New Nationwide Study Confirms Homeschool Academic Achievement

HSLDA ^ | August 10, 2009 | Ian Slater

[Spirochete]

government and homeschool advocates agree that homeschooling has been growing at around 7% per annum for the past decade

7% in ten years means the number of graduates will almost double every ten years. Not too bad.

[mamelukesabre]

I had this discussion with a single mom a couple years ago. She had a son somewhere around 8-12 years old. I really can’t remember his exact age. I remember her telling me all the differences between school nowdays and school when we were kids(in the seventies and early eighties). She told me that kids lug around 40lbs of books or more everywhere they go. they don’t use lockers. They have tons of homework everynight, even in elementary school. There’s no recess. There’s no gym class. They get in trouble if their sack lunch has anything in it that is disposable(bad for the environment). They spend all day talking about the environment, politics, and current events. Then they are handed huge assignments to do at home. the teachers don’t do a DAM THING to teach or help the kids with their assignments. The kids are expected to do all that on their own or with some aftershcool tutor. If the parents are poor, the parents ARE the tutor.

When I was in gradeschool, there WAS NO SUCH THING AS HOMEWORK. Except for spelling tests that is. OR if you were dumb and couldn’t keep up. Otherwise, all your studies were done at school. Sometimes a big writing assignment was finished up at home if you didn’t get it done on time.

NOBODY carried a book bag until 11th grade or later, if at all. There was no text books to take home until 7th grade and then there were so few of them that no book bag was necessary. And you almost never needed to take them home anyway. They stayed in the locker. 80-90% of all homework was completed in study halls...up until about 11th grade, when writing assignments became more involved and classes became more difficult. Test time was a little different. there was always cramming for a test the night before. But that’s about it.

[ALPAPilot]

but too many conservatives would rather just complain or attend a meeting

I wish I had a dime for every "conservative" who decries public education but defends their school because it has a "great reputation." If you opt out of private education, I don't believe you can be a conservative.

[wintertime]

Ping for later

[wintertime]

ping for later

[ALPAPilot]

There are plenty of great teachers out there - Christians and conservatives. We need more of them in the schools. That’s the way to solve the problem, not your answer.

It's a basic tenet of economics. Until the consumer (the parents) spend their own money for a service in a free market of education services, the results will NECESSARILY be inferior.

[dnandell]

We’re doing our part. We’ll be homeschooling our two boys for the first time this fall.

Our church has a lot of homeschooling families that we’ve started hanging out with. It’s been fun to watch the faces of the public school families, sometimes I think their heads are going to explode.

[achilles2000]

“If you opt out of private education, I don’t believe you can be a conservative.”

Just a conservative who is co-opted by an addiction to a middle class welfare entitlement (”free” daycare)...

[achilles2000]

“7% in ten years means the number of graduates will almost double every ten years. Not too bad.”

Except that we don’t have time. The Obamanation has bureaucrats and other “friends” who want to regulate independent homeschooling out of existence. We need to get more children out now and defeat every bond levy to break the back of the government school monopoly and make it impossible for the administration to regulate homeschooling.

[achilles2000]

And that 40 lbs of books and hours of homework are based on defective pedagogy that make it impossible for children to learn effectively. For example, here is an lucid exposition of what passes for math in government schools today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI

Virtually no one could learn enough math this way to be able to be a scientist or an engineer.

And there there is “whole language”...

[Mr. Blonde]

Imagine that, small groups of kids brought up similarly learn better than large groups of kids from many different backgrounds. I’m shocked, shocked I tell you.

[metmom]

ANOTHER REASON TO HOMESCHOOL

This ping list is for the “other” articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. This can occasionally be a fairly high volume list. Articles pinged to the Another Reason to Homeschool List will be given the keyword of ARTH. (If I remember. If I forget, please feel free to add it yourself)

The main Homeschool Ping List handles the homeschool-specific articles. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping list. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from either list, or both.

[metmom]

This ping list is for articles of interest to homeschoolers. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping List. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added or removed from either list, or both.

[achilles2000]

small groups of kids brought up similarly learn better than large groups of kids from many different backgrounds.

You forgot - taught by those who love them most and know them best...

[metmom]

ping

[bboop]

Wow, you are just starting homeschooling? We homeschooled K-12 (ok, graduated in 10th) and I could not recommend it more heartily. Our son knows how to think for himself, for a great start, and he is a conservative besides! Top SAT scores. The best part, tho, is that we had a real, woven-together, family all the way through. Traveled together during winter months, no homework wars at night, just family time. Wonderful field trips. Wonderful discussions.

You’ll have a great time.

[Little Pig]

Homework in the school system where I went was, from 7th grade on, centered around essays for english, research reports for social studies, and practice work for math. That’s it, and that’s all that should be needed.

[Mr. Blonde]

That too. Although I think it probably is a bonus compared to what I posted. I would guess private schools (especially parochial schools) are much closer to home schooled students than public.

I don’t know if my mom or dad would have been equipped to overcome my learning disability in a home schooled environment. They did pay for and make time to drive me to the learning center to overcome it though. And that one-on-one time with a teacher probably had as much to do with my later academic success as anything.

[aruanan]

In my opinion, our education system was fine until the government decided they could run it better than local communities could. Makes me wonder about their ability to run our health system.

McGuffey, of McGuffey's Readers, said that teachers hired by the school board should be able to teach to the students anything the parents desired to be taught but that the choice of subjects to be taught was to be determined by the parents alone, not by the teachers.

[aruanan]

From the report:

The question HSLDA regularly puts before state legislatures is, “If government regulation does not improve the results of homeschoolers why is it necessary?”

A better question would be, "Since homeschooling consistently outperforms public schools in all areas of the curriculum, when will the government start to implement in public schools what homeschooling has already demonstrated to work well?"