rise.
EPH. 6:4 You fathers, again, must not goad your children to resentment, but give them the instruction, and correction, which belong to a Christian upbringing.
As a Christian, I have been given the responsibility to train my children in the wisdom of the Lord. Whether my children are educated in public school, in private school, or in home school, I must answer to God for what my children are taught. I am also responsible for how my children are taught.
The Bible states that fathers are not to goad or exasperate their children in the educational process. If one method of educating frustrates the child, the parent should change the method of instruction to one that is more productive. This shift in instructional method is more easily accomplished in a home school setting.
5. Home education affords children more opportunity to learn from real-life experiences rather than exclusively learning from books.
For example, children can learn math in the kitchen, workshop, and supermarket. This makes math more meaningful and more useful to them. Home education brings with it a natural development of life skills that are not a part of the traditional classroom curriculum.
6. Children attain confidence and independent thinking when their exposure to peer pressure is reduced and interaction with their parents is increased. Also, home schooled children relate better to people of all ages than do their classroom educated counterparts.
In one study using the Piers Harris Children’s Self Concept Scale, 77.7% of 224 home schooled students in grades 4 to 12 ranked in the top 25% in the nation. This test is nationally recognized to measure socialization skills.
Home educated children learn social behavior from their parents instead of from other children. In most cases, parents know much more about how to get along with other people than do young children. Because home schooled children typically have contact with a wide range of people during their week, they can relate to people of different ages and different backgrounds.
7. Home education can be planned around the family’s schedule.
Home school does not have to be scheduled during normal school hours. Many home educators have educational activities during the evening hours when both parents can be involved.
Occasionally my family accompanies me on a business trip, however, for them, it is a field trip. Learning opportunities can happen at any time of the day, and the experienced home educator can recognize these opportunities and take advantage of them.
8. Home education provides a vehicle for strengthening the family.
Typical home school families have experienced greater closeness, deeper commitment to one another, and more open communications. Our family has enjoyed learning together through reading, projects, sports, the arts, and spiritual development.
An unexpected by-product of home education has been that the parent has an opportunity to learn with the children. The home school parent has a greater understanding of history, politics, science, geography, etc. as a result of the home education process.
TO SUM UP, the advantages of home education are:
- Can be tailored to fit your family’s educational needs.
- Produces educational excellence.
- Is time efficient.
- Gives parents control.
- Can be integrated with real life.
- Is confidence building.
- Can be planed around the family’s schedule.
- Is a catalyst for family closeness.
In short home education is an effective tool for helping your child to reach his full potential.
Note: If you are intereseted in home education the following books are suggested.
BETTER LATE THAN EARLY, Raymond and Dorothy Moore FOR THE CHILDREN’S SAKE, Susan Schaeffer Macaulay HOME SCHOOL BURNOUT, Raymond and Dorothy Moore LEARNING ALL THE TIME, John Holt
TEACH YOUR OWN, John Holt
YOU CAN TEACH YOUR CHILD SUCCESSFULLY, Ruth Beechick