The Homeschool Advantage…Bringing the World to the Kitchen Table.

By Michael Ramos

If you were to define the word “homeschooling”, what would you get?

The logical answer would be some form of “School at home”. Home + school does seem to equal school at home.

Only two things are wrong with this definition:

*Homeschooling isn’t “school” in the traditional sense. It’s an entirely different approach to education, and
*Homeschooling does not have to take place in the home.

Homeschooling, more accurately, is education designed and supervised by parents. This automatically makes for an entirely different approach to learning from “public classroom” education, which is education designed by government officials to accommodate large groups of students in one setting. It also differs sharply from “private” schooling. Regardless of their invitation for parental input, in practice, private schools reserve curriculum design and teaching strategies for teachers, administrators, and textbook engineers.

Even Unschoolers who believe the child should direct their own education must acknowledge that this type of instructional strategy is only possible if the parent has the authority to let the child choose their own educational pursuits and projects. Additionally, the child will not receive balanced instruction unless the parent has the training and ability to create or purchase appropriate and challenging curriculum that is aligned with the child’s interests. So, homeschool is not “school” if it is defined by who is in charge of curriculum design. Having parents choose and/or design the curriculum is radically different from what happens in a classroom setting.

A number of research studies have shown that parent-designed and parent-chosen curriculum will produce better results than school designed and/or state adopted curriculum. Again, curriculum that is chosen by the one person who knows the child better than anyone, and selected from the many options currently available should and always does result in more relevant learning taking place, especially when the parents are actively socializing with other homeschooling parents and compare/contrast teaching experiences.

Homeschool also is not “school” when it comes to learning environment, scheduling and priorities. There are no announcements from the office, ringing bells to mark the end of a class period, lock-step instruction, or disruptions from inappropriate behavior or burned-out teachers. I have observed homeschooled students make over one and a half years of academic progress compared to their classroom peers simply do to the fact that they can stay focused and on-task for longer uninterrupted periods of time. The end result is that homeschooled children can have a much greater attention span and ability to “focus” than their classroom peers.

 

Many of the uninformed ask the old question, “What about socialization?” What they really mean is, “Can your child grow into a strong adult if they only sit around the house doing lessons and projects?” This is a common mistake, many confuse homeschooling for traditional schooling that happens at home when it’s really learning under the supervision of the parent and will look very different than the traditional classroom.

An interesting parallel is that many parents who oppose homeschooling pay for art, music, and dance lessons, and drive their kids to soccer, little league and karate classes. They are providing enriched learning and socialization opportunities just like effective homeschooling parents. The only difference is that homeschooled students get to take advantage of a more flexible daily routine which provides access to more varied learning and socialization opportunities. I believe that all parents want what is best for their children. The only difference between parents who send their children to a traditional classroom and homeschooling parents is that homeschoolers incorporate academic lessons at home and in the community through any number of delivery systems including on-line instruction, school district or county office of Education sponsored programs, private school or religious based curriculum, community college distance learning and campus based instruction and community sponsored enrichment classes.  The most notable distinction is that Homeschoolers  receive the most important instructional component called “choice”.