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SHRIDER: Homeschooling stereotypes don't fit with reality
| Monday, Mar 20 2006 12:37 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Mar 20 2006 12:40 PM
What is it about homeschooling that gets folks so steamed up?
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About a week ago a reader wrote in to vent over a February article featuring a group of homeschoolers and their participation in a local dance class. The teens and their parents, she wrote, seemed “awfully self-absorbed,” but she was willing to overlook that “since, after all, they were homeschooled.”
Her real complaint, she went on to say, is with parents who “lock up” their children in a homeschool environment, an educational preference that apparently produces societal misfits who “lack diversity and substance.”
Twenty-five years ago I was similarly misinformed, but through the years and a close association with many local parents who homeschool their children, I discovered nothing could be further from the truth. The claim that these children are social oddballs who are ill-prepared to handle the “real” world is a worn-out theory that’s crumbled under the weight of their academic, extracurricular and personal achievements.
Homeschooling, for those who track the stats, has proven to be an effective alternative for parents dissatisfied with available academic instruction, concerned about negative peer pressure or simply wish to remain the primary guiding force in their children’s lives.
The parent-to-child ratio works. Don’t believe me? Check out the next national spelling bee, geography bee or other academic competitions, where homeschoolers are routinely among the winners. Take a look at our Ivy League colleges, whose rosters are heavy with homeschooled kids.
There are well more than 1.1 million homeschooled kids in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Education with an impressive network of homeschool families right here in Bakersfield.
It’s hard to comprehend the harsh criticism of homeschooling, particularly in view of recent proficiency scores that show many of Kern County’s public school students aren’t ready to tackle college classes. Studies show homeschoolers routinely outperform their public school counterparts on the academic level and grow up to be every bit, if not more, well adjusted.
In a 2003 study of more than 7,300 adults who had been homeschooled, the National Home Education Research Institute found more than 74 percent of home-educated adults ages 18-24 had taken college-level courses, compared to 46 percent of the general population.
The study also found homeschool graduates tend to be more socially and politically active, working for candidates, contributing to campaigns and voting in higher numbers than the general population. About 76 percent of the surveyed homeschool graduates voted within the last five years compared to only 29 percent of the relevant U.S. population.
Not that homeschool parents need surveys to know it works.
Charissa Wilson homeschools her three children, ages 11, 9 and 6. Wilson, who has a bachelor’s degree in communications from Cal State Fullerton, says there was a time when she, too, believed homeschool families were “wacky.”
“I thought they were really out there, until I met one,” she says. “The children, especially the high schoolers, were respectful, very much into talking with us adults, and they were wise socially and politically.”
Wilson’s children do well academically and participate in sports programs through the YMCA and North of the River Recreation and Park District. Next year, when her oldest starts junior high school, he’ll take advantage of extracurricular programs offered to homeschoolers through local private schools.
Wilson says homeschooling isn’t for everyone, but works well for her family. She and other homeschool parents say they don’t understand the hostility sometimes generated by their educational choice.
I don’t either. The homeschoolers I know are some of the happiest, most well-educated and well-adjusted kids I’ve ever met. Perhaps until we, as a village, can raise better, it’s time to get off the homeschool-bashing bandwagon.
Marylee Shrider’s column appears Tuesdays and Saturdays. For comments or questions please contact her at mshrider@bakersfield.com or leave a voicemail at 395-7474.