School vs Homeschool: Which Student Does Better?

 

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First of all, let’s take a look at some  statistics.  According to the National Home Education Research Institute, and indeed any source you look  at on the subject, homeschooling – at least  in the USA – is becoming more and more popular.  In the USA alone, there were 2.3 million home-educated  students in 2015, which was up from 2 million  in 2010.  NHERI tells us the increase over the last  several years has been anywhere from 2 to  8 percent per year.  

This increase isn’t just happening in the  U.S., but also in the UK, Australia, Canada,  France, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Russia,  and Kenya.  Indeed, we checked out a Kenyan newspaper article on the benefits of homeschooling.  It was very positive about taking this educational route.  One professor in Kenya was quoted as saying,  “Home-schooling focuses on learning and  mastering concepts, not scoring good grades.”  

One mother who was homeschooling her kid said  that the system, “limits ability and potential  because it is geared towards passing exams.”  Many home-school advocates will insist that  traditional schooling doesn’t always roundly  educate, but rather teaches   students only to do well on tests.  Are we teaching kids to become cogs in machines?  

To be good workers, but lacking in curiosity  and critical acumen?  This is a far cry from how famed American  philosopher John Dewey saw the best kind of  education, which he believed was not just  remembering things, but reflecting on them. 

He once said, “Give the pupils something  to do, not something to learn; and the doing  is of such a nature as to demand thinking;  learning naturally results.”  In the UK, it’s well-known that there is  a teacher hiring crisis.  Teachers are leaving in droves, and according  to The Guardian in 2017, around half of teachers  are thinking about leaving.  This is mostly due to an intense workload  based on constant tracking of students, never-ending  tests, and all the extra work that is not  really about what happens in the classroom,  but centered around passing exams.  

Teachers themselves are said to be suffering  from fatigue and mental illness, while it  was widely reported in 2018 that UK students  were suffering from anxiety and depression  due to recent exams. 

So, with all that workload and anxiety, are  traditionally schooled students any more educated  than home schooled students?  We looked at SAT results for kids in 2014.  Take a look at the following numbers:  

Critical Reading Score Traditional School:  492 Home school: 535  Mathematics Score Traditional School: 501  Home school: 580  Writing Score Traditional School: 478 Homes chool:  542  Home schooled students scored better in all  3 categories.  NHERI tells us, “The home-educated typically  score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-school  students on standardized academic achievement  tests.” 

It added, “A 2015 study found Black home school  students to be scoring 23 to 42 percentile  points above Black public-school students.”  Often, home schooled students are in the 80th  percentile, while public school kids are in  the 50th percentile.  Just about any resource you read will cite  statistics telling you home schooled kids do  very well.  

You’ll hear things like: “Stanford University  accepted 26% of the 35 home schoolers who applied--nearly  double its overall acceptance rate.”  Such quotes of course aren't representative;  with such a small testing group, there is  a high standard deviation which means it isn't  reliable, but it is, however, interesting.  

Why are they doing so well?  The main reason is, all the attention is on  one child, or at most, a few children.  But the parent can focus on that child’s  weaknesses.  If the parent knows what he/she is doing,  the kid will more easily get through difficulties  they face.  Education becomes made to order.  There are no class clowns and exterior attractions  getting in the way of study.  The child can spend every day totally focused  on the subjects at hand.  Parents can also inculcate, and ensure the  importance of self-study, reading books, and  being curious.  

It’s not as if the child has many escape  routes or can proffer those ‘dog ate my  homework’ excuses.  Another thing other than creating your own  course based on your child’s needs is knowing  how best your child learns.  There are lots of pedagogical approaches and  we all respond differently to them.  A teacher in high school has one approach  for the entire class, which of course is not  his or her fault.  But that approach might not work for your  kid.  

There are other benefits, too.  Taxpayers in the U.S. pay around $12,000 per  year for every pupil that goes through public  school (though the cost differs dramatically  per state).  You save the people money by home-schooling.  The average cost of homeschooling is said  to be somewhere between $500-$2000 for books  and materials.  And if you were thinking about private school  – the costs can be oppressive – think  of all the money you could save!  What else do the people say that promote homeschooling?  They tell us the parent-child bond will grow  stronger.  On top of that, some schools are not full  of little angels,as we know.  

At home, it’s unlikely your child will be  skipping classes to smoke weed behind the  basketball courts.  It’s unlikely they’ll face bullying or  get into fights, within the confines of their  own home.  They won’t experience racism or prejudice;  they won’t have to undergo the stresses  of being popular, all those childish hierarchies  that can be a minefield for young folks.  

They likely won’t get a bullet in the back  delivered from a quiet kid whose hobby was  cutting the wings off trapped birds.  They won’t spend a year depressed because  they got dumped by a girl in chemistry class,  and they certainly won’t be sneaking to  the bathroom to see if their pregnancy test  is positive.  Well, they could still get pregnant of course,  but perhaps it’s less likely if they are  not surrounded by the opposite sex day after  day in school.  

The questions is: Is keeping your child away  from these apparent dangers in itself a possible  danger to the development of said child?  After all, the workplace, the rat race, the  dating game, they can all be minefields, too.  

Does a child need school in order to learn  how to navigate tricky social and workplace  situations?  It is the loss of social interaction where  most people say homeschool finds its negative.  Not to mention, your child might resent the  hell out of you for taking him or her away  from their friends, from pulling them from  the football team, the after school photography  group, high school prom, and perhaps even  a first kiss?  Will the parent-child bond grow and flourish,  or will being next to each other all day foment  some feelings of animosity?  Have you ever tried being with someone non-stop?  Arguments often happen, only because of the  lac

k of space.  We might also ask if the parent is cut out  to be a teacher.  One not only requires knowledge, but also  patience.  If there is a lack of patience, unlike at  school, where the teacher is gone when the  bell rings, the child is stuck with the target  of their ire.  Then again, if you’re a super cool parent  and you’re fit for the job, you might realize  when things are getting tough and just say  ‘school is over for the day; go out and  enjoy yourself!’  

Not something that happens in a traditional  school setting.  Home schooling offers flexibility.  There is of course the negative of homeschooling  costing money in other ways.  You must have a fair bit of cash to do it,  as it means one parent can no longer work  outside the home.  You’ll need some relative comfort to take  this on.  

If you have that, then you also have to be  the kind of parent who fully understands subjects  such as physics, chemistry, calculus, the  industrial revolution, and at the same time  be able to decipher some great works of literature  or know how to write a compelling short story.  Not all math gurus are creatives, and vice  versa.  Can you even teach your kid to swing a baseball  bat?  Do you even have time to visit a field and  help your child work out? 

 Do you understand the rules of football and  tennis? can you teach chess strategies, or  do you know how search engine optimization  works?  Your kids might not study some of these things,  but during the socialization process in school,  much can learned from other kids.  Basically, you must be damn talented if you  want to home-school kids, especially when they  get older.  But the statistics don’t lie, and home-schooled  kids do tend to do better than traditionally  schooled kids.  So, what do you think?  Is home-school a better way to educate children?  

Or are home-schooled kids destined to be socially  awkward freaks?  Let us know your thoughts in the comments!  Also, be sure to check out our other video  called Private School vs Public School - which  is better?!  Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t  forget to like, share, and subscribe.  See you next time!