Average Americans often deride home schooling as ineffective and just plain “weird.” Yet in the midst of a lackluster public education system, we should be open to alternatives. A surprisingly successful one is home schooling.
Many people view home schoolers as socially isolated cultural reactionaries, and there is a grain of truth to this sentiment.
Statistics indicate that Evangelical Christians are overrepresented among home schoolers, and studies show that around 30 to 50 percent of home schooling parents do so for “moral” reasons.
But while these moral objections may be religious, they certainly don’t have to be. A good example of this arose following the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, when military recruiters were given unprecedented access to students.
Parents morally opposed to U.S. foreign policy didn’t want their children in an environment where recruitment was generally encouraged as an ethical, high-minded ideal to strive for.
But whether moral concerns are justified or not, isn’t the most important aspect of homeschooling the quality of its education?
To learn more about home schooling, as well as its comparison with public school, I spoke to Dr. Beverly Doyle, associate professor of education.
Doyle was ardent in defending home schooling as a good option for some children. Though acknowledging that the body of research on the matter was imperfect, Doyle rejected the popular belief that home schooling “socially impairs children.” This assertion, she flatly said, is “completely unsupported by any evidence.”
Popular perception is just as faulty regarding the academic effects of home schooling. Though many believe parents couldn’t possibly offer as good an education to their children as professionals, Doyle said current evidence “suggests just the opposite.”
The study Doyle cited, also reported in the Aug. 30, 2009 edition of the Washington Times, showed home schoolers dominating over their public school competitors on SAT and other major standardized tests.
On average, home schoolers scored at the 89th percentile of public school children, with even low-income home schoolers achieving higher scores than middle-class public schoolers.
None of this is to say the traditional model should be jettisoned entirely. But it is unrealistic and uncaring to expect every child to have his or her unique learning needs met by one public school system. As Doyle put it, there is “no one size fits all” solution to educating children.
The American educational establishment and public at large should respect home schooling as an alternative to often-inadequate public schools and often-inaccessible private schools.
Anything less is a betrayal of our country’s professed values of individuality and diversity.