I have a questions for home-schoolers...

always "at home" engaged in formal learning activity. Mine attended private Lutheran schools until they were ready for high school. My wife and I (she actually was qualified as a teacher) decided for home-schooling for the high-school years. However, many of the subjects, particularly the math and sciences, were really beyond her expertise and work kept me from having the time to spend on teaching every day. Since we were members of a local home-schooling association (they're all over the country), we were put in touch with off-site gatherings (classrooms) of other parents and students who sent their kids to classes taught by very experienced retired teachers. The classes were generally held in different settings (twice a week here, three times a week there) in participating churches and even in two different community colleges where we were allowed to rent facilities at a fairly low price. In a few instances, the classes were held in the homes of retired teachers. Based upon results (home school parents are pretty notorious for talking to each other and comparing results), our students tended to score significantly higher on SAT/ACT tests that their counterparts in the public school crowd. So, while the public continues to be duped into believing that the home-school crowd is composed primarily of a bunch of wierd religious zealots, I know that this is not the case and that the results obtained are consistently better than the public school thugs have been able to produce. My own opinion, as for this result, is that generally speaking, the home-school parents are far more likely to focus on the development of critical thinking and analysis skills and to lessen any emphasis on "feeling" exercises that are so common in the public school domain. (ex: Whole language spelling (aka:misspelling) and almost-correct math skills) Many also tend to throw mud at home schooling because of some perceived lack of social interaction. Anyone who has ever home schooled knows that there is far more and far better "social interaction" in a home schooling environment than anything offered in the public domain.

In the case of my son, he found that, for his first two years of college, he was simply re-visiting the work that he had already mastered during his last two years of home-schooling at a high-school level. He said that it wasn't until his junior year of college that he actually encountered anything that was new to him. For years now, colleges have been complaining that greater numbers of incoming freshmen are woefully unprepared for traditional college work. Their answer? They've had to dumb-down college material and, in many cases, insist on remedial classes for many of their incoming freshmen. Best of luck to you.

PS: You may also find it useful to find some of the retired teachers in your area, who are currently engaged in teaching groups of home-schooled students, and ask their opinion of the experience. Without exception, in our experience, every one of them has told us that, teaching to home-schooled students, was a far more professionally gratifying experience than they ever had in a public institution. For many of them, it was the first time in their professional lives that they were actually able to teach the way that they had always wanted to teach, without the administrative chains that they had experienced elsewhere.

http://nces.ed.gov/nation...
"The true patriot is motivated by a sense of responsibility, and out of self interest -- for himself, his family, and the future of his country -- to resist government abuse of power. He rejects the notion that patriotism means obedience to the state."Ron

Smithjr. In Oreon the religious home education group is www.oceanetwork.com . Their annual conference is today and tomorrow at the Portland Coluseum. The "secular" home education group is www.ohen.com . Both groups work together on many political issues to farther home based education freedom.
www.nheri.org is the National Home Education Reasearch Institute. They have the statistical info to answer all your questions, from 'socialization' to parents being smart enough to instruct their children.

I didn't take the time to read all the comments.
But according to the last national average I heard, Home School children hold the highest scores.
Also. I personally know many families that are not "religious nuts" that homeschool. More and more families disagree with public school education and just simply turn away and find alternative schooling.
Also many families I knew homeschooled because they believe the child should get his education at his pace and not be slowed down or sped up to stay the "national average", a lot of families don't like that "national average", they prefer the Individuality.
Home Schooled children are not isolated like so many people think.
They can do summer camps, swimming lessons, 4-H, many public schools will allow Home School children to be included in music and sports. There is plenty of activities outside of public school.

I homeschooled one of my children since the public school system chose to give him only 12% of what the other children were doing because they did not want to take the time to help him out individually.
Between Home Schooling and Job Corp he finished his schooling and is doing very well now as a young adult.

My daughter who is in second grade is homeschooled and I often wonder about how she is in relation to children of her age. She has two close friends that are in the grade above her so when they come over we try to see how they do with the curiculum that she is working on. I notice that she reads much more profeciently than they do. My daughter often helps them with their homework! (somedays we pick up one of her friends at the bus to help her mother) the most important thing I see as far as a comparison is that in school where there are up to twenty other kids in a class if they don't understand something and don't ask they will continue on and that child is missing something. My wife is giving our daughter a one on one class so she gets it or my wife doesn't continue until she does. You can't get this in a public school! I work alot of hours so my wife can stay home with her, but I don't want it any other way. She socializes by going to the county childrens choir, she plays t-ball and has plenty of friends in the neighborhood. When we first started there was some wispering about how she was homeschooled because some of the older kids thought it was weird, but they are just children and they got over it. We will let our daughter decide when she thinks the time is right to go to public school, but we will never just leave it to a government school to give our child her sole education!

Corrections for your dumb lib friends.

Most states want parents to have the same teaching certificates as teachers have.
In my state they did.

My kids are always being complimented on how well behaved, smart, and mature they are compared to their state educated counterparts.
They never got into drugs/alcohol, sex before marriage, etc... that their state educated counterparts are usually involved in.

Many pluses to homeschooling, if you want your kid to be the special individual you know he/she was created to be.

Davy C Rockett

Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is LIBERTY! - 2 Cor. 3:17

http://www.thelibertypost...
http://screamfreedom.blog...
http://liberty-central.bl...

I think the material was put out by an outfit called Becca Books.

Very frustrated, partly because of physical handicap aspects, I decided to drop out after finishing tenth grade. Upon taking at least two aptitude tests, some people from a college found that my understanding was above average (I think the “average” was just pathetically low [in their educated idiocy, everything the federal retards try to ruin, is ruined instantly. see how smart our imperial bosses are?])

This is just one man’s opinion (a mental picture from a guy who’s never had his own kids), but if your last child is almost through school, you might want to just let him finish (?)

Couldn’t find statistics; just thought I'd join the thread to hopefully help somehow.

As far as Christianity and religion; the United States of America was an unusually wonderful place to live and visit (people throughout the whole world just ached to come here), until the nation got too big for its britches. Mankind most likely connot live peaceably while snubbing his nose at godliness. Godliness is a condition we must get back to. As long as we pretend God isn’t among us, our present political situation is much more likely to get worse than better. I can’t emphasize that strongly enough.

By the way, one reason I got such a thorough education; my school refused to accredit.

--Cliff, Sioux City, Iowa

Perhaps you can ask your friend a larger question:

Who is responsible for children?
Parents, or the state?

One's opinion and data of the performance of HS (the dirty little secret the state schools don't want anyone to know is HS is academically superior) is trumped by the issue of freedom of choice.

HS kids must take the same tests state school students do.

Ask your friend:

If a home schooled kid does as well or better on state testing than a public school kid, should those parents be punished and not allowed to HS because of your opinion?

At the root of all state policy is the coercion of another.

It's the public's brainwashing that enables them to think that coercion is a good thing.

rented a house in an average neighborhood, bought our clothes at thrift stores and garage sales, and rarely ate out in order to afford to homeschool. We homeschooled for 5 years.
My older one asked to go to public school for social reasons. She felt left out because so much of her friends lives and conversations were about teachers and school. The younger one went the next year because without her sister she lost her motivation and the fighting to get her to work was affecting our relationship. It would have been easier if we were religious because the religious home-schoolers have organized social groups. We tried to get together with some of them but it didn't work out. They tended to be the self-righteous holier than thou types that (constantly) talked about Jesus with a school girl crush giddiness.
Both kids are doing really well in school and have made friends. The older one is a high honors student and the younger one, who we didn't think was especially bright, is getting A's and B's.
The best thing about regular school is the science lab. They get to use equipment I could never supply.
The worst thing is teacher apathy.
If you decide to home school I highly recommend the Singapore Math books.
Academically, home schooling was better overall. You can teach so much more in less time. I've also noticed that my children have a better attitude towards learning. Public school has an odd way of sucking the love of learning from children. I think we circumvented that by home schooling.

Fortune Favors the Bold

by myself, and I passed along summaries of what I learned to a home schooling teacher affiliated with my public high school.

is not taken lightly by the majority of parents. It is a painstakingly loving process. Their desire is to give their kids the very best education they can. If there is a subject they are uncomfortable with there are a myriad of means to educate their child in that subject. There are co-ops, other parents with that skill, online resurces, community colleges. Our local library offers special guest speaker just for homeschool families because of the freedom they have to come during the day. The director couldn't get the public shools interested.

The education of homeschooled children is far superior to the public schools. It is one-on-one, tailored to the individual. Homeschooling promotes the individual. Can you say that about the public or private schools?

What homeschooling doesn't have is the peer pressure, sex, drugs, and brain-washing. It's not all about the education. It is a good thing to shelter your children from these things - educate them within the bounds of your home about the world - let them establish a solid foundation as to what they believe and why - then send them out as awesome citizens and human beings.

I know - I have two kids and they are awesome citizens and human beings. I wouldn't trade my time teaching them for all the wealth and riches this world has to offer. I am privledged and blessed.

I also know many homeschool families who label themselves as "secular".

Your friend is speaking out of ignorance. Let him/her talk to a dedicated homeschool parent.

Are there those who deviate from the above? Sure, just like those that deviate from what is right in all aspects of life. They are the exception and unfortunately the ones that make the news.

Unfortunately I can't provide you with a direct example myself because I am unmarried and have no children. But if I had kids I'd home school them. And I"m an agnostic. Our public schools spend an amazing amount of time teaching our children amazingly little. I think any half way bright parents who love their children could do a better job.

google Home School Legal Defense Association.

There is a higher percentage of non religious people home schooling today than there was 15 years ago.

Home-schooled 2 kids. Try contacting the home school legal defense. I think they send out news letters wich include many articles about successes. I can tell you my daughter is major success story. She started community college at 14 and within months was tutoring adults. Right now she has been teaching for a year and working on her masters and she is only 23. She worked at sylven while getting her bachelors.Oh she also graduated top of her class and won two honors I have never even heard of. She went to public school until she was 12. It was a blue ribbon school but it was obviously slowing her down. My son was taken out of public school at 10 and he has amuch better education than any of his high school graguate friends. He's not as motivated as she is. He is still trying to figure out what he want to do. Right now he's thinking of moving to Norway and learning the language. He is not sure he wants to stay here if things don't change! ( If Ron paul does'nt get elected ) lol By the way. I'm not very well educated, but I provided them with the materials and the encouragment thet needed.

three years now and believe its the best thing I have ever chosen for my child. This year my two teenagers are homeschooling as well and will be completely guiding their own learning experience. If you have ever taken a college course online then you would understand that online classes can be comprehensive and tests are NOT easy to cheat on if at all. My girls will be completeing college prep high school diploma program with 22 credit hours required instead of the public schools 18 hrs. It is fully accredtied by three nation wide accrediting agencies. We are planning on the trip to the March and the Convention to allow us to integrate lessons of History, Political Science, and journalism into their curriculum as enrichment. Which is available to every learner but seldom taken advantage of. Those of you who cant homeschool-look around you, there are thousands of opportunities to actively contribute to your childrens education right where you are. Dont rely only on the public school system to teach your children. They could fail. In most of my dealings with homeschool families I have encountered very few religous zealots, although they are there. But most homeschool families are just sick of Gov't interference in their lives and want to do what they feel is their obligation-to educate their families.
"The true patriot is motivated by a sense of responsibility, and out of self interest -- for himself, his family, and the future of his country -- to resist government abuse of power. He rejects the notion that patriotism means obedience to the state."Ron

Most everyone who home educates their children LOVE their children. Most humans love their children and want the best for them, regardless of their religious affiliation, or lack there of. Home education is the BEST education for your family and children. The government educational monopoly is hazardous to families... stay as far from it as possable.

Please define "religious zealot".

I started this thread yesterday and had to go to bed while people were still posting. I forgot about it until just now when I saw it in the list.

I'm just gonna pose it to him that I've got a thread started and I've found 20 or 30 non-religious homeschoolers he can call... call his bluff.

Anyone in Boulder County, Colorado who home schools is most likely not a religious home schooler. Go to their yahoo group.

Pick up or order any book you can by John Taylor Gatto on Amazon.
Read it...pass it on to your friend, they will never be the same again.

There is actually another kind of homeschooling...called "unschooling".
Really put your friend in shock. It follows the lines of the famous book and school in England called "Summer Hill". It almost undeniable proves that even in an environment where there is no formal classroom or teacher. A child will learn more on their own. Unbelievable, Yes. Radical,Yes. True, Yes.

Did you know that Thomas Edison and many others were completely self or home educated?

They were out on their own at 15. Why do you think teenagers have such a hard problem these days with life and parents? Because our society doesn't gear them towards adulthood in congruence with their hormones saying..."give me independence now."..it is just more rigid indoctrination of the state.

One last thing...this should convince him. My uncle is a Professor and research Dean at MIT. While he sees different levels of Home schooled education..it is becoming well accepting and understood in the most liberal places in America, (Cambridge, Ma). Plenty are now attending Ivy League Schools!!

Take that Liberal Friend!

Peace,

Liberty Girl

PS. I have a wonderful unschooled/homeschooled daughter who is 14, on her way to being a engineer.. Because SHE decided that is what she liked.

1. As a poster below said (and it is worth repeating, I think) www.nheri.org is a good place to go for home-school/herd school comparison.

A very striking and important point, which you may or may not pick up there, but I have confirmed in several different ways, is that the number one factor in academic success is *parental involvement and concern.* In fact, one article I read on mathematics education (having nothing to do with homeschooling) went as far as to conclude that even in the best public schools, the actual learning of mathematical concepts takes place primarily between parents and their children. If they talk about fractions and percentages at the dinner table, then they are likely to be able to correct their teacher when she thinks that 1/3 is "close to 3" on a number line. In particular, parental level of education is essentially *irrelevant.*

2. I home-school and I am not religious.

Best wishes in your endeavor; we need broad based support for freedom.

a lot of the Homeshoolers I know are also either former teachers/education administrators or current teacher/administrators. Some of them are religious as well.

Free and Brave
or Cradle to Grave
You can't have both

Why do you have a liberal, close-minded friend in the first place? He/she sounds like a "don't bother me with the facts, my mind is made up" kind of person.

Read all you can by John Holt, John Taylor Gatto and subscribe to Home Education Magazine.

My son and daughter homeschooled for high school and each chose not to go to college. My son is a policeman, graduating 2nd in his class at a large, metropolitan police academy. My daughter is Senior Vice President and North American Managing Director of a multi-national, multi-million dollar company that is a leader in the entertainment industry. Both are in their mid-30's. I'd tell you to have your "friend" call me but I think it would be a waste of time for both of us.

She entered community college at 15 with a year to go in high school. College admitted her only because she was homeschooled. Of course it helped that she aced the entrance exams, highest scores in the school's history. Earned two-year degree by 17, then on to university.

There are some excellent homeschool curricula that allow the child to learn at their own pace. Homeschooling requires development of superior study habits. Once gained, these habits make homeschooling a largely self-directed activity. A diligent student can be finished for the day in two to four hours, leaving lots of time for household help and fun activities.