Homeschool Education Levels Well Above National Averages

By Sonja Corbitt
8/12/2010
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Two million happy homeschoolers have surely put the banal justification for institutionalized education to rest

There is much more involved in an "education" than a teacher's certificate, curriculum packages, sports or electives. When faced with the success of homeschools and the profound privilege to educate one's own child, homeschoolers contend it is only reasonable that one prayerfully and seriously consider it.

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NASHVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) - When asked why they do it, homeschool families consistently answer that they do it because it is the absolutely best way to educate children. Far from being elitist however, or the statement of simple, ignorant, or deluded homeschool parents, it seems that two decades of research affirms this answer with empirical evidence, according to a recent study.

In February of this year, Brian Ray published a study of the largest nationwide sample of home educators and their children in the United States. Also a review of existing research on homeschooling, it asserts an incredible fact that most do not know, and often do not believe:

"[H]omeschool students and their families are in some ways a select population: although the income for homeschool families with school-age children in this present study is at about the national median, '. education levels are well above national averages'. This is consistent with the body of extant research. It is not a surprise" (Academic Achievement and Demographic Traits of Homeschool Students: A Nationwide Study).

What the evidence consistently suggests is that there is much more involved in an "education" than a teacher's certificate, curriculum packages, sports or electives. After all, the family structure in most home schools is traditional and overwhelmingly Christian, headed and taught by married parents. The father is the primary wage earner while the mother stays at home, and they have three or more children.

Even with larger families than the national average, homeschoolers only spend between $300-600 a year on educational materials. They tend not to subscribe to pre-packaged full-service curriculum programs. Astonishingly, children of moms and dads who have never held a teaching certificate do better on average than children of those who have.

Citing Deuteronomy 6:6-9, most homeschoolers assert that the family-centered approach fosters 24/7 education, and therefore the formal time required to achieve academic rigor is reportedly much less compared to institutional schools, especially in younger grades. Homeschooling is in many ways the antitheses to current educational philosophy, yet it obviously enhances the sacred art of learning.

What is not known, is why home education is superior. As the study points out, several factors certainly contribute so that one must be careful about assigning causation to any. But the parent-led, home-based education community has its ideas.

They say the modern attitude is that America has accomplished a civilized, educated society through innovations and comforts. Education is confused with a system, then - a system standardized and mechanized to warehouse several hundred, sometimes thousand, students in one building, to segregate and contain them according to age, forty hours a week for at least thirteen years.

This system teaches them to do, not think - to get a degree, to get a good job, to earn a lot of money, to buy a lot of stuff. This, the system says, is education. The modern, public shift in educating toward usefulness rather than intelligence and formation has resulted in a loss of historical perspective that would otherwise render us a nation, a world, capable of weighing matters according to truth, able to know that all we face in society has happened before and will again, and that destruction can be the only possible and ultimate outcome of the modern, myopic focus.

Generally speaking, systemic students, then, are herded on this daily, yearly basis through one noisy line after another, classified in arbitrary groups, deprived of free speech, and subjected to endless mundane tasks that are generalized and regurgitated for mass consumption, both immediately and ultimately.

Inordinate amounts of time are devoted in institutional schools to subjects like school shootings, sexual harassment and global warming rather than the discovery of life and history for the sake of our existence in it. Preparation for obtaining and wearing free condoms, securing abortions, and sexual relations outside of marriage, presnted as a primary 'health issue' are emphasized over appreciation or exposure to classical arts, the cultivation of virtue, languages, philosophy, and the music upon which Western civilization was built.

They eat unpleasant, unhealthy cafeteria style meals in a sterile, loud, sometimes hateful environment, are unceasingly and critically scrutinized by peers, are indoctrinated with false notions of tolerance and "alternative" lifestyle "education," and subjected to petty tyranny. And, homeschoolers say, compulsory schooling is completely ill-equipped for the most effective educational method of all, one-on-one ...

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1 - 10 of 26 Comments

AmyTer
2 years ago
@Charles: The study was also a review of a substantial amount of the existing body of research on the matter, all of which reaches the same conclusion. No slippery slope there. No disrespect, but you speak like an indoctrinated public educator (whom we love and to whom many of us are thankful for our own educations, however inferior or not they were.)
Charles
2 years ago
The study states in its conclusion that "research to date may not establish a cause-and-effect relationship between the practice of homeschooling and many positive attributes associated with homeschooling, but the research does allow for the possibility that home education causes desirable effects." Furthermore, it was a standardized test score metric that derived the measurable differences. Claiming superiority over institutionalized education is a slippery slope.

Children must place incredible reliance on the competence of just two individuals (mother and father) to learn everything from literature to chemistry. The isolation and insulation of home-schooled children cannot just be written off.
Cheri
2 years ago
It's amazing how much ground you can cover when you have the right class size and no interference.
Melissa
2 years ago
Christina, I live on the other side of the world, in a place where there aren't any other Catholic homeschoolers. God bless you in your vocation and may He carry me in mine.
Liz
2 years ago
I talked about this article on another site, so I'm going to reiterate what I said there! We know a family with eight kids and they homeschool every one of them. (The kids have, at various times, opted in and out of the public school system and participate in some of the extra-curricular activities.) Mom Becky, one of the most fabulous women I know -- she's just unflappable even with all that's going on around her -- says it's simply easier. She controls so much more of their lives by home-schooling, than if they were at the mercy of the public system. And she and her husband are very, very God-centered and so strong in their Catholic faith. I draw inspiration from her.

My kids go to public school (well, two are out now) and it worked for us as home-schooling works for others. And as I said earlier, some of the issues come when what's taught at school doesn't mesh with beliefs at home. For example, take the origin of the universe, and how it started: God or happenstance? David Millette, who's a Christian educator teaching in a public system, is writing a great new series of books, "Today in Science Class." The first one, "Ben's Big Bang Botheration" addresses causation, that God is the most logical explanation for our universe's coming into being. See http://www.todayinscienceclass.com -- It's not what Ben is being taught in science class, and the book explores getting him to address doubts, to question, to learn, to bring doubts to his parents. It's a great "science class" topic that should fascinate everyone -- and it's so very relevant in today's public school classrooms. Home schooling parents will find it very useful as well.
Julie
2 years ago
I home school 5 of my 8 children, the other ones are too little to be legally registered , but I teach them preschool. Homeschooling is one of the best decisions that my husband I and I made 9 years ago. With my oldest heading into 9th grade this year I couldn't be happier. She still loves learning, she enjoys math, she gets a kick out of diagramming sentences, and she writes stories on the computer on her free time. As for how she is doing socially, she has wonderful friends at our Parish, and she says I'm her best friend. She likes to hang out with her sisters and she isn't to cool to to be seen in public with us . I can't help but thinking all the positive time spent with her family has helped mold a godly attitude. In homeschooling my children I am the teacher, mentor, role model, and spiritual adviser , where as if I sent my children to school, someone else would be teaching guiding and mentoring my children and it might not be godly or fruitful in their lives, they could be subject to bulling, bad peer influences, and in my experience with the public system if you thought learning was cool and math was fun you would be teased. I view my role and responsibility as a parent to raise and educate my children, not to hand my child to someone else the September after they turn six. I understand the system has its place because not everyone is able or willing to home educate but I recommend it to everyone who can.
Reverend Robinson-Worley
2 years ago
Home Schooling: Under the Ancient Hebrew System, EVERY Mother was expected to teach their own children the following things; Writing, Reading, the Law of Moses, the Legal Traditions, How to manage Family & Business Finances, the Family Business with the Father, National History, Mathematics, How to hire the best workers for the business, How to plant successful crops, Proper Lawful Cleansing Methods, Proper Health Diets, Herbals to use for medicine. In Home & Public Morality. Hmmmm...... Lets compare these with Modern US Education. How to get and use a condom before the age of 14, How to decide which sexual orientation one is before age 13, How & where to get an abortion w/o having to tell one's parents, one has been sexually active before the age of 14, how to play electronic games, How Mommy & Daddy share the same house and kids, but each has their own friends and heads out nights in different "Night Out" directions, while leaving their "Kids" at home to fend for themselves. That they should "EXPECT" to be advanced in each grade, because their age demands it, even when they perform below the passing grade requirements, because it might damage their ego. While they are taught D.A.R.E. in school, Momma & Daddy are not so secretly hyped on their illegal or legal prescribed drugs. Being taught that at age 21-22, they are still "Kids" if they remain in some "Higher Education", while their 17-18 year old compatriots are bleeding and dieing while fighting in foreign lands as adults. Being taught "Anything Goes", as long as it can't "Hurt anyone other than oneself. And to think: George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and three fourths of all other true American Founding Heroes through WWI, were all HOME SCHOOLED! It was only 60 years ago, when "High School" was rigorously considered "HIGHER EDUCATION", while the majority of Honorable Americans only completed through Junior High as the NORM! Then, went off to marry & work & raise children. If one doesn't believe...... Check with your great Grandma & Grandpa. Y'all find most of them married either by or before age 18 and had kids with Daddy working full time and with Momma at home raising the kids, sewing, gardening, canning their foods, and they were living "Middle Class" lives, whether in Town or in the Country. Small Towns and same size Churches were the norm, not the rarity. Big City was where folks went who were either immigrants or, wanted a factory job. When every worker knew his Boss cause they usually lived in the same neighborhood and attended the same parish as they. When a Dad knew he'd be able to get his son hired on where he worked, his whole working career. What has been happening? Systematically, as American Citizens have been convinced the "New Way's" are the "Better Way's", since the middle of the
Viet Nam Conflict, & the Johnson Democrat Era; instead; it has been a gradual slippery slope into a broken government run, a-moral Situational Ethics Society in which everyone has lost out and there are no more George Washington's, Thomas Jefferson's, Abraham Lincoln's, or Teddy Roosevelt's, Aimee McPherson's* <> *{First woman to own a radio station in USA, head up a major Not For Profit, feed millions during the Great Depression]. Where have all the real everyday heroes gone? The way of the changing educational systems, the way of the lost Biblical Family, the way of the lost true moral society.......The lost Standard way of Home Schooling.....The Lost way of Solid Society....... Being sadly fought against in the American Society, systematically, since the middle of Viet Nam's Hippie Generation, gone amuck, now in Power..
Christina
2 years ago
Melissa,
What state are you in? Maybe we are neighbors!!
MikeKop
2 years ago
I am so excited that Catholic Online is supporting hs. You would not believe how rude and hateful people can be when they find out you are hsing. These days it is much easier because it is growing so much and is so successful, but a couple decades ago it was pure persecution to remove kids from public school. Please, please pray for continued government protection of home schooling. It works!

Thank you Catholic Online for the show of support.
mike
2 years ago
this "socialization" crap the government tries to force on us is JUST WHAT I DON'T WANT for my kids. the stupid teachers' union can go to hell in a handbasket pushing their queer agenda without parents permission. My daughter is enrolled in the most expensive college in the state, and son on an academic scholarship to a prep school...all after being homeschooled.

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