Homeschooling in the press
Did anyone read this acrticle from the SFGate.com? Homeschooling is a viable alternative to public schools. I have to say that I love reading some positive press for homeschooling.
Why do homeschooled students do so well? Koret Task Force member and Harvard professor Caroline Hoxby has shown that, of the factors affecting student performance, home environment and family support greatly outweigh school inputs: “Families matter most.”
So often homeschoolers are seen in the media as bumbling, anti-social, kids with no understanding of anything outside their homes. Some people in the media have gone so far as to mock homeschoolers, claiming that they are not being educated correctly. Rude comments to the effect that they will bee when they are out of the home and realize that everything they were taught was wrong are too often spit out at homeschoolers.
Comparisons in achievement tests of homeschooled students to national averages for all students show that homeschooled children are well above the national average in every subject and at every grade level in the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and in Tests of Achievement and Proficiency.
One such recent article was the infamous Russell Shaw post Let’s Restrict Home Schooling. Not only did he manage to offend many homeschoolers and lump them all into one neat package, he also made a claim against homeschooling that is used widely by many homeschoolers as to why they dislike public education.
Will these people be on equal preparatory footing for jobs where scientific inquisitiveness, technical insight or critical thinking skills are far more necessary than rote recitation?
June 15th, 2007 at 8:38 am
I cam across a discussion yesterday that discussed the most extreme opinions so far about how homeschooling doesn’t outweigh public schools. Maybe I can find it and share it on my blog. It was really sad that this idiot felt this way.
What a shame people assume such out of the world ideas on homeschooling. My kids are more well rounded than their peers that are in public schools.
June 16th, 2007 at 6:56 am
Just found your blog and am enjoying it.
I’m tagging you for a Personal Policies Meme, http://mentortexts.blogspot.com/2007/06/personal-policies-meme.html.
Enjoy!
June 17th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
I am a fellow homeschooler, and would not have it any other way!
In our LEAH group (NY Loving Education At Home), there are many teachers who have also decided to take their kids out of the public school system, and homeschool instead. If public school teachers can see the advantages of homeschooling,then the public should be made more aware of these advantages by media being truthful and homeschoolers being willing to be in the public eye more.