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Natural News
There are over 2 million home-educated children in this country, and this number is growing at 2% to 8% per year. This is not surprising, given the dismal track record of the public school system. If you have ever considered homeschooling your children (or even if you have not), here are six reasons to do it.
1. Academic excellence by homeschoolers is greater than you might think. Academically, homeschoolers far surpass publicly educated students. In one recent study, standardized test scores of homeschooled students were 37 percentile points above their public school counterparts. Previous studies showed similar results.
2. Social skill excellence by homeschoolers is greater than you might think. Most homeschooled children learn superior social skills (such as sharing, being kind, helping others, working together) at home with a parent supervising better than they would in a school setting where individual supervision is minimal. Interactions with extended family and neighborhood children, as well as extracurricular activities (like Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts), provide additional opportunities for healthy social encounters.
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4. The legal hurdles are lower than you might think. Laws vary by state, but many require little or no notification, reporting or paperwork. Even in the most highly regulated states compliance with the law is not difficult. National non-profit organizations, like the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, help members understand their rights and responsibilities as homeschooling parents.
5. The benefits to your children are greater than you might think. Your children receive your worldview, beliefs, and values, and they eat your food rather than food from a school cafeteria. You can tailor your school day to your child, whether s/he is a slow learner or gifted academically. You can provide ample individual attention.
6. It is more important than you might think. Most Natural News readers are independent thinkers and healthy skeptics, qualities which are generally discouraged by the public school system. By homeschooling your children you can teach your children to think critically, rather than teaching to the test like they do in public school. This will better equip them to navigate the social, financial, food, and energy crises, which loom in our future.
If you do not think you are capable of teaching your children, you are in good company; when starting out no one thinks they can. Taking on the task of educating your own children is an enormous responsibility. But even seasoned homeschooling parents have insecurity about their ability to teach their children. This insecurity can be converted to motivation to learn and study how to best educate your children.
See sources for this article here and visit NaturalNews.com for more health freedom news.
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14 comments:
I am a teacher. I do the best job I can but I simply cannot be a father to 170 6th graders. We pretend to be able to meet the needs of every student but we run an industrial model of education. The great equalizer would be technology which is underfunded...if it were then teachers would be under-trained to adopt it effectively. On top of that, the trend is budget cuts and class size increases. I have asked myself if I would want a future child of my own to grow up in this system and there are times when I think they should be home schooled. (middle school or anywhere that class sizes exceed 40). It would be ironic if I continued as an educator while simultaneously chose to opt out of the system with my own child. I have seen too much to believe it is effective. However, some kids are way too smart. They get A's but aren't challenged in the system to a level they are capable of. Homeschooling solves the problem for students who need more help and students who need more challenge. In the information age we are hobbling our students with outdated methods for approaching the development of their mind (critical thinking).
Excellent article, and thanks for sharing the above comment. My wife and I are exploring homeschooling for our 2yo, this helps strengthen our resolve.
We unschool our kids and we travel quite a bit. They learn new languages, cultures, currencies, etc...It's priceless life-learning.
Stay far away from public schools at all costs. They're mind prisons to put it kindly.
My partner works for Village Home Educational Resource Center ( http://www.villagehome.org/ ), which is like a community college for home schooled children, so that they can supplement their home education for certain subjects and socialize together. It's an amazing alternative and growing fast. LucasFilms was just out filming them for an upcoming documentary called, "Class Dismissed". Public schooling was designed for a different era, the private money trying to gut the system doesn't really have a better model, but homeschooling is taking off.
My four children are unschooled.
They are extremely social, way above average general knowledge, high self esteem, generall great kids.
So pleased I never herded them through the cattle grid.
Too damn bad I live in Scandinavia then, which was like a testing ground for satanic socialism.. Everybody is thinking about what the other guy is thinking about them. Sad. And home schooling is like an evil taboo. Imagine... It's sick.
You missed a critical point. Imaging you had a lovely puppy you cared for since it was first born, and you loved it with all your heart. Now would throw it into some day camp where it would be bullied, attacked and mistreated frequently? The answer is no! I wish I was never sent to public school, it ruined my life :(
I'm a physician and half of my patients are children (ear, nose, throat specialist). A couple of my patients are children who are home schooled. I think it is an incredibly brave, awesome undertaking to make that decision. I see all of the benefits described in this article, and then some. My patients who are home schooled are by far healthier and just generally better behaved and disciplined. I think it's great and definitely something I wished I could do if I didn't work. Schools with herds of children couldnt possibly do ether than in a situation where there is individual attention and a tailor-made curriculum and pace.
My daughter has been 'unschooled' since birth, and I wouldn't have missed a moment to date: all of those precious moments I would doubtless have missed had she been attending school. At nine going on ten, she is bright, beautiful, confident, kind, understanding... the list goes on and on. Everywhere we go people notice and comment upon how different she is to other children, in a plethora of positive ways. They often give me the impression that they think this is 'despite', rather than because of, her unschooled life. It is not. She would not be the free, open, intelligent, responsible and discerning individual she is today had she been subjected to the British school system. Damage control would have been my greatest role had we gone down that path. Instead, I am free to act as her guide and mentor, her facilitator and ally. There is a marked absence of conflict in our relationship, and for that I will be eternally grateful to my discovery of homeschooling whilst I was pregnant. We are a team, united in our goal of enjoying and understanding life. Isn't that how it's supposed to be?
I don't have any children. I like to think that I will home school if ever i do. I've learnt more in the past 5 years since finishing school and college than I did throughout 14 years in education. The only valuable thing that I learnt in school was how to read. With that I can research and learn of anything I choose. Eilatan, UK
#7 . You don't need a car or bus to get your children to school, wasting time and gas .
The system of education worldwide has to change this is a very left brain system it is finite and generalized, there should be as many educational systems as there are people in the world so that each one benefits unconditionally and not conditionally. Education systems have to be infinite and variable, we are all different! so all have to be different therefore ! I am 18 years old and recently I got out of high school, to become like I was , like a child, must people are scared of going back to be a child, the reality is that is who you where before entering all the systems that existed worldwide that made you like someone else, that someone else is everyone else, so people become robotic. All people worldwide should become spiritual, spiritual does not mean religious , it means to be part of the one cosmos, to be dancing in tune or moving to the rhythm of cosmos, because we are all gods, if we live in god then each one of us is god himself, being spiritual you will take power from the inside of you rather than the outside like must systems in human civilization are structured, this is called the false ego(ego means form of gaining power). The school system worldwide with the very exception of few systems are totally enslaving. In the country that I live in (Mexico) people send their kids to school because they think that with an education in public or private schools their kids will get a job easier(very sad), True you get it easier but your are always conditioned by society and by the financial system that always asks for certification(people need to know that there is only one certification and that it through the individualized heart, if you have a heart everything is possible), we have to change , That is why I always disobeyed, to show others that yes we can change the world, and no we are not free, in human awareness never has freedom been experienced, It is wonderful! 7lightworker12
Not only freedom o choice, or freedom of expression, but freedom of action , freedom of thoughts (thoughts constitute all others, this has been greatly conditioned in society worldwide even if it doesn’t look like it). To all parents that are reading this article, please let your children be, if desired by you parents and the children themselves(you have to follow what they say, its their education, if they are young try to experiment and ask them how they feel, tell them to not be afraid of saying the truth, make them feel comfortable) homeshool them, and later on ask them if they are comfortable .My advice is: don’t send them to high school, private school, public school or university if they individually do not desire. Don’t fall back to what society, family says/thinks, it’s very hard I know, but if you do fall you will always do what the lower (left) mind thinks and not what the heart thinks, you have to start using individual feelings and make balanced choices between yourself and your Soul mate . My parents are that way and you know they substituted the drop out that I made for a psychologist three times a week, I do go but I don’t pay attention (one of this days I will get out there too, I already get out, with my thoughts), because I know myself very well, I don’t have problems (I had ), it´s the systems around me and the majority of society that has fear of changing. I will always tell people if you have children no matter what age let them be, they have a soul and they are very different from even both of their parents, and both of their parents are different . Difference does not mean judging or taking action against them (when it seems you want to help your child by making his choices and actions) 7lightworker12
We've homeschooled for 15 years and almost feel as if we were some of the "first frontiersman" of the movement before it became a popular choice. Our children do not regret it and neither do we as parents. It's the best choice you will ever make and more rewarding than anything you can imagine.
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