Questions and Comments About Homeschooling
Dateline: August 27, 2002
by Ann Zeise
An upset educator wrote me today. Her questions may be some
you also have, so I thought I'd put them up online.
<< Ann,
<< I am not necessarily for or against homeschooling.
I think that homeschooling can be a rewarding and wonderful experience-IF
IT IS DONE RIGHT!!!
You make the assumption that there is one right way to educate
children. Could you please show me any study you know of that
has compared a whole lot of methods and has proven which way
is the right way. Thank you.
<< I also feel that public school can be a very good
place to learn. The public school system does have a lot of problems,
but I think that people need to understand that many very well
educated, intelligent, highly esteemed people have had a public
education.
And there are many esteemed
people who have NOT had a public education, but been homeschooled,
tutored or taught in a private school.
Also, please provide me with statistics showing how many of
the students of first year teachers wind up in successful professions
in later years. C'mon. Give beginners a break.
<< As an elementary school teacher, I am appalled
by the ignorance that I am seeing on some of the homeschooling
websites.
Please let me know which sites show such ignorance. I moderate
the Homeschool Webmasters
Yahoo Group. We'll ask these webmasters to join us and we'll
help them upgrade their standards. I assume you are also part
of some organization to upgrade public school websites. Some
of these are also very poor excuses for educational sites.
<< Teachers are often taking the blame for things
that are out of their control, such as testing. When browsing
through the sites, I am finding that the complaints of most parents
are the same complaints of teachers!
Before I put up my article called "For
teachers who want to tutor" I was getting about 3 or
so emails a week from teachers who wanted out of the school system
and to start their own businesses helping homeschooled students.
So I agree with you entirely! Many teachers do have the same
complaints as we do. They are moving over to our "camp,"
so to speak.
<< I am also disappointed by the lack of information
out there. Homeschooling organizations and many websites like
to compare children who are homeschooled to children who are
in the public school system. It is not a fair or equal comparison.
Some would like to say that children who are homeschooled are
scoring higher on tests. These studies are flawed.
We don't like "them" comparing our test results
with school children either. Both the tests and studies are flawed.
You will find links on my site to essays from homeschool publications
deploring the use of tests to prove anything.
Research
Should
We Test?
Having said that, though, I have links to the results of the last several
years of ACT college entrance tests. Make of those results
what you will. As taking the college tests is optional, they
may prove nothing at all.
<< Katherine Pfleger writes:
<< "The most commonly cited study, sponsored
by the National Home Education Research Institute, is a case
in point. According to that report, the average public school
student scores in the 50th percentile on national tests, while
the average homeschooler scores in the 80th percentile to 87th
percentile--regardless of race. That sounds like an open-and-shut
case for homeschooling. But Glen Cutlip...points out that the
study averages percentiles from several different tests, comparing
the scores of homeschoolers nationwide with those of public school
students from ONLY the state of Virginia. In addition, he says,
since the homeschoolers were selected by sending out a questionnaire,
they constitute a self-selected group, not a representative sample
of the entire homeschooling population."
I find this ridiculous as well. Of course the average of ALL
test takers will be 50%! That's what a "normed" test
proves! NERI is not noted for its unbiased research. We generally
ignore them. They are a Christian-only group that never studies
non-Christian homeschooled children.
<< If homeschooling is so wonderful and the children
learn so much more, why
will homeschoolers not allow a proper study to be done?
Because there have been so many very poor ones done in the
past that have not resulted in any service to homeschool families
at all. Would you waste your time, say, having someone study
your teaching methods if they promised nothing in return, no
feedback, nothing to improve your teaching? What if all they
seemed to be trying to prove was that you were a bad teacher?
What would be your motivation in participating?
<< Why are homeschoolers so secretive about the test
scores of their children? In the state where I am from, people
who homeschool are encouraged to black out everything on their
test results except for the composite score when they notify
the school that they will be homeschooling so that no one will
know what their child scored on any subtest, why?
It is really hard to make people who don't treasure personal
privacy to understand why we want to treasure our own. How about
telling me how much you weigh? How much do you get paid? What
was on your last job evaluation? Are
you beginning to get the picture?
<< As I said, I think that homeschooling can be wonderful
if it is done right. I have seen a couple of success stories
of my own. However, I have seen even more sad stories of children
who are now so far behind that they have to be placed in special
classes because they just can't keep up because of everything
they have missed. Who should be held responsible for those children?
Shouldn't parents be held responsible for NOT educating their
children at home when they should? What will happen to these
kids when they grow into adulthood?
And what should happen in public schools that can't keep children
up to grade level if not more advanced? Yes, some parents do
try to homeschool special
needs children, and these children may need remedial help
all their lives. We, however, are not being paid. We are only
trying to do our best with children we dearly love. There are
educational neglect laws on the books,
if needed.
So far, I've heard no reports of any homeschooled child being
on welfare or in prison as an adult. Public schools, however,
can't say the same.
<< Homeschooling is becoming the "in" thing.
I would just like to see some of these sites explain to parents
that if they are not willing to do it right, they shouldn't do
it at all. I know a family who homeschools her children because
that is the thing to do at our church. However, her idea of homeschooling
is buying ABEKA curriculum, handing the book to her children
and having them do pages. When they finish the workbook, they
are finished with school for the year. They have no set times
for working on school--just when they "get around to it."
She goes on a couple of field trips a year with her homeschooling
group.
Did about the same thing with my son. We did go over the material
with him and didn't use any prescribed "school in a box"
stuff. At 15 1/2 he took some placement tests at the local community
college and got right into the math level where we'd left off
and right into freshman English. We unschooled most of the time.
He'll have his AA about the same time he graduates from high
school and then will probably place as a junior in a 4 year college
when he's 18. [Update: Scott had enough transferable units to
start as a mid-term sophomore at the University of Hawaii in
January 2004.]
Again... what is the "right" way? I'd sure like
to be able to tell some public school teachers the same thing,
and I bet you would, too. But they are protected by unions. All
public schools and homeschool organizations can do is to try
their best to teach the adults more about effective instruction
methods and educational theory. That's all we can do. We're all
human beings.
<< Now, both of her children are functioning at least
one year behind children their age who attend public school.
One of the children is at least two grade levels behind in math.
However, this woman likes to argue to everyone that the research
shows that homeschooled kids are more intelligent and score higher
on tests, etc., etc. She also likes to say it is OK that her
children can't keep up with the ABEKA curriculum because it is
a couple of grade levels above the public school curriculum--which
is very untrue, in my state at least. She plans to send them
back to public school for high school. What will happen to these
poor kids when they are thrust into the public school and can't
keep up? Where is the advice for people like this?
My advice: she should keep her big mouth shut. I hate braggarts
and arguers just as much as you do. Who cares?
I also wonder at folks who just "know" what educational
level children are functioning at. Have you ever considered that
these children may be playing you along? Mine always HATED it
when any stranger "tested" him. He'd pretend he didn't
know what 2 + 2 was when he was already handling exponentials!
What will happen to the kids if they can't keep up? They might
wind up in the same classes as public school kids who fell through
the cracks. Homeschoolers with terribly bright and advanced children
also have a problem getting their children placed appropriately
in public schools. Perhaps, the best idea is to truly put aside
our differences and place homeschooled students according to
their achievement if and when they decide to return to the public
school system.
<< Also, where can I find some GOOD data about homeschooling?
Where can I find some stats about what percent of homeschooled
children go to college, hold professional jobs, etc.?
Once someone actually does the study, I assume it will be
made available. Know anyone who has the money to fund such a
study? Apparently, no one else does either.
I have some demographical
reports here.
The best sampling I know of is Linda Dobson's book:
Homeschoolers'
Success Stories
How Homeschooling Shaped the Lives of 25 Adults and Teens
by Linda Dobson
Readers will meet a cross-section of confident, well-educated
men and women who have achieved success on a variety of levels
-- in their own way, on their own terms -- as they bring the
skills first grasped as homeschoolers into the world of higher
education, business, art, sports and more.
Also, do some soul searching as to why you feel certain careers
or levels of income mean a person is successful. If a person
gets a masters degree in education and makes $40,000 a year,
does that make her a success or a failure? If a teen drops out
of high school, starts their own business which sells for a million
dollars in a few years, does that make them a better person than
the teacher? Face it, maybe contentment and contributing in any
positive fashion to society is the mark of success. Learn to
ignore labels and bank accounts. Think of children as people
and not products to be graded, bought and sold like a box of
eggs. You'll be much happier.
In the "Strong
Interest Inventory" survey, homeschoolers tend to score
quite high in the entrepreneurial area. Perhaps many of them
start their own businesses.
<< I like the way that Frank Schmitt of Columbia,
Missouri put it, "As a university faculty member who has
had some homeschooled graduates in class, I agree that they can
be quite impressive. But there are some caveats. First, homeschooling
and other private educational systems have an out; unsuccessful
students can be returned to the public school system, which cannot
refuse them. Secondly, homeschooling requires involved parents.
However, if you look at similarly impressive students from public
school systems, it is quite likely that they, too, have involved
and active parents. Perhaps the story focused on the effect rather
that the cause."
Yes, involved parents are the key! So why have school systems
given only lip service to getting parents involved? Many parents,
like myself, decided to homeschool after figuring out that we
were doing all the teaching at home anyway, and when everyone
was tired out. We were correcting terrible errors in state adopted
text books. Might as well just buy the best books on subjects
rather than text books! So if we are buying better books and
doing additional instructing at home, and the school is getting
all the money and credit, logically, why shouldn't a parent decide
to homeschool?
I also enjoy reading studies that show what really helps children
learn and retain what they learn. I pass these along to those
who read on my website. I also advocate planning
a custom education rather than buying a grade level in a
box.
I encourage professional educators to participate in my website.
I have met with the Let's Go Learn folks who are from the Graduate
School of Education at UC Berkeley. They are providing reading
assessments for homeschoolers. I have also added partners
who have been providing drivers
education for teens and foreign
language instruction online or off. Right after the World
Trade Center fiasco, some university professors wrote to me to
see if I'd put their essay up about how they had created a custom
curriculum for a niece all based on current events. You may like
to read their essay and write to them about what they think "the
right way" to teach is.
By the way, Frank is not quite right about public schools
not being able to refuse students. We in the homeschool movement
are finding that schools are dumping undesirable students on
us! Kids they consider incorrigible. No kidding! I get email
from parents that are being FORCED into homeschooling as their
public schools are refusing to let their child attend or won't
accommodate a pregnant girl or boy who has brought a bread knife
to school -- or worse. Then when our support groups can't turn
these teens into Stanford students, critics say that homeschooling
sucks! Give me a break!
Who is this Frank Schmitt of Columbia, Missouri anyway? I
couldn't locate anything about him on the internet when this
article was written. Now in 2007 I do find him, I think. Is this the
professor? A biochemist. So he meets homeschooled students
interested in biochemistry, most likely. Probably a pretty smart
bunch!
Please spend some time reading on my website. You may be pleasantly
surprised and will learn why the site was declared a Best Educational
Website of the Week by USA Today and one of the top three homeschool
websites by Yahoo Internet Life.
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