| |
|
|
Ask Dr. Sue
HOMESCHOOLING
Dear Dr. Sue,
I've decided to homeschool my ten-year-old daughter,
because I'm not happy about the way things are going at
her school. Can you tell me anything about kids
that are homeschooled, and about how to get started?
Dear Mom,
Home-schooling has become increasingly popular lately.
About 850,000 children are home-schooled in the U.S.,
out of about 50 million total school-aged children.
A study done by the Education Department recently
revealed that the average home-schooled child has two or
more siblings and lives in a two-parent household,
although usually only one parent works outside the home.
Parents of home-schoolers, on average, are more likely
to have college degrees. About 18 percent of home-schoolers
are enrolled in schools part-time, 8 percent use
public-school curriculums, and 6 percent participate in
extracurricular activities.
Parents come to home-schooling for many different
reasons; some to offer a more accelerated program to a
gifted child, some to help a child who may be struggling
in certain areas, some to protect their children from
influences that they see as unhealthy, and some for
purely religious reasons.
Critics of home-schooling have believed that the
education these children receive will be poorer than
their public or private-school counterparts. They
also feel that home-schooled children will miss out on
the peer relationships, social problem-solving and
competition that will help them become well-rounded and
well-adjusted young adults. Numerous studies,
however, have suggested the opposite.
Home-schooled children, overall, perform between the
62nd and 92nd percentile in achievement tests, depending
on the subject, according to one study. Other
studies, performed on home-schoolers from a variety of
economic and ethnic backgrounds also showed achievement
test scores higher than those in public schools.
The Harvard University Admissions Officer has found
home-schooled applicants to be competitive with other
students.
Studies have also been done looking at the social
development of home-schooled children. One study,
done in 1987, looked at 45,000 students. It used
one of the most highly regarded self-concept scales.
Its results showed the self-esteem of those who were
home-schooled to be almost 50% higher than the average
public-school child. A more recent, smaller study
found no difference between the two groups.
There are problems in studying this group of children,
however, which raise questions about how well these
studies may represent home-schoolers as a whole.
Not all children take the state-required achievement
tests, and those who do may be the high-achieving group.
Self-esteem and adjustment tests, by their nature, rely
mostly on self-report. Maybe home-schoolers are
just better at making themselves look good. More
studies are desperately needed to help assess this
growing trend.
How well your daughter will do depends on many things.
Taking on home-schooling is a huge commitment, both in
terms of time and of energy. Spending hour upon
hour together in a learning environment may definitely
increase the bond between you and your daughter.
Or, you may find that spending hours together laboring
over education makes both of you tense and irritable.
With a lot of imagination and effort, you can find ways
to enhance your daughter's education in ways that public
schools just don't have the time or money to do.
However, the urge to take care of all the other things
present in your busy life may result in slacking off in
the teaching arena; after all, no one will be looking
over your shoulder every day to make sure both of you
progress the way you should. And are you ready to
learn History and Social Studies and New Math all over
again, so that you can teach them to your child?
If you've made the commitment, the best way to begin is
by setting learning goals for the year. Then look
for teaching materials. Plan ways outside the
curriculum to enhance learning. Use workbooks
sparingly, and only for drills that your child needs.
Nothing could be more boring than trying to learn
everything through a workbook assembly-line! Plan
to teach your child mostly through discussion and
interaction, which helps to teach thinking, not just
skills. Also be sure to check on the legal
guidelines for Home-Schooling in your state (The
National Center for Home Education, PO Box 125, Paonian
Springs, VA 22129, phone 703-338-7600 has information
about requirements in every state, along with contacts
for local support groups.)
 
|
|
